Translated material
Again about the prisoners of May 6
The anniversary of the beginning of significant events in our country is approaching, when, unexpectedly for the whole world, and the participants in these very events, there was a massive outing of citizens on the streets of Russian cities, outraged by the blatant disregard for their right to change power.
For six months, joyful excitement reigned in society in anticipation of change. But on May 6, participants in another peaceful rally, agreed upon with the authorities, turned out to be victims of a planned provocation. It is now obvious why the riot police blocked the way for the thousands of rally participants and began beating them. The idea was to organize mass riots in order to obtain legal grounds for reprisals against protesters. In this way, they hoped to bring down the protest wave in Moscow and throughout the country.
There were no mass riots. There were only skirmishes with riot police who unexpectedly attacked the front of the column. As a result, 15 people were put under investigation, and then three were arbitrarily added to them as alleged organizers of mass riots (which were never created).
What are riots? The law defines this very clearly: mass riots are actions accompanied by “violence, pogroms, arson, destruction of property, the use of firearms, explosives or explosive devices, as well as armed resistance to a representative of the authorities” (see Article 212 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
The Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, Vladimir Petrovich Lukin, who was in the thick of events on May 6, published an official report in which he clearly stated: there were no mass riots. But 18 participants in the rally are doomed to bear responsibility for something for which they are not guilty. Because the entire state machine - the riot police, the investigators, and the judges - are carrying out a task: to prove that on May 6, the malicious organizers of the rally planned mass riots, and the rally participants carried out this illegal intent.
Not only the participants of the rally on May 6 (any of whom could have been in their place) - everyone who does not want to live in a police state must actively seek the release of those arrested. There are different possibilities for this.
At the rallies held over the year, each time the release of political prisoners was put forward as a common demand of the participants. These 18 are the same political prisoners.
Were there pogroms or arson? Did the protesters use explosives or explosive devices? Did they have firearms in their hands? Was there any destruction of property?
Investigators explain: the helmets of the riot police were damaged, and the toilet booths were overturned. Funny? However, this will be enough for our court to recognize what happened as a mass riot and, on this basis, sentence the rally participants to long terms.
But investigators interviewed about one and a half thousand people on this matter. It is possible to organize a massive public investigation, parallel to the official one. Collect testimony from not one and a half thousand, but tens of thousands of rally participants to support the conclusions of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation V.P. Lukin that there were no riots. These statements must be properly legally documented and published. Thus, the whole world will see a picture of what really happened on May 6, and who is the true culprit of what happened on the approaches to Bolotnaya Square.
Numerous witnesses may come to the courthouse when their comrades are being tried and demand to be questioned. By law, the court is required to interview a witness who voluntarily appears to testify in the case being heard.
We need to collect money for lawyers, for transfers to those arrested, to support their families left without a breadwinner due to his arrest. (This is already being done, but not very widely). The burden of protecting them should not be borne solely by their families and their friends.
It is necessary to write letters of support to those arrested and their loved ones. It is necessary that every day there should be pickets with portraits of those arrested at the prison, at the investigative committee, at the scene of events near Bolotnaya.
It is necessary to constantly write, speak, and show existing video materials about the events of May 6 on the Internet and in honest media, to disseminate the truth as widely as possible that there were no mass riots on May 6, but an unmotivated, provocative attack by riot police on participants in a peaceful rally.
It is necessary to collect signatures demanding the release of those arrested. (This, in my opinion, is being done).
It is necessary to organize meetings, rallies, concerts with this demand.
Society is now in some confusion after huge rallies turned out to be an insufficient means of influencing the authorities and did not persuade them to dialogue, but on the contrary, caused cruel sentences (T. Osipova, Pussy Riot, Maxim Luzyanin) and the feverish preparation of laws directed against civil society. activity.
Nobody knows what other peaceful means of influencing the authorities are. I don't know that either. This should clarify, as they say, life. But what we all must do now, immediately, is obvious: we must not allow reprisals against the arrested rally participants and those whom the authorities are tipping to be the organizers of mass riots. This is our common concern - of the Human Rights Committee, and the Coordination Council, and the White Ribbon, and the League of Voters, and all human rights activists and honest lawyers, and all participants in rallies, and every citizen who cares.