Mikhail Kosenko: Prisoner from the "Koshkino House"

On May 20, in the Zamoskvoretsky court of Moscow, the process in the case of Mikhail Kosenko will continue. He is the only one of the defendants in the “swamp business”, whom the investigation accused of violence, dangerous to the life and health of an OMON employee. This corpus delicti is punishable by punishment of up to ten years in prison

Mikhail Kosenko, b. 1975
Arrested on June 8, 2012. Batyra-2 Butyrka was contained.
Accused under Part 2 of Art. 212, part 2 of Art. 318 of the Criminal Code.
The arrest was extended until July 22, 2013

“Let's destroy this prison, these walls should not stand here. So let them collapse, collapse, collapse, dilapidated for a long time, ”the rally ended with this song“ Arkady Kot ”on May 6, 2013 in Bolotnaya Square. Five women sang the performer of the song to Kirill Medvedev - those whose relatives are sitting in a pre -trial detention center in the “swamp business”. And it was perhaps the most touching moment of the rally on May 6. Among those who sang on stage, reading the piece of word, there was Ksenia Kosenko, the older sister of Mikhail. She has not seen her brother for seven months, since the court began. Despite the fact that the investigation recognized Ksenia as the legal representative of Kosenko, the judge does not give her dates with her brother.

“The prison of Mikhail is contraindicated,” says Ksenia, “even for a healthy person this is stress, especially for him. He is a disabled person of the second group in mental illness. ” In July 2012, doctors of the Serbian Institute recognized that brother of Ksenia is a danger to others and needs forced treatment. If the court recognizes Kosenko insane, then it can be placed in the hospital for many years.

The older sister of Mikhail Kosenko Ksenia. Together with lawyers, she defends him in court

The victim of hazing

“We are an average Russian family. In our family, there have never been neither dissidents nor dissenters. Mom is an artist-hift, dad worked as a builder. After my father’s death, my mother moved to the village. I remained in the apartment with my son and Mikhail. They lived together, but everyone had their own life, ”says Ksenia.

She is 41 years old, she works as a specialist in marketing and advertising in one of the Moscow commercial firms. Before her brother’s arrest, she was not particularly interested in politics. Mikhail voted for the Communists in the elections, he always liked the ideas of justice, equal opportunities for everyone. They did not discuss politics at home. Ksenia says that her brother is quite closed and she learned a lot about him after his arrest. For example, the fact that he was baptized: analyzing his papers, found a testimony of baptism.

Human rights activist Oleg Novikov from the Public Verdict Foundation studied with Mikhail Kosenko in high school in the 548th Moscow school in Tsaritsyn.

“We studied in the humanitarian class,” recalls Novikov. - Misha was a classic “botanist”. At school, he studied perfectly in all subjects - everyone wrote off his works and control. I did not like noisy gatherings, I did not drink beer with classmates. He had one friend. So they went with him, constantly discussed something. ”

After school, Kosenko went to serve in the army. It was not easy for him: at first he was ill with inflammation of the lungs, and then he was greatly beaten. They commissioned a year and a half due to a head injury. “Michael always talked about this very scarce. But it was precisely after the army that he began to have problems with the psyche, which were not there before, ”says Ksenia Kosenko.

Mikhail nevertheless entered the university-at the Faculty of History of the Russian Open University. But I studied there for only a year - the faculty was paid, and the family had no money to pay for its education. Meanwhile, the disease progressed: it became difficult for Mikhail to communicate with new people, it was difficult to concentrate on something properly. He tried to find a job - it did not work out. Filed a second disability group.

“He was observed for more than ten years with a psychiatrist, with whom they understood each other well, he picked up the medicines for him-and he coped with the disease, without delivering trouble to anyone, prepared himself,” says Ksenia Kosenko. “And the doctor never offered him to go to the clinic, did not think that Mikhail was dangerous for society.”

Fan "Echo"

According to Ksenia, in their apartment, his brother has a cozy room, forced by books. The books lay on the floor. On the walls - geographical maps. Chess, microscope. Favorite cat Musya, white with black and gray spots. He bought her food, drove to the veterinarian. Mikhail did not work, received a disability pension - about eight thousand. He spent half on books on history, philosophy, politics - did not read fiction. During the search, for example, they took the book “Nomenclature against Russia”. I watched the TV, listened to the Echo of Moscow.

At the first date in prison, Mikhail told his sister that the operatives persistently asked him who called him to the rally to Bolotnaya Square and who his friends were. “I did not tell them that I went to Bolotnaya, because I heard about the rally from the program“ Echo of Moscow, ”said Ksenia, who grinned at Ksenia.

On May 6, Michael was detained, he then escaped with a fine of 500 rubles. Kosenko went to rallies in the 90s, went in December 2011. “Before the arrest, he was as if in the search. I did not know what to do. It is very difficult for him in prison, but some kind of confidence appeared in him, it seems that he is ready to withstand all the hardships, ”says Ksenia.

Political prisoner

The investigators came to Kosenko’s apartment on June 7 last year at half a year. “It was like in a movie,” recalls Michael's sister. - The son went to open. Some unfamiliar men: "You have a search." Everyone rummaged, took my son’s player, mobile phones, clothes, my brother had no computer. Misha was taken away. "

Ksenia says that the search was a shock for her, but she was sure: she would figure it out and her brother would be released. Until 12 a.m. I waited for the news. The next morning, a mother called, who in the village on the first channel of television saw the news about the fact that Michael was detained.

Ksenia began to look for a defender's brother. It turned out that none of the acquaintances of lawyers for a political case did not want to undertake not to spoil his career. After that, she wrote to Alexei Navalny in the FB: “You were one of the organizers of the rally on Bolotnaya. My brother supported your ideas and event. He is arrested. Provide support! "

Navalny responded: Rosuznik contacted Ksenia, she was offered the assistance of lawyers Valery Shuhardin, Elena Lipzer. Another lawyer was provided by the Public Verdict*.

According to investigators, Mikhail Kosenko and Maxim Luzyanin ** thwarted the 1st company of the 2nd company of the 2nd battalion of the Moscow Office of Moscow Kazmin, the Jetta protective helmet, took his rubber stick from him and struck several strokes with his hands and feet in the body. At the same time, Kasenko himself inflicted only one blow with his foot and with one hand. According to the case file, the Casmin fighter received “bodily injuries in the form of a closed traumatic brain injury ...” However, in the conclusion of the forensic expert, also attached to the case file, it is written that the health of the Casmin fighter “was caused by easy harm”.

“I don’t admit my guilt,” said Mikhail Kosenko The New Times, while still in the IvS on Petrovka shortly after the arrest. - The identification was falsified by the investigation. The riot police first said that I had struck him, and then recovered and said: "I delivered one blow." In fact, this policeman grabbed a guy, and we tried to recapture him. I consider myself political prisoner. And they arrested us to intimidate others. ”

"

 *The doctor asked Misha who he voted for, and when his brother refused to answer some questions, he rather rudely said to him: “You won’t communicate, write that you are insane”*

" " Koshkin House "

The diagnosis of “schizophrenia is sluggish, neurosis-like, with pronounced personality changes in the emotional-volitional sphere” was made by Mikhail Kosenko back in 2001. Since then, no exacerbations of the disease have been recorded. But the investigators decided to send the prisoner for an outpatient examination to the infamous center named after Serbian. ***

“Psychiatrists weighed Mikhail’s diagnosis,” says Oleg Novikov. - He lived with his illness all these years and was not dangerous for society, regularly visited a doctor, received medicines. In jail, he was not given a medicine to which he was used to it for several months. ”

Ksenia says that the examination at the Serbian Institute was very formal, it seems that the doctors set a certain task: to recognize the patient as insane.

“The doctor asked Misha who he voted for, and when his brother refused to answer some questions, he said rather rudely to him:“ You won’t communicate, write that you are insane. ”

So they wrote.

For several months, Kosenko has been contained in the psychiatric department of the Butyrsky pre -trial detention center - the prisoners call this hospital a “Koshkin house”. There are ordinary cameras for 8-10 people, there are no two -story wrappers, iron beds, dull walls, hordes of cockroaches. Zeki with an extinct look. Sometimes riotous patients are carried out along the corridors - and their screams are heard in other cells.

“What is happening now with my brother is punitive psychiatry,” says Ksenia. -At the last court hearing, lawyers asked the judge to allow a new forensic psychiatric examination. The first was carried out almost a year ago, and the state of health of his brother could have changed since then. Lawyers hope for the return of the previous diagnosis - then Misha will not have to sit forever in a psychiatric hospital ”****.

Licking court

Three convoys are trained in the iron cage of Mikhail Kosenko, a tall, smoothly shaved, large barbel with a sad look. The audience applauds, and he, smiling a little noticeably, says loudly: "Thank you."

Kosenko’s case began to be considered in the Zamoskvoretsky district court in November last year - the trial under the chairmanship of the judge Lyudmila Moskalenko is very slow, only four meetings took place. In a small hall, journalists, activists and sympathetic audience are hardly placed. The very court of the court, when the case of Kosenko is considered in it, is taken under enhanced guard.

On April 11, during the last meeting in the case, the issue of extending a preventive measure was decided. The judge rejected all the petitions of the lawyers, and condescendingly listened to the request-request of Mikhail Kosenko himself.

“Your honor, I ask you to change my preventive measure to a softer one. My physical and psychological state was exhausted. I cannot take those medicines that I took in the wild. Given the current trend, I see that the court may drag on. The conditions of detention in custody oppress me, ”Kosenko read his notes.

The prosecutor was against: “He must remain under arrest, otherwise he will be able to influence witnesses, run away ... He will continue to engage in criminal activity, etc.” The usual set of arguments.

The handcuffs are removed and fastened to the cage. Having lowered his eyes to the floor, Kosenko dutifully waits for the judge to return from the deliberate room. Then he suddenly raises his eyes, searches for his sister in the hall, smiles at her.

Judge Moskalenko - a large woman of about 45–50 years old in a black mantle - returns to the hall. She reads a decision on the extension of a preventive measure in a quiet voice, in almost a whisper. It seems to her hard to say. She seems to be very tired.

It extends the arrest until July 22, 2013.

"I am proud of Misha"

In one of the letters from prison, Mikhail wrote: “If there are then such a pace, then the whole court will last several years, three years. But I hope for the best development of events, on the court beyond dependent. If freedom is beyond the mountains, then these mountains will collapse. With the advent of the new opposition, much has changed. Real political competition has appeared in the country. Much will now depend on this. And the authorities can no longer fix it. ”

In prison, Mikhail has been sitting for almost a year. And this year has changed not only his own life, but also the life of his family. Ksenia Kosenko is now acting at rallies, she is no longer afraid of interrogations, is not afraid to communicate with reporters, is trying to read between the lines in the news that her brother expects. “I am proud of Misha. He is a patriot of his country. He did not deserve a prison or a psychiatric hospital. ”

Ksenia is afraid of only one thing: "If the court recognizes his brother insane, then the punishment will be unlimited."

Photos: Ksenia Zhikharev, Evgeny Feldman