"Iceberg started"

Letters of the detainees in Bolotnaya and the memoirs of photographers who shot protesters

On May 6, a group of 95 investigators from Moscow and neighboring regions was thrown to the investigation of the case of “riots” on May 6 in Bolotnaya Square. For six months, they interrogated more than 1,200 witnesses (almost all - law enforcement officers), conducted searches from dozens of activists. There are 51 victims (among them only two civilians). The damage allegedly caused by demonstrators was estimated at almost 29 million rubles. Fearing arrest, about 70 people fled from the country. One of the defendants in the case - Maxim Luzyanin - has already been sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. The other - Mikhail Kosenko - the court may recognize as insane and send for compulsory treatment. Soon, 12 more people will be in the dock - as expected, the main “swamp process” will begin in March. The New Times publishes the letters of several “marsh prisoners” from prison - about Putin's revenge, about the declension of the Latin language and about love

Collision of riot police with demonstrators in Bolotnaya Square

Stepan Zimin, 20 years old.

Accused under Part 2 of Art. 212 ("Participation in the riots") and part 1 of Art. 318 of the Criminal Code ("Violence against a representative of the authorities"). Pre -trial detention center No. 5 "Water".

“What can I say about my arrest? I still don’t understand why we are all sitting in a pre -trial detention center. There were no mass riots on May 6, even in the law it is written, or rather in the comments to it, which can be considered for the riots. They must be accompanied by arson, destruction of property, etc. Was all this then in Bolotnaya? Or do I not remember something? From the point of view of the investigation, we all committed crimes against state power, so even in the resolution on the arrest was written. What nonsense! Or is it forbidden to go to an authorized rally today? I can’t understand all this. /.../ And in general, everything is fine, the days go. The guys send letters. The only negative is that here with books the problem is big. /.../ Let's see how our affairs will develop in the future. In the meantime, I think you just need to believe in the truth. Thanks again for the support. Stepa ".

OMON works

Mikhail Kosenko, 37 years old.

Accused under Part 2 of Art. 212 and part 2 of Art. 318. Psychiatric department of the pre-trial detention center-2 "Butyrka".

"I'm fine. /.../ There will be a court soon, but I am not yet preparing for it. Now I try to restore strength. I sometimes think how I will live in the wild. Thank you for writing me about my cat. I sometimes dream of it. She lived with me for five years. She treated me, took negative energy. She, of course, remembers me. /.../

This year, the year of the dragon, is difficult for me. I'm waiting for it to end (January 13). After that it will be better, perhaps everything will end well. I believe in it, but the future is hidden for me, I try to influence it myself. The harder this year (2012), the easier it will be for me in the next 11 years. This is encouraging. Well, for now, the paper is over. Misha ".

Alexey Polikhovich, 22 years old.

Accused under Part 2 of Art. 212 and part 1 of Art. 318. SIZO-2 "Butyrka".

“I read the“ holiday ... ”Hemingway. A chic book, a gorgeous writer. Be sure to read “for whom the bell calls” (and advise someone). Markes began, a thing about a man who was overboard the ship. Russell is still hard. There were philosophers closer to our time, and you need to sit down and think tightly above each chapter. He stopped right in front of Rousseau (and after Berkeley with Yum). It is hard to perceive them in the comments, and not in the original. Latin dreams of in nightmares. While I study nouns - declension, cases, legion of different endings. Tin, but there is something in the language of Cicero and Sulla. /.../

Love wins everything. Your Lesha. "

Yaroslav Belousov, 21 years old.

Accused under Part 2 of Art. 212 and part 1 of Art. 318. Pre -trial detention center No. 5 "Water".

“I suspect that great attention is focused on our business. It is still unknown what plays a large role in all this showdown: either the personal wishes of Mr. Putin, or the special zeal of the leadership of the investigative bodies seeking to get to the authorities. Nevertheless, it is absolutely no coincidence that random people are selected for the process (sorry for the tautology). The factor of “randomness” in a politically motivated case should, according to punishers, play the most effective effect, warning millions of our citizens about the danger of opposition support. Moreover, the street activity due to the lack of other levers of influence on the regime (parliamentary and presidential elections for us how long can not be seen, and the regional municipal filter has the only form of protest against the country's leadership policy. And all measures were aimed at suppressing this activity, starting from amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses on violations during mass events and ending with indicative repressions in relation to the defendants of the “swamp business” and the case of “Anatomy of Protest-2”. Alas, over the last centuries, little has changed at the top: the authorities continue to wish to see silent subjects in its citizens. The iceberg, however, started off. Our people, as you know, harness for a long time, but dashingly rides. And the need of Russia for a normal civilized national state is increasing more and more every day. So let's look at what will happen.

Our society should not be afraid of what is happening, because the torment of conscience for the raised country is much worse than imprisonment. And we all have children. It is unlikely that we want to make excuses in the future for the hell that we will bequeathed to them.

Therefore, I wish everyone the vigor and spiritual fortress. ”

On the Bolotnaya Embankment

Vladimir Akimenkov, 25 years old.

Accused under Part 2 of Art. 212. SIZO No. 5 "Water".

“Thank you for worrying about my vision, and by no means you alone. I see something, I can even read. Bye? But I note that I was lucky: a huge number of prisoners is worse than me, and there is no such attention to their affairs; In the same hospital, Matrossa saw a lot of seriously ill people who could not be leaned back today ... But the courts stably prolong them arrest ... Well, they don’t need to be afraid of anything, they only expect fear from us. However, you can’t scroll back through a meat grinder!

Do you write that someone was detained? I don’t have enough news here! I ask everyone who writes: send us information on political prisoners, on arrests, provocations, and criminals against public activists. Even about the "swamp business" I learn a little new.

For the experiences, of course, I am grateful, but I get the impression that they regret the "swamp prisoners". I want to believe that I'm wrong. Sympathy, support - but not pity!

The “swamp business”, like the Pussy Riot case, is a manifestation of personal revenge of the oil and gas king, which arose due to absolutely sincere resentment, because of a sincere misunderstanding of people like him: how can one think about something else in our age, except profit? Maximization of profit extracted from all possible and impossible; offshore accounts formed from 70 percent kickbacks and contracts from the sovereign of the court; The ostentatious, as well as hidden luxury against the backdrop of screaming inequality and futility - all this is more important, correct, more effective than schools and universities, roads and housing and communal services, self -government and freedom of expression. From the point of view of the ruling regime, but wider - the political cover of all global capitalism, it is incomprehensible, and therefore a thinking, creative, rebellious person is dangerous. They will continue to crush, but crush in a grind one, combining the whip and the gingerbread, and, most importantly, trying to convince society that repressions are carried out for its own good. Did you expect the city to rise up? It doesn't matter. It is important that the educated class, the angry townspeople pulled a variety of layers of society. I really hope that intelligentsia, managers, students - in short, people of mental labor will have enough courage from time to become reactionaries from the rebels! Swamp-Sakharov Super Mitings, May 6 events, election observations, civilian projects in general are just the beginning of great public transformations. The Russian intellectual, as more than once before, appears before the choice: to make a good society (possibly, and sacrifice yourself) or save, having gone into the philistine or reaction. Well, the fact that the connection of the “swamps” and “Uralvagonzavod” will become murderous for the cooperative “Lake” - a parable in a tongue. And finally: the direct duty of the army, police and special services is to defend the people, defend the constitutional system, and to guard the rights and freedoms of citizens. And do not guard a bunch of kleptocrates! However, it is not in vain that the regime has recently puts on non -classical institutions: the Ministry of Emergencies, Kadyrovtsy, private corporations (military).

PS everything will be! We will win. "

At the request of The New Times, several photographers affected during their work in Bolotnaya Square tell what happened there and publish their photos

OMON delays the protester

Denis Bochkarev, photographer-freelancer

A piece of asphalt broke the face of my friend Leshe Savelyev. People in the square were scared, many would like to leave, but there was nowhere - riot police did everything in order to prevent it from dispersing. Many at that moment were already injured, someone in the blood, someone unconscious, like Zhenya Shipilov, who lay behind the riot police chain. I did not know him then, tried to break through to him because I saw that he was abandoned. Because of this, they detained me, apparently.

Igor Kubedinov, photographer-freelancer

With a press card, I broke through the first two chains of the police in black armor, but I was thrown back another line. I went to the small stone bridge - there were buses, to which the detainees were brought, police operators worked, a man in a black vest with a yellow inscription on the back of the Investigative Committee stood nearby. Periodically, black wedges burst into the crowd, pulled out people and went back with them. At one of these moments, I did not have time to dodge and received a blow with a club on the back. The baton flew to me as if by chance. Others got it, and at the same time.

Barricades from toilets on the embankment

Evgeny Feldman, "New Gazeta"

Journalists who shot a sedentary strike, a crowd with provocateurs, pushed a cordon. And then we stayed behind the police officers. Then the stones flew into us: everything that the police did not reach the line of the police dived in us. Two - in me. I had to jump to the ground from one, the second I reflexively beat off a plastic nozzle on the lens. These stones are the worst thing I saw on May 6.

Igor Tabakov, The Moscow Times

Riot police threw a fire filled out of the crowd, and he touched me by tangent: I stood with a camera in his way.

Artem Drachev, photographer-freelancer

Light fire files were constantly flying to riot police, they lifted them and threw them back into the crowd. OMON worked as clubs, took the demonstrators, people beat off the detainees. The conflict grew, and “Kuzmichi” began to fit - the uncles are simple, who stood and fucked up. They detained me like this: I shoot me and see how to an important comrade with the rank, it seems that the colonel runs up the grandfather and shouts: “What are you doing, is it illegal, what your fighters are doing?!” In response from the officer, he receives a kick with words in the spirit: "If you do not want to receive, you have to sit at home." Only he said rudely and said with obscenities. It was then that I put my comment: "Are you an officer or who?" On his orders, I was detained. They released when the press card showed.

Photos: Artem Drachev, Igor Tabakov, Igor Kubedinov, Denis Bochkarev, Evgeny Feldman