About the defendants in the “Case of Twelve”

On Tuesday I went to the Nikulinsky court. During the break, I had a long conversation with one of my friends who constantly goes to the trial. He is depressed because he regularly observes what is happening there, writes about it, and his friends from social networks say: they say, we can’t get there ourselves for various reasons, but you write and write. Summarizes - no one cares about anything. In general, a mood of complete helplessness prevails among those attending the meetings on Michurinsky Prospekt.

However, in my opinion, there is also something positive in this strange and terrible sight. At one time, I, far from being a supporter of Khodorkovsky, went to one meeting on the second case. Three hours were enough to understand the state of our investigation and the prosecutor’s office - each of the “evidence” of the defendants’ guilt was read out, each piece of paper was immediately smashed to smithereens (mainly by Platon Lebedev). But besides this, there, in this place, at this time, I saw two extremely worthy people - Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.

In the Nikulinsky court you can see as many as twelve of them. A lot has already been said about Sergei Krivov; by his actions he reveals the true attitude of the Nikulinsky court (we are talking about Judge Nikishina and the bailiffs) towards the defendants, and even towards those who support them, as if they were inanimate objects. On Tuesday, when I was in court, an ambulance was again called for Krivova, who was again not allowed into the courtroom, but I would highlight another event - the unanimous request of the rest of the defendants to the barely alive Krivov to stop his hunger strike. And this does not happen in some kind of relaxed pause, but exactly when prosecutors unexpectedly, without any justification, ask the court to extend the preventive measure for all of them, demand another three months to keep them in a pre-trial detention center, under house arrest or under a signature without signature. any reasons for this. And in response to this they ask Krivov to stop the hunger strike. Vladimir Akimenkov, in his speech in response to the prosecutors’ petition, refuses to join the demand of lawyer Agranovsky to let him go home, and says that he cannot be free while the girls from Pussy Riot, Taisiya Osipova, environmentalists from Greenpeace, Khodorkovsky, other political prisoners are in prison, and repressions are in full swing in the country. The same Akimenkov who practically lost his sight in “Matrosskaya Tishina”. He asks Maria Baronova not to worry that she is only under a written undertaking not to leave the place, while they are in a cage, they say, her article is easier.

On Friday, in the Nikulinsky court, Maxim Luzyanin, the first of those convicted in the Bolotnaya case, spoke as a witness for the prosecution, fully admitting his guilt and making a deal with the investigation. They say that he was severely beaten more than once, nevertheless, by admitting his guilt, he did a disservice to the defendants of the “Case of 12”. Despite this, at the end of the hearing, at which Luzyanin essentially deftly avoided all the questions put to him, the current defendants thanked him and wished him good luck: “Thank you! Hold on! We are with you! — Sergei Sharov-Delone, Andrei Barabanov’s defense attorney, conveys their words.

The way these twelve people, randomly selected from a crowd of thousands, behaved during the trial, helping each other, not forgetting what was happening outside their difficult lives, and morally rising above the court, should serve as an example for those remnants of civil society that we have today, and understanding this moral superiority can serve as a cure for despondency.

Take the time to go see the “Bolotnaya Case” at the Nikulinsky Court. At least like going to a museum: to look at representatives of a fossil species - a species of extremely worthy people.

The date of the next meeting can always be found on the RosUznik website .