Translated material
No miracle happened
The New Times report from the Khamovniki Court from the first day of the verdict
27th of December. Moscow, Khamovnichesky court.
"Khamsud" - this is how bloggers have long dubbed this district court of Moscow, located in the 7th Rostovsky Lane. For almost two years it seemed unfair. And its chairman, and bailiffs, and washed corridors during these almost two years that the process was going on, left a much better impression. But not today.
Entourage
On December 27, everyone in 7th Rostovsky Lane - both on the street itself, and near the doors of the court, and inside it - seemed to have undertaken to prove the bloggers were right.
9.50. The doors of the court were surrounded by a dense ring of journalists: only cameras and photojournalists were allowed into the hall, all the writing press, including news agencies, both domestic and foreign, stood on the street. The door is guarded by special forces of the Bailiff Service. They don't stand on ceremony. When human rights activist Lev Ponomarev tried to enter the court building, he was thrown back into the street by the scruff of the neck like a kitten.
“Madame,” a special forces officer with the rank of captain addresses the author, who was standing behind him, “it’s a pity that we didn’t meet with you in the mountains of the North Caucasus ...” Why in the mountains of the North Caucasus? Why is he sorry? A shaved nape, a round head with a black cap on the very top, ears red from the cold and a completely whitish face. Plus a black uniform and black high boots - I would have met on the street, I would have taken for a skinhead. He smiles. “Did you learn how to shoot in your own people?” - one of the somewhat stunned colleagues reacts.
Obviously, this antics of the commando made the bailiff, who was standing right next to the door, uneasy: “Do not move away, now we will let the writing press in.”
The writing press, meanwhile, sent text messages to Ms. Usacheva, the press secretary of the court. By that time, it had already become known: for some reason, there would be no broadcast to the hall for journalists. This means that most of the colleagues will remain standing on the street, among the protesters who filled the alley.
“Let 9-10 journalists through,” the police radio finally says. Let's go. Television men descend past us with tripods and cameras - they are hot, as if they had come out of a steam room.
The hall is packed, although there is no usual Khodorkovsky support group - they were never let through.
On the first bench, as always, are Khodorkovsky's parents, Marina Filippovna and Boris Moiseevich. Behind them - Khodorkovsky's wife Inna - on the edge, her friend, then daughter Nastya.
On the left, in front of the "aquarium", as always, a line of lawyers: three - Platon Lebedev, closer to the tribunal, five - Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In front of Karina Moskalenko - she is at the end of the lawyer's desk - there is a computer, an IPAD on her lap, plus she also reads and writes text messages to her phone. Behind Vadim Klyuvgant, who is sitting in the middle of the defensive line, there is a narrow, rectangular window into the “aquarium” with an open door, very reminiscent of a cell food receiver: through it, the accused pass papers to lawyers, and they give them answers.
Khodorkovsky writes on yellow tear-off pages, Lebedev on ordinary white sheets. Platon Lebedev has a big thick book on his lap - in the next few hours he will start reading it every now and then. Lebedev, as always, in a white sports jacket and blue pants.
Khodorkovsky is in black, a robe is not a robe, but something like that. To his right is a simple coffee table: there are folders and some notes on it.
"In the name of the Russian Federation"
10:40. "Get up, judgment is coming!" Has entered. We were allowed to sit down. Judge Danilkin immediately rests on a pile of papers lying in front of him - 200-300 sheets, it is difficult to determine by eye. To his left is the secretary of the court: the face of this young woman is hidden by a computer, but even when she gets up, her face does not express anything. Nothing at all, including interest. Three prosecutors to the right of the judge. They look quite pleased; in any case, prosecutor Lakhtin's face does not show the irritation that marked it during the debate.
Judge Danilkin starts reading the verdict: “In the name of the Russian Federation…” he says. The announcement of the statutory part of the verdict, that is, what the court considers proven during the process, began. The judge reads, without raising his eyes, in a quick patter, swallowing the endings of words - so that with great difficulty it is possible to make out what he is saying.
In the meantime, “Freedom, freedom!” is heard from the street, after a few minutes “Shame! A shame!" - it becomes clear: they began to "screw" there. A little later: "Assholes! Assholes! - as it turned out later, it was the crowd chanting when the riot police dragged some grandmother with a wand from a snow-covered hillock opposite the court (see video on this page ).
Judge Danilkin pronounces some numbers - now millions, then billions, says "numbers", finally manages to make out: "for the fictitious sale of oil", then after a couple of numbers "fictitious property", then "theft of oil by appropriation" ... Lawyers at once grow gloomy . Platon Lebedev, hiding behind his hand, laughs. Khodorkovsky laughs too. He laughs nervously, trying to say something with his lips. But it is already clear: there will be no acquittal, which the lawyers demanded; the return of the case to the prosecutor's office for additional investigation, which the optimists were counting on, will also not happen.
Judge Danilkin recognized the main absurdity of this process: that the defendants stole oil from themselves "as part of an organized group headed by Khodorkovsky."
And it also becomes obvious: the judge is not reading his own verdict - the indictment, presented by the prosecutors at the very beginning of the process. Some of the journalists will then write on Twitter: “here he is reading page 80 of the charge”, but “108th went” ...
“According to the verdict, it turns out that 13 million tons of oil were stolen from Tomskneft in a year, and it has never produced so much in a year!” Khodorkovsky's lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant comments for The New Times.
“In 2002, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev continued stealing other people's property,” again one can make out from Judge Danilkin's recitative.
"All. He set everything up,” lawyer Karina Moskalenko says in a whisper. - You can go from here. All".
Marina Filippovna stares fixedly at her son. Her eyes are almost crying. And Khodorkovsky looks inward. He no longer laughs. What is he thinking about? About what's next for him? How many more years to sit? How to survive it? Will he ever be released?
Plan overfulfilment
At 13.00 Judge Danilkin finally clearly says: "... break for 10 minutes." Then he corrects himself: "Break for 10-15 minutes."
Lebedev's lawyer Konstantin Rivkin goes out into the corridor, he is, to say the least, discouraged: “The devil knows what ... The judge calls the figure 882 billion rubles (the volume of stolen oil from 1998 to 2003, which the prosecution initially incriminated. - The New Times ) , while the prosecutors themselves at the end of the process reduced it to 824 billion!”
“Now Gref and Khristenko must be prosecuted for perjury,” someone from the crowd around him throws.
Indeed, in June 2010, the current head of Sberbank, and in the early 2000s, Minister of Economy German Gref, in response to a direct question from a lawyer about whether he could not have known if such volumes of oil had been stolen, and whether any - or data on theft, answered unequivocally: "No."
And Viktor Khristenko, who in those same years, in the rank of Deputy Prime Minister, was responsible in the government for the "oil industry", said during interrogation in the Khamovnichesky court that "extracting companies cannot have a price equal to the price of oil in Rotterdam" (that is, there , where it is sold after making its way from Siberia to Europe). However, in the verdict, Judge Danilkin again spoke about the prices of Rotterdam, while “even prosecutors at the end of the process began to mention prices at customs,” says lawyer Klyuvgant.
Question: what was said to Judge Danilkin, what arguments and from whom did he hear during the period from the end of the debate on November 2 to this day, December 27? What made him base his verdict on the prosecutors' indictment? The speech of the national leader during a teleconference with the people on December 16 (recall that the verdict was originally scheduled for December 15, but then postponed to December 27)? Or was the verdict known to him in advance, even before the start of the process?
“This is a deliberately unjust verdict of a non-free court,” lawyer Klyuvgant concluded. - It is a crime".
Women don't belong here
After the break, the courtroom seems oddly empty. For some reason, the bailiffs did not let most of the journalists into the hall. They, standing during a break on the stairs between the 2nd and 3rd floors, turned out to be late. "Stop bazaar!" - an elderly commando growls at them in a red beret of the Federal Penitentiary Service and with award strips on his chest, closing the door behind him. Today there are much more people in uniform in the hall than usual (five in the uniform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, seven in black uniform: bailiffs, special forces, employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service, who differ only in berets), and higher ranks: a police colonel, a lieutenant colonel in the same row with sergeants near "aquarium".
Judge Danilkin continues to read the verdict, and all in the same manner: in a sexton tongue twister, from which some huge numbers endlessly jump out. The prosecutor Lakhtin has the volume of the case in front of him - it seems that he is checking how accurately the judge rewrote the text.
All three prosecutors are still in excellent spirits.
Now, “an organized group”, “as part of an organized group”, a group headed by Khodorkovsky, “acting on Khodorkovsky’s instructions” slips through the words...
On the bench, Khodorkovsky's wife is quietly talking about something with a friend. Suddenly, the bailiff, who was standing behind the prosecutors, comes up to them: “Get out of the hall.” Inna Khodorkovskaya looks up in surprise. Nobody in the room understands. Danilkin does not look up. A second bailiff approaches Khodorkovskaya: "Leave the hall." It seems that now they will pick her up by the arms and drag her out of the hall. She gets up, her daughter Nastya rises behind her, and they go out.
The New Times correspondent looks at Khodorkovsky: his face is expressionless. He didn't even look up. He is ready for anything. To absolutely everything.
15:50. After the lunch break, the word “legalization” appears in Judge Danilkin’s recitative – “legalization of proceeds from stolen oil.” Literally, money laundering. It looks like the sentence is going to be long. Prosecutors asked for 14 years. Danilkin and here will go to overfulfillment of the plan?
After all, what was said to Danilkin after December 2? Threatened? Did they promise, as is customary with us, that there will be problems for children?
Here, in his recitative, “stolen oil products” slip through, then “stolen funds” and again - exactly a tracing paper from the accusation. Or does the judge do this on purpose, so that it is clear to everyone that this is not his sentence? What is it that he was forced to write? Who knows, but Judge Danilkin will go down in history with this very text, and he will never wash himself off from this.
At 18.45 the judge ended the meeting. Tomorrow everything will start all over again and repeat like yesterday. Most likely, the final verdict will be announced on Wednesday, December 29th. Question one: how old?
Commentary by Mikhail Khodorkovsky - The New Times, December 27, Khamovniki Courtroom:
“Medvedev (on Friday, in an interview with the heads of TV channels) asked to be informed who commits similar actions. And, they say, if they are not held accountable, then this is selective justice.
( Recall that the head of NTV, V. Kulistikov, in his question to the head of state, said: “All businessmen are doing approximately what Khodorkovsky is accused of. But everyone is “soldering” only him, and even his accomplice Lebedev. Tell me, please, is the millstone not too hard our judicial system is grinding the fate of these people?”
The President replied: “If there is evidence that other people have committed similar crimes, then where is this base? /…/ I would like it to be taken out, brought and told (whether to me, for example, or to the Prosecutor General, which is probably more correct for obvious reasons), there is evidence that such and such big businessmen, representatives of our business committed such - a crime. Let's give this a go. And if in this case there is no movement, then you are right, then this is selective justice.” — The New Times )
The judge decided, - continues Khodorkovsky, - that theft is when in Russia, in the Tyumen region, one price, and to foreign buyers (in Rotterdam) - another.
I am a member of the board of directors of Yukos, and Medvedev is the chairman of the Board of Directors (Board of Directors) of Gazprom.
The purchase price of Gazprom oil in Russia is about 10 times lower than the price of export delivery.
The evidence is from Medvedev himself. I hope the Chairman of the Board of Directors remembers the prices. Not ashamed?"