From pen to ax

The criminal case of the newspaper “Rus Pravoslavnaya” has been under investigation for almost a year. However, law enforcement agencies took their first serious steps only last week. On suspicion of “inciting national, racial or religious hatred,” law enforcement officers detained St. Petersburg resident Alexander Malyshev. On May 17, the court decided to arrest him. This is the first case in Russia when people are deprived of liberty under a “nationalist” article even before trial.

“I’m expecting an arrest any day now,” admits Konstantin Dushenov, editor-in-chief of the notorious Rus Pravoslavnaya newspaper. - Most likely, I will be imprisoned in the near future. Otherwise, why would they (law enforcement agencies - N.P.) take Malyshev? Sasha is a freelance employee of Rus Pravoslavnaya, provided technical support to the editorial office, did not distribute the newspaper, has not written a single article in his life, and has so far only been a witness in the case. Now they are forcing testimony out of him in order to detain me.
The St. Petersburg prosecutor's office opened a criminal case regarding the publication of the article “Russia with a knife in the back. Jewish fascism. Genocide of the Russian people" in June 2006. The article was published under the signature of Konstantin Dushenov in the magazine “Orthodox Rus'” (a special issue dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the death of Metropolitan John (Snychev). An examination by the Moscow University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia recognized the published materials as “inciting ethnic hatred.” The case was opened at the request of St. Petersburg human rights activist Ruslan Linkov.
According to Dushenov, the criminal case initiated is “political and fabricated.” The editor does not see anything offensive or provocative in his newspaper: “All articles are based on the doctrine of the Russian Orthodox Church.” For a long time, experts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs also considered Dushenov’s work to be within the scope of the law. We are not experts and will not evaluate anything here. But the calls of the editor of Orthodox Rus' to “act harshly and decisively” against the “Judaizing ghouls” really do not sound very peaceful.
I ask:
– Don’t you think that this is at least an insult?
Dushenov objects:
– Not an insult, but my point of view. Don't have the right?
Over the past five years, many linguists in their research works have interpreted the “printed word” of Konstantin Dushenov as “aimed at inciting hatred and enmity, at humiliating people on the grounds of race, nationality, attitude to religion, membership in a social group...” By the way, among St. Petersburg scientist Nikolai Girenko, who was shot dead in his own apartment in June 2004, also spoke among these experts. The murder has not yet been solved.

Nina PETLYANOVA

Direct speech:
Yuri VDOVIN, deputy chairman of the human rights organization “Civil Control”:
- I'm not bloodthirsty. I don’t need them (employees of “Orthodox Rus'” - N.P.) to be kept in prison. But it's long overdue to ban an openly racist (and even fascist) company from doing what they were doing. St. Petersburg human rights activists spent several years trying to prove this need to the prosecutor's office and the judiciary.
The feeling was (and, in principle, still is) that the power structures in Russia benefit from the spread of xenophobia and racism. Because this provides an excellent opportunity to channel accumulated social tension away from the authorities. Do not turn the anger on yourself, but instead nod: they say, all the blame lies with the Tajiks, Uzbeks, Jews.