Return to the past

On July 2, the day when 10 of the 27 people accused in various cases included in the Bolotnaya case are trying to challenge the extension of their arrest, the Memorial International Society published a statement. It says:

“The trial on the “mass riots” on Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012 has begun in Moscow.

It is unlikely that this event would have attracted any serious attention if it had really been a routine trial of participants in clashes between demonstrators and police. Such clashes happen in any country. In democratic countries, if these clashes do not entail serious consequences, they are, as a rule, not considered a serious offense, because the right of citizens to demonstrate is considered a priority.

On May 6, 2012, nothing happened that would deserve the name “mass riots” - neither from a legal nor from a philistine point of view. There were no seriously injured police officers, no broken windows, no overturned cars, and no attempts to use weapons by demonstrators. The public has not been presented with any convincing evidence of the maliciousness and premeditation of the demonstrators’ actions. But there is plenty of evidence of the unprofessional actions of the police themselves, which led to clashes, and the inadequate use of force by the police.

During the investigation, the Investigative Committee immediately and categorically sided with the police. The bias of the investigation, the exaggerated classification of events by the investigative authorities, the crowds of investigators investigating an ordinary skirmish, the inadequate preventive measures chosen by the court - all this in itself deserves the close attention of the public.

But the “Bolotnaya Case” has another sinister aspect, reminiscent of our country’s tragic past: the search for a “conspiracy.”

Contrary to evidence and common sense, investigators are trying to “blind” a group case, to discover a conspiracy where there is no trace of it. In the worst domestic traditions, they are looking for a “foreign trace” in the events of May 6 - and they find: it turns out that it was hostile Georgia that was going to overthrow the Russian government for the dizzying sum of 30 thousand dollars. This clumsy concoction, to which the heirs of Dzerzhinsky-Andropov undoubtedly had a hand, is shamelessly and massively advertised by the government media.

All this makes us think that the Bolotnaya Trial should be viewed not as an ordinary criminal trial, but as a political trial. The political motivation for the actions of the demonstrators is obvious and does not in itself create immunity from prosecution for them if they actually broke the law. But political motivation is also obvious in the actions of law enforcement agencies - and this is categorically unacceptable. A fair court should have released the defendants and dismissed the case based on the fact that the investigation was conducted in bad faith and bias, not in the interests of law, but in the interests of the authorities.

Unfortunately, everything that has happened so far in the Bolotnaya case does not give reason to hope for a fair trial.

But whatever the outcome, this process will demonstrate to the country and the world what kind of state has been built in Russia today - legal or police.”

Meanwhile, the arrest of ten accused was declared lawful.