Madness in Samara

The summit is about to begin in Samara. Officials from different countries will gather, hold negotiations, at the end of which, presumably, they will issue a communiqué and hold a press conference. Political commentators are again sharpening their pens, again smoothing out their brains, again working on weekends. Commentators, however, are no strangers to this.

However, it is time to issue a communiqué on some events in Samara now, as well as hold press conferences. Yes, and commentators need to sharpen their pens, wrinkle their brains and work at night.

Samara is no longer some kind of “town” from a folk song - a large, modern, developed city, with a multifaceted new and recent history (let us remember, for example, that it was here that the Komuch (Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly) met in 1918 - the government of the non-Bolshevik, but not white, but quite pink Russia, as well as the IV All-Union Congress of the KAS (Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists) in 1991). And yet, such an important international meeting in our overly centralized country, overly tied to Moscow, is by no means an ordinary event, even for such a city. And not only the authorities, but also public organizations were preparing for it.

In advance, given the increased attention to the event from the Russian and foreign media, the organizers of the next “March of Dissent” submitted an application for a demonstration in Samara for these days and, as the media reported, lo and behold! – we even got permission. Human rights activists, environmentalists and anarchists - the organizers of the Intergalactic Libertarian Forum - chose a meeting room ahead of time (and, of course, also submitted an application for a demonstration - and the mayor's office did not ban the march, but only shortened their route).

It seemed that the authorities, in the face of the West that had gathered to visit us, began to show signs of adequacy (the loss of which they began to suspect it of in early spring and especially strongly in mid-April). But no. It seems that they were just throwing dust in our eyes.

Something happened at the beginning of last week, 10 days before the opening of the summit - either a conditional whistle was given from Moscow, or the Samara bosses themselves went crazy - but, in any case, the people with power in this glorious Volga city became suddenly behave as if scalded by boiling water.

The first blow fell, as usual, on the National Bolsheviks and related structures of the “Other Russia”. A total of 11 people were detained, one of whom is already serving a six-month sentence (he was serving a suspended sentence, which the court promptly changed to a real one), the second received tougher conditions for serving his suspended sentence at home, and the third, instead of the zone, will soon go to trample the army parade ground (captured at the station the activist was taken to a medical examination, which quickly declared him fit for service, of course - the military registration and enlistment office was told - he did so by clicking his heels).

Next, the time has come for Samara human rights activists and intergalactic libertarians. On Thursday, May 10, the police, coming to the building of the OPC (Socio-Political Center), seized a computer in the office of Alexander Lashmankin, known in Samara and throughout... (I almost said - the republic, but stopped short in time) throughout the entire country of the Russian Federation as organizer of anti-conscription and - more broadly - anti-war actions, human rights activist, participant in the environmental movement, having “discreditable connections” in the capital, whose arrival in July 2006 to the Libertarian Forum in Moscow and the Social Forum in St. Petersburg was prevented three or four times by the Samara police and the FSB, and yet was prevented.

Less than forty minutes had passed before the mayor of Tarkhov and his deputy Azarov personally rushed to the OPC, which is on the municipal balance and is the de facto office center for Samara parties, public and non-governmental organizations. 30 seconds after the conversation with the high authorities, the director of the OPC, referring to the personal order of the mayor, announced the need to vacate room 11 (where Lashmankin was sitting) within 24 hours, and also imposed a ban on the use of the assembly hall by a number of organizations. This was already a blow to the Intergalactic Libertarian Forum, which was scheduled to be held in the hall of the OPC.

But Lashmankin is not only a dangerous person for the authorities (he knows how to think and act - he has this written on his forehead in large letters, and practice shows), but also resourceful. After waiting for the police to leave room number 11, he went into the next room number 17, into the office of the Samara branch of the non-governmental association "Voice" (it is engaged in independent monitoring of elections, say, it sent its observers to Ukraine in 2004, as well as work to increase “voter consciousness”, or, to put it more simply, by increasing the conscious turnout for elections, and this last one - precisely with the money of the European Union, which is so awaited in Samara).

Lashmankin locked himself there from the inside, turned on the computer and began scribbling something on the keys . The deputy came to smoke him out from there. Commissioner for Human Rights of the Samara Region. He spoke with the social activist through the door and, in the end, prompted Alexander to open it. Following him, the same police officers who had recently visited room number 11 entered the room and seized both computers of the Golos association.

While all this fuss was going on in the OPC, local television came to the light. The film crew was immediately detained and taken to the police department, where they were held for several hours - the journalists did not even have time to start filming. Only later, after angry calls from the television company and even from somewhere in Moscow, the police explained that there was supposedly no arrest, and that it was the journalists themselves who seemed to have come to the police department to have a heart-to-heart talk, to chat, so to speak - exactly instead of filming a new episode." Lashmanians."

The next day, Friday May 11, the strike was aimed at journalists. Computers were confiscated from the Samara editorial office of Novaya Gazeta and from the Samara branch of the REGNUM agency. The pretext, as the day before at the OPC, is to check computers for licensing of the software used on them (as a sign of solidarity with Samara journalists and human rights activists, I am writing these notes in a notebook, on my knee, on the Moscow-St. Petersburg train, but I will type everything and send it to the editor equally on a computer, in an Internet cafe).

The story with the OPC continued on Friday. The building was urgently inspected by the fire inspector, who decided that it was unsuitable and that all offices were to be vacated from it. This is very logical - as you know, two moves are equivalent to one fire, but one move, but an urgent one, and even associated with the seizure of computer equipment, can also probably be equated to a fire.

On Saturday the 12th the OPC was closed due to technical reasons. On Monday they opened the first floor (on Tuesday they sealed the entire building again and kicked out the watchmen from inside). On Monday, May 14, Samara public activists noticed surveillance, which was not particularly hidden. Everywhere - at the station, where they met Moscow human rights activists, on the way from the station to the press conference, when posting announcements (about events permitted by the mayor's office - sic!), they watched a motorcade of cars and constant foot tails. Finally, late on Monday evening, literally a couple of minutes after Alexander Lashmankin parted with his activist friends and was left alone almost in the yard of his house, he was hit on the head with a baton from behind. While falling, he dropped his mobile phone, the attackers (there were two of them) picked it up and immediately demanded: “Give me the money and a second mobile phone!” This amusing clause about the second mobile phone contains an argument against the version of a banal criminal attack. How would ordinary bandits know about Alexander’s second phone? What kind of special value could an activist have for ordinary bandits to follow him and find out the number of mobile phones?

As a result of the attack, Alexander had a hole in his head (a hole of three by three and a half centimeters), a large bruise on his face and traces of severe beatings on his hands - eyewitnesses say that Lashmankin’s hands look as if they were walked and jumped on.

The doctors patched up Alexander's head, but, of course, he was taken out of the game for a while. On Tuesday, May 15, it was the turn of two more activists of The Other Russia. Yuri Chervinchuk and Mikhail Merkushin were kidnapped in broad daylight. They handcuffed Merkushin, forced him into a green Zhiguli and drove away. Expert of the Moscow Helsinki Group Sergei Shimovolos reminds that these are not the first abducted in Samara. By the evening of May 15, the fate of Igor Shchuka from Belarus and Evgenia Kosuraeva from Orenburg, who disappeared on May 8, was still unknown. According to Internet blogs, it later turned out that the detention of Yuri Chervinchuk and Mikhail Merkushin was carried out by employees of the Department of Economic Crimes and that both of them were later released. Nevertheless, there is every reason to worry about them and other activists.

There is no longer any need to worry about the observance of laws by the Samara authorities and intelligence services: human rights activist Shimovolos, who arrived in Samara on Monday, does not have time to file complaints before he has to write new ones.

Last fall, I remember, many followed the vicissitudes of the Samara mayoral elections. Then, unexpectedly for many, the candidate not from United Russia won, but from what has now become A Just Russia. It is now clear that the control of the winner from the unitary center (I will be careful not to call it federal, because it is anything but a federation) is just as reliably ensured.

But why does the central government need all this? Shame, after all, is similar to the Soviet cleansing of Moscow before the 1980 Olympics (of which, they say, Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky became an indirect victim); like pulling out the rulers of some bantustan before the announced visit of the real owners of the country; like the order to soldiers to paint the grass with green paint on the eve of the general’s inspection at the unit; like... No matter what comparison I choose, everything pales before the metaphorical nature of this frighteningly specific Samara story. In fact, the activities of at least eight public organizations and projects were suspended, the Monday issue of Novaya Gazeta in Samara was not published, one person was sent to prison, several were kidnapped, one was severely beaten, etc.

What will today bring to Samara? New searches, new arrests, new obstacles to the work of the media? Or maybe the authorities will also block the Togliatti highway? Yes, yes, they are talking about this too.

After written

On the morning of Wednesday, May 16, it became known that Alexander Lashmankin had disappeared. He did not appear at the 11 a.m. press conference, which was held in front of the closed OPC. His friends and comrades knew that he had no other plans for that morning other than going to the press conference. Subsequently, information appeared that he was detained on the way to a press conference, where he was supposed to talk about the recent attack; during the scheduled press conference (from 9:30 to 12 o’clock) he was forced to spend time in the Leninsky District Department of Internal Affairs of Samara in room no. 518, in the criminal investigation department, in the company of detective senior lieutenant V. Yu. Kosharov.