3. Another large group of trials: “trials of terrorists”. The Pyatigorsk trial of Mukhanin and Saralyev ended with the jury’s founding them innocent of committing the terrorist act of October 6th 2000 in Pyatigorsk. In the Stavropol region there is an ongoing closed trial of Karachaevo-Cherkessia residents: the brothers Bastanov, Bayramukov, Frantsuzov and Taganbaev. Allegedly they were keeping explosives that were used at the bombings of the houses in Moscow and Volgodonsk. On the first day of trial the defendants said that they are innocent, that their confessions were made under physical and psychological pressure during their detention in Lefortovo. I have personally shared a cell with a man who has forced Frantsuzov to sign a “sincere confession” for a month and a half. He boasted (this man, Alexey T.) that he forced Frantsuzov to write a confession. This guy also intimidated me. This is how the “dictatorship of law”, which you have announced, is carried out, Mr. President. I will not touch the monstrous accusations Novaya Gazeta brought against the FSB. However I want to bring my accusation against the FSB – of murder. During the FSB investigation of the activities of the National-Bolshevik Party and mine personally (in the frames of the criminal case Number 1717) A. Burigin and V. Zolotarev – my Party comrades, two of those who went to Altai with me … were killed. Zolotarev was thrown out of the window and Burigin died from a hemorrhage to the brain that followed a blow on the head with a heavy object.”
(My commentary of November 2005. Sasha Burigin died on the night when the FSB carried out searches and interrogations concerning the case Number 171, on March 30th 2001. Most probably they were interrogating him and overdid it. After these two deaths a National-Bolshevik who was investigating Viktor Zolotarev’s death died in October 2002 under a train in Barnaul. In 2004, on October 30th two nazbols, Alexey Volkov and Andrey Nefedov, died also under a train in Ryazan (they were sticking leaflets) under unexplained circumstances. Almost at the same time the National-Bolshevik Mikhail Sokov was found dead in Moscow; he died from injuries. I have all the reasons to believe that these dead bodies can be put on the account of the special services’ activities against the NBP. It is significant that the corresponding literature names these two methods: throwing a body out of a window and death under the wheels of a train, as the favorite methods used by the KGB to cover its actions against its enemies as natural deaths. The train and the fall out of the window also hide well the injuries inflicted during the interrogations (and traces of torture). It is interesting that very recently one of the activists of Yabloko’s Defense Roman Shubin mysteriously died under a train. It happened in the end of July 2005.
Concerning the trials of terrorists, it is unnecessary to remind that those who are accused of terrorism must be judged severely but justly. It is criminal to punish innocent people. This is a clear legal axiom, however not for Putin’s Russia. Then, after the jury discharged Mukhanin and Saralyev, in violation of all legal norms, they were tried again and received heavy sentences. Frantsuzov’s group was mercilessly condemned, although nothing on the trial fitted together. The man who allegedly led the group, Achimez Gochiyaev, is hiding somewhere on the Caucasus. He testified that his was blindly used. That he really rented offices for his construction firm. Gochiyaev acknowledges that he rented the offices on the demand of his partner, which, as he thinks, was linked to the FSB. Gochiyaev affirms that he did not know that they would bring explosives there. After two bombings he realized that he was blindly used and called the police and the ambulance and gave the addresses of two other offices he was renting. In this manner he managed to avoid two bombings. However the investigation hid this fact and sentenced a group of Caucasians, whom Gochiyaev allegedly led. I have already told by what methods the evidence was obtained in Lefortovo: with the help of Alexey T.’s fist.
In Lefortovo I was detained with Raduyev’s group, quickly formed from people who did not even took part in the second Chechen war. It was composed of four people: Raduyev himself, Atgeriev, Alkhazurov and a forth, whom I do not remember. The trial took place in December 2001 in Dagestan. Salman Raduyev received a life sentence, Atgeriev – 15 years and Alkhazurov – five, I think. A few months later Raduyev and Atgeriev were dead. They suddenly died in prison. Simpler said, they were killed. (According to some, Alkhazurov, with whom I was detained in cell Number 32 in 2001, also died). They were young, about 35 years old. Another “terrorist”, Lecho Islamov also known as The Beard, died (he was poisoned) right after his trial, when he was on his way to prison; he was sentenced to eight years. This is what, Vladimir Vladimirovich, you call “dictatorship of law”, to try and then to kill? Your law is a satanic one. Inhuman. Sure, Raduyev is guilty of killing people. So you could have shot him during the arrest. Or let him suffer the rest of his life in prison. But to try and then to kill is the satanic dictatorship of law. This is a crime, Vladimir Vladimirovich. If not yours, then of your officers who carry out the dictatorship of the law. There are already scores of trials of terrorists in our country. It is perfect if the responsible are punished according to the level of their responsibility. But when people are punished only to give society a fake version of victory: there was a crime – here is the punishment, but if you punished the wrong people, – then such a punishment is a crime too, mister President!)
In the text of the open letter of 2001 I did not mark out the “political trials” in a separate group. In part because all the trials shaking the country, initiated by you and by your servants for paralyzing us, the people, all these trials serve a political goal – repressing us, frightening us, therefore they are all political: the trials of “spies”, oligarchs and terrorists. But political trials proper, against the members of political parties and other opponents have also appeared and already represent a rather significant phenomenon.
4. The “political” trials. In their leaflet, 39 nazbols have called their comrades, seven condemned for the peaceful occupation of a few offices in the health ministry, political prisoners. They were accusing: “ The renewal of political repressions in Russia. The National-Bolsheviks Gromov, Tishin, Globa-Mikhaylenko, Bespalov, Korshunsky, Yezhov, Klenov, who stood up against the robbing of the people are political prisoners.” I remind that on August 2nd about half a hundred National-Bolsheviks entered the health ministry and, hanging NBP flags in the windows, protested against the State Duma’s adoption of the law on monetization. (I have examined the law in detail in the corresponding chapter of this book.) The first who came across from that group of 50 nazbols were caught and these seven were sentenced on December 20th each to five years of detention on articles 213 part 2 of the RF Criminal Code (delinquency organized by a group) and 167 part 2 (destruction of property). This, despite the qualified reports of jurists and human rights activists who affirmed that the National-Bolsheviks’ actions did not contain article 213, since they did not hit anybody, did not injure, not even pushed (and an act of delinquency supposes physical violence against a person), and the damage brought to the building (i.e. article 167) was not done by the nazbols but by the OMON officers who broke down the doors and partly damaged the furniture in the offices. Subsequently under the pressure of the public, Moscow’s municipal court was forced to mitigate the sentences to the seven. Four were sentenced to three years of detention each and the three younger – to 2,5 years each. The nazbols behaved bravely during the trial; no one pleaded guilty. Now they serve their sentence in different prisons of Russia. The older – Maxim Gromov is the worse treated. He is actively pressured.
Sentenced to three years of detention and detained in a prison in Bashkiria (450049, Ufa, Novozhenova Street, 86 “А”, 394/9) to the moment of this book’s writing Maxim Gromov has already spent 125 days in an isolation cell. I remind that this was the same Maxim Gromov who has thrown president Putin’s portrait on the street from the office of minister Zurabov in the health ministry on August 2nd 2004. Caught by camera lenses, the flying portrait has made the news not only in Russia but in the world press as well. Now Gromov is punished for this, left to rot
in the hole. He cannot meet his relatives and parcels with food (or other) are not allowed. FSB officers enter and leave the prison like their home, interrogate and intimidate Gromov. We know extremely little about his state of health. We only know that they want to detain him in a camp prison, the so-called PKT – covered location. The name speaks for itself: in a PKT the person is totally isolated from the world, in other words, it is in realty a strict prison detention. They are also trying to add another prison term to Gromov. He does not send or receive mail; there is no communication whatsoever. All that we know about Gromov was obtained literally bit by bit. At the same time the three National-Bolsheviks who were sentenced on “the health ministry case” to two and a half years each, have already served half of their time. In order to receive the possibility to try to leave prison before term on probation they have to pay a civil action from the health ministry of 147 thousand rubles. The party is ready to pay that action, but when our lawyers demanded the health ministry to give them the number of the accounts, where we could send the money, the representatives of the ministry told us that they refuse the money. Oh no, it is not a generous gesture of the ministry’s functionaries, but another evil deed. The problem is that the seven arrested for the August 2nd action will not be able to leave prison on probation if they do not pay the action and will have to serve the whole term. As we see, meanness is a widespread quality among the Russian functionaries.
By the way, the Tverskoy court composed of the judge E. Stashina, S. Ukhnaleva and D. Popov have directly recognized that the defendants were political prisoners in their verdict. I will allow myself to cite the verdict:
“They have committed the crimes in the following circumstances. In relation to the discussion of legislation about the reformation (monetization) of benefits in the State Duma of the Russian Federation, ‘leaders’ of the informal association ‘National-Bolshevik Party’ (NBP) non established by the investigation, under the pretext of protesting against the carrying out of the social reforms and the cancellation of the benefits in the end of July – beginning of August 2004, have decided to gather the members of their informal association residing in different regions of the Russian Federation in order to carry out, on August 2nd 2004, an unsanctioned meeting in front of the Ministry of health and social development of the Russian Federation situated at: Moscow, Neglinnaya Street, 25. With the goal of flagrant disturbance of the public order and the destabilization of a State institution’s functioning, the ‘leaders’ have also developed a plan, distributing the roles between the members of the informal association ‘National-Bolshevik Party’ (NBP) in their illegal penetration in the administrative building of the RF Ministry of health and social development during the above-mentioned unsanctioned meeting.” Etc. The entire verdict is a sample of lies. It turns out that the nazbols made the run over the ministry for the pleasure of disturbing the order. It is not surprising that after the trial the prosecutor S. A. Tsirkun became hysterical near the courtroom and squealed to the parents of the convicted: “I hate you, damned communists! You butchered my grand father…”
As for Mikhail Trepashkin, the authorities persecute him exclusively because he rebelled against the system, part of which he was for a long time. Former FSB investigator, then investigator of the tax police, on November 15th 1998 he took part in the much-talked-of press conference of FSB officers. On the press conference six officers (a colonel, two lieutenant colonels, two majors and a senior lieutenant) have told that the FSB has a department called URPO whose work consists of extrajudicial reprisals, murders and kidnappings. They have given precise examples, when, whom and what. A special State Duma commission was created then to investigate, but the commission has not even called one of the officers. Since then Trepashkin is persecuted and arrested, just as another officer – Alexander Litvinenko (to whom the URPO commander Kamyshnikov ordered to kill Berezovsky: “You know Berezovsky, so you’ll kill him”), forced to escape from Russia after a few arrests. Subsequently Trepashkin was shortly the lawyer of the residents of the illfated house in Ryazan, where FSB “exercises” were taking place, very similar to the preparation of a bombing. (Even before the press conference, when he still was an FSB officer, the unaccommodating and honest Trepashkin was investigating the circumstances surrounding an arms delivery from Russia to Chechnya and discovered that Russian generals were behind that.) After the conference Trepashkin was arrested several times. From 2002 he is detained in the Lefortovo prison under investigation. On May 19th 2004 he was sentenced to four years of detention on charges of disclosure of a State secret (article 283 of the criminal code). On August 19th 2005 Nizhny Tagil’s Tagilostroevsky district court has satisfied Trepashkin’s appeal about a release on probation. On August 29th Trepashkin was released. On September 18th 2005 Trepashkin was arrested again and sent to prison IK-13 of Nizhny Tagil. He is really “only punished for his independent behavior”.
On December 14th 2004 the 39 nazbols – authors of the leaflet “We don’t need such a president!” became political prisoners and are detained under trial on the moment that I am writing these lines. (Actually, at first, they were forty people, however, after they kept him a month in jail, the authorities finally released the youngest – the fifteen-years-old Petrov.) Among them there are nine girls and seven minors; the criminal case Number 300188 was opened against them. Here are the names of the heroes, according to their prison:
In the Butyrka prison (127055, Moscow, Novoslobodskaya Street, 45, IZ-77/2) are detained: Vladimir Angirov, Semen Vyatkin, Ilya Guryev, Alexey Devyatkin, Ivan Drozdov, Alexey Zentsov, Ivan Korolev, Vladimir Lind, Egor Merkushev, Sergey Reznichenko, Sergey Ryzhikov, Dmitry Sevastyanov, Yury Staroverov and Maxim Fedorovykh.
In the Presnenskaya prison (123308, Moscow, 1st Silikatny Street, 11, 1, IZ-77/3) are detained: Yury Bednov, Damir Valeyev, Mikhail Gangan, Andrey Gorin, Alexey Kolunov, Evgeny Korolev, Denis Kumirov, Kirill Manulin, Denis Osnach, Artem Perepelkin, Julian Ryabtsev, Alexey Tonkikh and Vladimir Tyurin.
In the prison for minors (125130, Moscow, Vyborgskaya Street, 20, IZ-77/5) are detained: Maxim Baganov, Alexey Rozhin and Alexey Solovyev.
In the women’s prison (109383, Moscow, Shosseynaya Street, 92, IZ-77/6) are detained: Lira Guskova, Valentina Dolgova, Marina Kurasova, Ekaterina Kurnosova, Alina Lebedeva, Elena Mironycheva, Anna Nazarova, Evgenya Taranenko and Natalya Chernova.
At first, all 39 were charged with three articles of the RF criminal code: article 214 (vandalism), article 167, part 2 “Premeditated destruction of property that has caused significant damage and other grave consequences” and article 278 “Forcible seizure or forcible retention of power” (liable to imprisonment for a 12 to 20 years term). However the Kremlin realized that it has overdone in its anger. On February 16th and 17th they were charged with a new accusation (article 214, 167 and 278 were excluded) on article 212, part 2 “participation in mass disorders”.
The Antimilitary Club, a human rights organization, has developed an analysis of the charges brought against the nazbols. I cite here most of their text:
“The decisions of Moscow’s Prosecutor General’s investigators about the charges brought against the defendants are illegal and unfounded for the following reasons:
Despite the affirmations of the indictment, the NBP ‘leaders’ did not have the goal of organizing mass disorders – flagrant disturbance of the public safety and order and the destabilization of a State institution’s functioning ‘under the pretext of protesting against the foreign and domestic policies carried out by the RF president in Russia.’ A group of young citizens of the Russian Federation has carried out an unsanctioned meeting in the mentioned office against the authorities’ policies, in particular the anti-popular and unreasoned monetization of benefits. It is the fact of carrying out an unsanctioned meeting that is reflected in the charges .
Similarly false is the Prosecutor General’s affirmation that the NBP members hindered the carrying out of the powers of the employees of the reception roo
m of the Administration of the Russian federation’s president, among them leaders of the Russian State, placed on them by the Constitution of the Russian federation and other federal laws and that consist of receiving the population and examining demands from citizens of the Russian Federation, since these powers of the President’s Administration’s employees are not placed on them either by the RF Constitution or other Federal laws, while the Russian State’s leaders do not receive the population in office Number 14 either on the base of normative acts or practically.
The demands of the NBP members were not characteristic of an ultimatum; they did not present the RF President’s resignation, outside of the order stipulated by the RF Constitution, as a condition to liberate the office they occupied. As for the demands of the RF President’s voluntary resignation, they are not illegal, but in the contrary are the realization of the legal right of RF citizens to freedom of speech, stipulated by article 29 of the RF Constitution.
Since the unsanctioned meeting was carried out only in one room of office Number 14, the affirmation of Moscow’s Prosecutor general about the ‘destabilization of the normal functioning of a State institution’ is unfounded.
Limonov vs. Putin Page 28