Translated material
Incorrigible
The nationalist leader was sent to prison forever
The Moscow City Court yesterday announced the verdict in the case of two nationalists, whom a jury had previously found guilty of a series of brutal murders motivated by racial hatred. 22-year-old Muscovite Vasily Krivets (pictured) , whose victims, as established, were 15 people, was sentenced to life imprisonment. His former comrade-in-arms and peer Dmitry Ufimtsev received “only” 22 years in a maximum security colony. Such leniency was shown to him due to the fact that he participated in only five attacks, and after his arrest he actively cooperated with the investigation.This sentence was one of the few when members of pro-fascist groups were punished to the fullest extent of the law. As a rule, most of the defendants in such cases are minors, at least at the time of the commission of the crimes. And no matter how many truly savage murders the investigation is able to prove, such defendants, by law, can receive no more than ten years. In this case, the defendants, as established, fought with “non-Russians”, having already crossed the threshold of adulthood.
According to the case materials, in October-December 2007, Krivets and Ufimtsev, who had recently moved to the capital from Volgodonsk, based on extremist views, united with some other individuals in an organized group to attack individuals “with a distinctly non-Slavic appearance.” As a rule, thugs attacked people near metro stations. They knocked the victims down, brutally beat them using knives, hammers and rebar, and then ran away. Krivets and Ufimtsev were detained in 2008. According to the UPC, the criminal case against them was separated into a separate proceeding from another high-profile case - against members of the National Socialist Society (NSO).
Now the members of this organization are charged with more than 30 murders, several terrorist attacks in the Moscow region and other serious crimes, including an attempt to blow up the Zagorsk pumped storage power plant. The trial against them is going on behind closed doors in the Moscow District Military Court (MOVS), since one of the 12 accused is a deserted military man.
The trial in the case of Krivets and Ufimtsev also took place behind closed doors. The relatives of one of their victims asked for this, fearing for their safety. In this regard, many details of the case remained completely unknown. It was previously reported that Ufimtsev was also a member of the NSO at one time and was familiar with many of its members. However, according to unofficial information, it was not possible to prove the involvement of Krivets and Ufimtsev in the activities of the NSO, and therefore they were tried separately. As a result, it remained unclear who else was part of their group. The verdict said nothing on this matter.
Krivets was charged with a whole bunch of articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - 15 murders, incitement of hatred and enmity on national grounds with the use of violence, robbery, robbery, intentional infliction of minor harm to health, participation in an extremist community, as well as escape from custody. After his first arrest, on October 20, 2008, he managed to escape during an investigative experiment that was carried out at the scene of a murder in the Planernaya metro area. Somehow, the extremist freed himself from the handcuffs with which he was fastened to one of the policemen, pushed him away and ran into the courtyards. Krivets was detained again only on August 13, 2009 at the capital's Kursk station, when he was preparing to leave for Ukraine.
Dmitry Ufimtsev was accused of committing five murders together with Krivets, as well as inciting hatred and enmity on ethnic grounds with the use of violence and participating in an extremist community. According to investigators, from October 2007 to October 2008, 15 citizens of Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey became victims of Krivets and other gang members.
The trial in this case began in the Moscow City Court on August 31, 2010 and was held with the participation of a jury. Before his escape, Vasily Krivets confessed to eight murders, but after his repeated arrest, when investigators established his involvement in seven more episodes, he renounced his previous testimony and insisted on his innocence at trial. Dmitry Ufimtsev fully admitted his guilt on all charges. According to his lawyer Vyacheslav Kireev, his admission of guilt and cooperation with the investigation largely allowed his client to avoid life imprisonment.
On October 22, a jury found both nationalists guilty of almost all charges, while the assessors came to the conclusion that they did not deserve leniency. During the discussion of the consequences of the verdict, state prosecutors asked to sentence Krivets to life imprisonment, and Ufimtsev to 23 years in a maximum security colony.
Yesterday, during the announcement of the verdict in the Moscow City Court, increased security measures were taken - in addition to FSIN officers, riot police officers monitored security in the courtroom. About a dozen of their supporters came to support the accused, who, however, were not allowed into the courtroom. Later, having patiently and calmly waited for the verdict, the nationalists, crowded at the door of the courtroom, tried to at least catch a glimpse of the accused, but they didn’t really succeed.
It took Judge Natalya Olikhver about 15 minutes to announce the operative part of the verdict. While she listed in detail the charges against the defendants, it was noticeable how different the mood in which they were was. Ufimtsev, sad and with his head down, was clearly not in the mood for jokes and conversations with which Krivets was trying to distract him. The latter, by the way, came to the announcement of the verdict in a black T-shirt, worn over a sweater, on which was depicted a large white cross and the inscription “God is with us.” As a result, Krivets was sentenced to life imprisonment, which, judging by his calm reaction, did not come as a surprise to him. His accomplice received 22 years of strict regime. In addition, the court satisfied the civil claims of five victims against Krivets for a total amount of 13.5 million rubles.
After the verdict, Krivets’ lawyer refused to talk to the press. Ufimtsev’s lawyer said that the issue of appealing the verdict has not yet been resolved: “I need to think about it and agree on the position with my client.” But he also refused to discuss the results of the process, citing its closed nature.
The number of crimes motivated by racial and national hatred is growing
In Russia, according to the Department for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than 150 radical neo-Nazi groups operate. This was announced by the head of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute (VNII) of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Major General of Police Sergei Girko, INTERFAX reports.
According to data voiced by General Girko, every year new fascist groups arise on the territory of the Russian Federation. As a result, the number of extremist crimes committed on the basis of national, racial or religious hatred is constantly growing.
In particular, the major general said, in the first half of 2010, 370 such crimes were recorded - 39% more than the same period last year. For the entire 2007, law enforcement agencies recorded 356 such crimes, in 2008 - 460, and in 2009 - 548.
In addition, the head of the All-Russian Research Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia noted that in many cases crimes that have all the signs of extremist are not classified as such at the initial stages of the investigation. According to General Girko, this is explained by the “merging of extremist groups with the criminal environment.”
Sergei Girko also said that in a number of regions of the Russian Federation, the relevant authorities do not counter extremism or do so ineffectively. “For example, in the regions of the Russian Federation, targeted programs to counter extremism have been approved, but there is no targeted work here, there is departmental disunity, and the programs themselves are of a declarative nature,” he believes.