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Events in Bolotnaya Square caused a new wave of political emigration from Russia. Activist of “Other Russia” Alexei Devyatkin and journalist Jenny Kurpen, who asked for refuge in Ukraine, explained their decision in an interview with The New Times

Alexey Devyatkin and Jenny Kurpen

Alexey Devyatkin: On May 6, Jenny and I were detained in Moscow, but not in Bolotnaya Square - we did not want to participate in an event organized by Navalny and his associates. We went to the action announced by journalist Arkady Babchenko * * Former Military correspondent of Novaya Gazeta, a civilian activist. -“Somewhere in the area of ​​the Revolution Square,” it sounded.
Jenny Kurpen: Yes, everything was supposed to take place on the Revolution Square. The area was cordoned off, and the only place where we could reach was the transition on the corner of Tverskaya, where the State Duma. At first, people stood near the crossing, then they simply began to sharply push us away.
AD: Well, yes, the police officer drove up there.
D.K.: Moreover, there was no OMON at first - there were ordinary PPSNIKS ...
AD: ... with metal fences. They began to simply squeeze us out.
DK: They took them in their hands and simply jumped onto the crowd with fences in their hands. It was very strange and funny.
AD: There were a hundred of them in total, that is, not very many. At some point, they began to push us back, Pazik arrived with riot police, and they began to selectively twist people ...
DK: I shot a video for the Grani.ru website, but at that time the action of my first press card was over, and I have not yet managed to put a seal and signature on the new one. Someone began, as usual, to fight them, to tear off the helmets, everything was quite tough-I shot it, and I was dragged on the bus.
AD: I did not even immediately notice that Jenny was detained. Then, when someone told me about this, I ran to the bus, tried to just enter it, began to shout: "Why was the girl?" Without ceremonies, I was dropped to the ground, searched and threw me into another car carrier. We were delivered to different departments: I was in the Airport police department, and Jenny in the Voikovskoe police department.
DK: I personally cost me normally. But what I saw there was monstrous. In Avtosak there was a police officer without a uniform, without a token, she did not introduce herself. But she had a professional video camera. And all the way she provoked those who were locked in a cage, on some aggressive actions and words. As soon as she succeeded, she turned on the camera and began to shoot. She knows very well who, for example, Babchenko. She said to him: "You are a drunk, a rogue, you have been taken out of work, so you are doing x ... her." She told someone that “women do not give him”, and all together: “You only read books, instead of working.” Naturally, everyone was laughing. When she began to be rude to the girls, Stetsur and Nizovkina * * Tatyana Sttsur and Nadezhda Nizovkina - civilian activists, former political prisoners. The New Times wrote about their business in 2011. , the rest tried to intercede for them. At some point, a brawl began, the girls broke their hands. At first, Stetsur was beaten facing the handrail near the door, and then with a knee on the face in a bent state, with his hands behind his back. I shot this on camera, as a result of which they broke the camera - this woman simply pulled out the lens.
AD: And then she began to threaten you with a fabrication of a criminal case ...
DK: Then, according to the walkie-talkie, one of these employees who were inside said that clashes began in Bolotnaya, and there the riot police received stab wounds. So, when I began to tell her that I would write a statement about material damage, she abruptly, on the move, changed his tone - she began to threaten me with a criminal case regarding the application of knife wounds Omon on Bolotnaya. She said that when we come to the department, a statement from the victim will be ready for me. And in the department it was like this: Nizovkin and Sttsura were clamped in a corner in the lobby - they refused to introduce themselves. They tried to make them dactyloscopy forcibly, they refused, then they were told: "Now everyone will be preceded and released, and we begin to beat you." They said this with witnesses. With me in the department, they behaved correctly. But after registration, when they gave me copies of protocols and reports, as I asked, and they told me that I was free, some aunt caught up with me in the corridor and said: “Now let's go for a conversation with the FSB officers.” At first they led me to one who forced me to write a written refusal of fingerprinting. He told me: “Do you want to get out of here today? Then sign. " He did not say which department represented, did not name his name, position, title, nothing. I signed because I realized that there was nothing to do with it. And they led me to the second employee who had already asked questions about what was happening on Bolotnaya. How did I know about the action, for what purpose I came there ... I told him repeatedly that I was not there and therefore I could not help.
AD: And I also had a conversation, but not with the FSB, but simply with the operas. They asked me who organized the rally, what I did there, did I get money for participation, did I know what prohibited organizations such as DPNI or RNE were there ...
Then we left.
And after some time, Jenny began to call the district police officer, insist at a meeting about events on Bolotnaya. We left for Nizhny Novgorod, to my house. And in Nizhny, a day later found a note with a threat in the mailbox: “You will end, ha ha”. And on the same day we saw how some muddy types, well, very similar to operas in civilian clothes, tried to go into the entrance. Such, you know, a boar of two men ...
DK: ... with small handbags.
AD: Yes, and we just went to the store, and when we returned, we saw how they were picking in the intercom. Then I also began to search for the district police officer. He called his parents, burst into them. And I already have a verdict - also under the article “Participation in Massions” for the action in the reception of the Presidential Administration * * * December 14, 2004, on the anniversary of the death of Andrei Sakharov, NBP activists came to the Presidential Administration and demanded meetings with Putin, and having received a refusal, captured one of the offices. . I then spent a year in a pre -trial detention center and received a suspended period of one and a half years. The trace would have clung to this fact ...
DK: An ideal candidate to go through this business. Moreover, there will be no conditional term with relapse. I realized that this is all the last drop.
A.D.: We realized that we had to be safe, and at some point we decided to leave for Kiev, because it was possible to fit into friends. There were doubts - maybe we did it in vain, but then the arrests continued, arrested the Caucasus and Polikhovich. That is, everything is just beginning. While we are here, we turned to the Office of the UN Supreme Commissioner for Refugees. We were helped to collect documents for contacting the migration service. Here is such a story. In principle, I do not want to bear responsibility precisely for those events to which we were in no way involved.
DK: I generally think that there were no mass riots in Moscow, respectively, any accusations on this article are absurd. Perhaps there, in Bolotnaya, there was a separate number of episodes according to the 318th (“Application of violence against a representative of the authorities”), I do not exclude this. But these are not mass riots. Moreover, we were not there at all. I do not consider it possible for myself to spend a second of my time on the trial on such absurd accusations.