On the issue of the competence of the expert brought in in the case of Novorossiysk human rights defenders

As we already wrote, on June 24, 2009 in Novorossiysk, human rights activists Tamara and Vadim Karastelev were denied the recognition of anti-extremist sanctions against them as illegal. In particular, the court took note of an examination commissioned by the prosecutor's office, authored by a certain philosopher Vladimir Rybnikov.

First of all, it should be noted that, according to the lawyers of the Karastelevs, this expertise, later cited in the court decision, was not announced at the hearing itself and appeared in the case file after the hearing. In addition, the slogan "Freedom is not given, it is taken", which became the central theme of this examination, had not previously appeared in either the warning, or the presentation, or the warning issued by the prosecutor's office; and at the picket on which these sanctions were issued, this slogan was not used at all.

In our opinion, in addition to formal claims to this case, besides the fact that, as we have already written, we consider the imposition of sanctions unlawful, the examination of the prosecutor's office and the personality of the expert himself, Rybnikov Vladimir Anatolyevich, a candidate of philosophical sciences, deserves special attention, as follows from his brief self-characteristics in the title of the examination, a certificate of honor from the Department of Education of the Krasnodar Territory.

Firstly, it is not clear to us why the prosecutor's office ordered a philosophical examination. The resulting text does not resemble a scientific study, on the basis of which anything can be proved, but an essay on a free topic.

Secondly, the viability of Rybnikov as an objective scientist is questionable, since he is extremely ideological, namely, he is a supporter of nationalist ideas. For example, he wrote such texts as "Vedic Orthodoxy, as a systemic worldview and the basis of Slavic spirituality" and "Ancestral" Orthodox ideology and "Slavophilism" of the 21st century, located on the website of the Laboratory of Orthodoxy, and in 2004 he defended the radical nationalist Viktor Korchagin, brought who was then once again to justice under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (incitement of national hatred). In this letter of defense addressed to the judge who heard Korchagin's case, Rybnikov, speaking on behalf of the fringe "Russian Section" (opposing the "Russian Section" that sold out to the Jews) of the International Society for Human Rights, says that Korchagin should not be prosecuted for anti-Semitism, since he "said absolutely nothing new on the Jewish question, no matter what Karl Marx or, for example, Henry Ford said about the Jews" [Spelling preserved].

In addition, the expertise itself is ideologized. The explicit anti-Americanism in it is supported by a reference to a well-known falsification - the so-called "Dulles plan" - two texts that are compilations from excerpts from Anatoly Ivanov's novel "The Eternal Call" and distorted fragments of a 1948 directive of the US National Security Council taken out of context.

Inc. inf.

Sources

• INDEPENDENT EXPERT OPINION / Fabrication of extremism to Novorossiysk human rights activists // Website of the Novorossiysk Committee for Human Rights. 2009. July 1.