Swamp business: Stepan Zimin

Twenty -year -old Stepan Zimin is a faithful friend and master of all hands. In the pre -trial detention center, he has been ten months now. The New Times continues to talk about prisoners of "Swamp business"*

Stepan Zimin, b.

Arrested on June 9, 2012, contained in pre -trial detention center No. 5.

Accused under Part 2 of Art. 212, part 1 of Art. 318 of the Criminal Code.

The arrest was extended until June 8, 2013

Stepan Zimin became the fifth in a row in the case of riots in Bolotnaya Square; On June 9, he was taken into custody by the Basmanny court, the decision of him was made by Judge Olga Solopova, at that time - the chairman of the court.

Everyone who entered the hall primarily said: "How high!" The tall Zimin was really hard to place in the cage: it seemed that the crown touches the rods. Zimin answered the questions in an unexpectedly thin voice, smiled bewilderedly.

With this smile, he will listen to the next two decisions on the extension - August 6, 2012 and March 1, 2013.

He celebrated the New Year in pre -trial detention center No. 5 and his birthday. It is not clear how many more holidays he will have to spend in prison.

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 *For friends, he was ready for anything. When the guys who got into difficult situations needed money, Stepa gave the latter. He threw a party, birthday and fled to save someone*

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Prison universities

“He has changed very much there,” says Stepan's girl Sasha Kunko. - We both have become stronger now. Glory to God, he had normal relations with his neighbors, he writes to me letters in which he talks about walks, about the gym in which he is constantly engaged. He quit smoking. He reads the whole day, quotes works of various writers in letters. Of course, he yearns for freedom and friends, whom he lacks. But he works on himself. "

The dark-haired elegant Sasha and the massive Stepan two years ago went to one dance club called "Dancing Class": they were dancing Boogi-Wigu and Lindy-Hop, they even won the Cup in the city competition. Walked. We went to friends. In early summer, they gathered for friends for the cottage, but did not work out - arrest.

“I knew that he lives completely alone, mother died of cancer, father in another city,” says Sasha. - From loved ones - a cat Kotya, who, after Stepin, was sheltered by the head of Rosuznik Sergey Vlasov. "

For a year now, Sasha has been carrying the program to Stepan and puts money for him in an account in the pre -trial detention center. “Soon we will convey summer things,” she says everyday. “I did not think that this could last so long, no one suspected that it could drag on for a whole year.”

Before the arrest in the Zimin apartment in the north of Moscow, a search was carried out, during which, according to the case materials, “a walkie -talkie, a mask with slots for the eyes, a bottle of incendiary mixture, corresponding literature, several passports and other objects were seized.

At the end of July, Zimin was charged under Part 2 of Art. 212 and part 1 of Art. 318 of the Criminal Code. According to the case materials, “on 6.05.2012, Zimin took part in the riots on the site between Serafimovich Street and Bolotnaya embankment, refusing to comply with the legal orders of the authorities. Having realized that the police officers in front of him, Stepan Zimin, aimedly threw three times a piece of asphalt into a fighter of the 3rd company of the 4th battalion of the OMON GU MVD D.A. Kuvatova, which caused him physical pain. ” Stepan’s legal support was originally carried out by lawyer Vasily Kushnir, who worked in the Rosuznik project. In his opinion, in Zimin’s “There are too many inconsistencies and violations.” So, an independent examination showed that Denis Kuvatov’s fracture could not be received from a stroke or stone hit. “The nature of the fracture indicates that the bone was broken due to twisting the finger. That is, the nature of the damage does not correspond to the instrument of the sane crime at all, ”Kushnir says with confidence.

In the case there is a confrontation protocol held between Stepan Zimin and the commander of the unit Kuvatov Kuvshinnikov. The latter claims that Zimin threw stones, but at the same time says that "he did not see him to fall into one of the department employees." Judging by the video, Stepan was detained at the rally one of the first - exactly eight minutes after the riots began in Bolotnaya Square. If you carefully view all the videos attached to the case, it becomes clear that pieces of asphalt and stones flew in the direction of the riot police half an hour after the start of the riots.

Anarchocommunist

The young activist of the anarchist movement, who introduced himself as a left, met Zimin a year and a half ago, at the anti-fascist march: “My antitasis friends could not come to the rally, I stood in the crowd, did not know anyone, listened to funny“ carts ”from the elderly dissident. Stepa stood nearby. This grandfather asked us a funny question: "Are you, Limonovites?" We got rounded from this, the whole action went together, and met. Then they met not only on stocks, but also to hang out, they went to concerts, in a tavern, walked. Stepa immediately seemed very friendly and responsive to me. At one time, we entered the anarchisting, participated not only in Moscow actions, shares "for honest elections", but also went to the Tsagovsky forest. "

With a sad laugh, Leva recalls that “Stepa now all the time goes to the courts in the same white hoodie that is small for him. I somehow gave him this hoodie during the “occupying” to him: they walked, he was cold. A week later, he was arrested in the same hoodie. ”

Philip Galtsov, an anti -fascist, a member of the Russian socialist movement (RSD), a political officer who recently requested asylum in Ukraine met Stepan in January 2012: “We were close in views, we had a huge left party in which we were cooked together.”

The political views of his friend of the Galtz, with whom we spoke on Skype, describes in one word: an anarchocommunist. “Styopa told me that he used to be a nationalist and even almost joined the ultra -right. Then, however, he changed his mind. For friends, he was ready for anything, ”says Galtsov. - When the guys who got into difficult situations needed money, Stepa gave the latter. He threw a party, birthday and fled to save someone. He and I went to the "occupy", where we were very friends with Lesha Polikhovich and Sasha Dukhanina. We are "children of Abay", one family. "

Galtsov, the only witness to the defense of Zimin, he said, was constantly next to Stepan at the May rally: “We walked in the RSD column, and did not touch anyone. Stepa was in a mask for a while, then he took it off. We got into a crush. They tried to go from the “drummer” to Bolotnaya, but because of the tank there was a breakthrough, four police officers jumped out of the coupling, grabbed Stepa. We were detained together, we were in the same Avtosak, in one police department of Preobrazhenskaya Square. On May 7, we went to Zamoskvoretsky court. There they gave the step of the day of arrest, I am five. ”

About his friend, Galtsov speaks in excellent degrees: “kindest”, “smartest”. “Do you know that he was in Egypt during the revolution? He asks. “Stepa spent five days even in a local prison.”

This is a legend that Zimin himself invented about himself. He was in Egypt two years before the revolution - in 2009 he spent a month in the city of Badr, studied the Arabic language. And he did not go abroad anymore.

Stepan with his friend Sasha Kunko at the Russian Bug-Wui-2012 championship

Skyld from the "squads of the iron horn"

“A very kind and responsive person, we lack him,” Vasilisa Drobyshev sighs. She is 21 years old, she was engaged in historical reconstruction, she met Stepan exactly a year ago at the international festival “Were Old Kyiv”. By that time, Zimin was an active participant in the movement of reconstructors, and for the first time in her life she got to this festival.

On the first day of the festival, Vasilisa recalls, the participants organized the life of the camp: they put tents, bred the hearth. “Since Stepa speaks different languages, including English, he was like a guide,” Drobyshev smiles. - He generally knew a lot: he showed a helmet that he hesitated in a forge, fabric armor made with his own hands. He also participated in the tournament, where the soldiers are fighting one on one. He was attracted by the Vikings, the X century in Scandinavia. "

The name Zimin in the reconstruction is Skyld. He was engaged in the Slavic Sokol club, before that in the Military Historical Club, the squad of an iron horns. He was brought to Slavic Sokol by 24-year-old Boris Timoshkin, whom Zimin met at the festival of historical reconstruction in 2010. They called each other “brothers”, and Timoshkin gives their “brother” the best recommendations: “Stepa has always been a responsible and respectable member of the club, which could be trusted both in everyday life and in competitions. Yes, I am not a supporter of his political beliefs, I tried to protect him from them. ”

Timoshkin seems to be sure that all Zimin’s troubles are from his anarchist views.

Stepan Skyld, participant in historical reconstruction

Unusual student

It is approximately the same at the department of the modern East at the RSUSU, where Stepan entered in 2008. “Information about his participation in the anarchist movement reached us, he had problems with law enforcement agencies. The news of his detention was not very surprised, ”said Professor Andrei Korotaev, teacher of the faculty of history, political science and law, which includes the Department of Stepan.

Korotaev characterizes his former student “unusual”: “On the one hand, he studied poorly, on the other hand, sometimes he had outstanding results. So, in his first year, he wrote a beautiful coursework, on five with three pluses. Stepan was fond of historical reconstruction, chose the topic in Mamluk military affairs, and the work was absolutely brilliant, using foreign sources, it would go to the top five and as a diploma. In the second year, he wrote a job on the five with two advantages, on the third - just for the five. In the rest of the subjects, he studied on triples and deuces.

The fact that the attitude of some teachers to Zimin, to put it mildly, was cool, became clear from the characteristics of the deputy dean of his faculty of Elena Barysheva in October to the Basmanny Court. In particular, the characteristic indicated that Zimin "had few friends, he neglected the interests of loved ones, had a heightened sense of justice, and set his interests and goals above everything."

“He did not like to spread about his problems, he coped with them himself as best he could,” said Sveta Klimenko’s friend and classmate Stepan, a 5th year student of the Russian State Humanitarian University.

Without a family

Stepan Zimin was born in 1992 in Volgograd, in the family of historians Yuri and Valentina Zimins. His father still teaches at a local university; Valentina, divorced with her husband, left for Moscow when Stepan was not even six years old.

Stepan’s relationship with relatives cannot be called simple - in the pre -trial detention center, he is supported only by a half -brother, who did not want to name his name for printing. Zimin practically does not communicate with his father: “He had a resentment against his father, she still remained, serious experiences are connected with this,” the relative says.

Now the brother, together with Sasha Kunko, is engaged in financial issues: pays for the new lawyer Zimin, Maxim Pashkov, for Stepin a mortgage, carries on a pre-trial detention center, goes on dates: “We can say that we have just had any relations, we hadn’t communicated before, he hadn’t made contact before: I saw him for the last time, when he was five years old. It is difficult to judge Stepa: they always had, let’s say, a very emotional situation in their family. ”

After a pause, he adds: “I only recently found out that he is an anarchist, and it seems to me, I know the reason. The guys are anarchists, and I am familiar with them a little, hold on to each other. Probably, in this circle he had a feeling of a family that he had so missed. ”

Photos: from the personal archive of Alexandra Kunko, from the VKontakte page Stepan Zimin, Evgeny Feldman