Wrist control

The security forces have canceled the presumption of innocence and are acting on the principle: first we will imprison, and then we will see

In Novosibirsk, a public campaign continues in defense of the world-famous cardiac surgeon Yevgeny Pokushalov. Last Friday, February 22, the scientist was sent to a pre-trial detention center for two months on suspicion of fraud in public procurement.

Pokushalov was detained on February 20 at the Academician Meshalkin Medical Center, where a scientist with a large number of scientific publications, patents for widely used inventions in medicine and regalia ranging from a State Prize winner to a finalist in the Leaders of Russia competition worked as deputy director for scientific work. According to science, it means that Pokushalov had no access to money, his boss Alexander Karaskov immediately publicly stated. However, the FSB immediately spread a message that Pokushalov had allegedly been embezzling money during public procurement for four years, and the total amount of damage amounted to more than 1.3 billion rubles.

The security forces did not give any other details. But even this meager message was enough for the court session to immediately go into closed session, Pokushalov himself was taken to the hall in handcuffs,

and the lawyer was acquainted with the materials of the case immediately before the decision on the measure of restraint was made. No support in the form of more than a hundred people - students and patients - who came to court and knocked around the thresholds until the very announcement of the measure of restraint, did not help. Pokushalov was sent to a pre-trial detention center because he allegedly can exert "pressure" on the investigation, and also because he has deep "ties with the United States." Journalists have already “very handily” found either three or six apartments at once, which are allegedly registered in the USA to a certain Evgeny Pokushalov.

A few days later, 4,000 people signed a petition in defense of Pokushalov, and scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences demanded that the leadership of the Academy express a principled position on the issue of detaining a famous scientist and doctor who saved "the lives of hundreds of thousands of people." This means that Pokushalov is the author of a patent for one of the widely used coronary stents for heart bypass surgery. “At all levels, it has been repeatedly stated that pre-trial arrests of those suspected of economic crimes are inadmissible,” write members of the informal community of scientists “July 1 Club” in an open letter from the Russian Academy of Sciences. “This is all the more unacceptable in relation to prominent scientists. The deepening atmosphere of repression and arbitrariness is incompatible with either the economic or intellectual development of our country.”

Does such stormy support from colleagues and ordinary people mean that Pokushalov is absolutely not guilty of the things incriminated to him? Actually, no, but the security forces — and especially the FSB — leave no other choice but to instinctively take the side of those who are detained under “economic” and sometimes even “heavier” articles.

The tactics here are simple: you must definitely send a person to a pre-trial detention center. Not under house arrest, and even more so not on bail: the suspect should immediately be as isolated as possible.

A person is not only cut off all ties with the outside world, they are trying to make him a priori guilty in the eyes of the public without presenting convincing evidence. If a person is put in a pre-trial detention center, he cannot be innocent, can he? They won’t put you in jail for anything, and then there’s billions of dollars of damage. It is not very important at the same time who this person is: a world scientist, a big investor in Russian business, a big lawyer. At the time of the investigation and within the pre-trial detention center, everyone is equal.

In fact, the security forces, seeking a measure of restraint in the form of arrest, aim to destroy such a concept as the “presumption of innocence”. This is a direct continuation of the strategy in which any person (as a rule, an activist) can be charged with an administrative case, and then immediately with a criminal one under the sauce that a malicious violator of the order appears before the court, in no case can he be trusted (an administrative case can then be quietly closed as unnecessary). And in general: just in case, let's send him to jail, otherwise you never know what. They will not lie in the organs, and by default everyone is to blame for Comrade Major.

This tactic has a very practical purpose. When a person is in a pre-trial detention center, it is easier to negotiate with him.

They have already tried to take away your honor, destroyed your reputation, is it really worth holding on to your assets after that?

After all, you can always share them, and there, you see, the road will not be so long, and the time will not be so long.

But lately, something seems to be wrong with this tactic. Either the security forces, inspired by their right to snatch anyone and for any reason, began to “take” the wrong ones, or it became obvious to people that a priori it was impossible to believe in the official version after the arrest, which means they could try to beat the person away from the system. So far, these attempts are timid and have little effect on the security forces themselves, but if there are more of them, the number of uncomfortable questions will also increase.