Assassination at customs

On the night of March 8-9, State Duma deputy Yuliy Rybakov returned from London to his native St. Petersburg. Here a surprise awaited him in the best traditions of the stagnant-dissident era: customs at Pulkovo Airport seized two boxes of videotapes from him. I was shocked by the text of the receipt issued to the deputy: it said in black and white that the cargo was detained for political reasons. Considering the contents of the videotapes, it looked like a gloomy Kafkaesque grotesque: after all, the seized boxes contained copies of the film “Attempt on Russia,” which tells about the involvement of Russian special services in the bombings of houses in Moscow and Volgodonsk in 1999...

The premiere of the documentary film, made by French journalists, was organized on March 5 in London by the disgraced oligarch Boris Berezovsky. In addition to BAB, co-chairman of the “Liberal Russia” movement, other leaders of the “liberos” were present at the premiere - State Duma deputies Sergei Yushenkov and Yuliy Rybakov. It was their lot that fell to transport a sufficient number of cassettes with the film from London to Russia (after all Russian TV channels refused to broadcast it and “Liberal Russia” decided to distribute “Assassination” on cassettes). The batch, totaling a thousand pieces, was distributed in the following proportion: 900 cassettes were carried by Yushenkov, 100 by Rybakov. Sergei Yushenkov brought his tapes to Moscow without any special incidents. Yuliy Rybakov was less fortunate.
According to him, it was like this. It was known in advance that he was carrying cassettes with the film. He called from London, asking to be met by the VIP lounge staff and escorted through the “green corridor” as usual. There was nothing unusual about this; he had performed this procedure dozens of times already. But it happened differently.
“There were a lot of people,” Yuliy Rybakov told Novaya Gazeta, “but the customs officers focused all their attention on me. Despite the fact that according to the law, State Duma deputies have the right of immunity and are not subject to inspection, an inspection was carried out and the videotapes were confiscated from me. When I asked why, on what basis, they answered me one thing: “Contact our superiors.” At the same time, customs officers consulted with citizens in gray suits who stood behind them and turned away when I asked them to identify themselves.
The FSB stood behind the customs officers, according to the deputy, and all this fuss was organized precisely at their instigation.
Customs, naturally, denies this. The North-West Customs Administration commented on the situation to us as follows: “The FSB officers did not contact us about this. We did not violate the law, we did not inspect the deputy’s personal belongings, we are only talking about a shipment of cargo. And in this case, this is exactly the case: in accordance with the Customs Code, 100 cassettes are a consignment on which duty must be paid, but this was not done, the consignment was not even included in the customs declaration.”
From the point of view of customs, the logic is obvious... But what to do with the fact that the Law on the Status of a Deputy says: “a deputy of the State Duma cannot be subjected to personal search” except in emergency cases, and his immunity extends to his luggage. What is considered personal belongings at Pulkovo customs - all luggage or just hand luggage, or maybe just a handkerchief in your pocket?
The customs authorities are trying to prove that the deputy is fuming in vain. “Well, he will pay the required duty and take back his cassettes,” they say, “the amount is small - 20% of the cost of the goods, considering that the cost of one video cassette is about a dollar, then the entire fee is 20 dollars.”
“They didn’t offer me anything like that at customs,” Rybakov retorts. - It was simply about seizure. In return, I was given a receipt with the stunning wording: “items detained for political, moral, sanitary and quarantine reasons cannot be returned.”
At first, Rybakov even decided that they had slipped him a form from many years ago, from the fifties. It turned out, no, the receipt is from 1996, the text is standard.
“Here it’s not even about the cassettes,” says Rybakov. - Even if the recordings are destroyed (what’s stopping you from returning the tapes without recording?), we will make new ones and, in the end, transfer the signal via satellite, if necessary. It’s simply ridiculous in the 21st century to think that such ancient methods can be used to silence us. But the main thing is something else - breaking the law. After all, it all starts small: today arbitrariness is committed against me, tomorrow against any other deputy, and what can we say about ordinary citizens.
In short, Rybakov has prepared a complaint to the Prosecutor General’s Office, and will also go to court in St. Petersburg.
He did not abandon his previous intentions to distribute the film in Russia. 50 cassettes are going to be distributed to deputies of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, the rest - to deputies of the State Duma. And the main popularizers of “Attempt on Russia” in the regions should be the 40 already registered and 20 regional branches of “Liberal Russia” that are in the process of registration.
By the way, the “authorities”, obviously unexpectedly for themselves, also acted as popularizers - using this whole clumsy story, they provided the “Attempt on Russia” with additional free advertising.

Nikolay DONSKOV