Mathematician counted ten thousand Academician Vasiliev fined for rally in support of those involved in the “Bolotnaya case”

Detention of Viktor Vasiliev near the Zamoskvoretsky court. Photo: Mikhail Kiroshirov / Wikipedia

All day on March 5, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow punished people who came to the same building on February 21 to announce the verdict in the “Bolotnaya case” and were detained by the police. The punishment under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the rules of holding a rally) was standard - a fine of ten thousand rubles. Random passersby, the director of the films “Russia-88” and “Gop-Stop” Pavel Bardin, and the world-famous mathematician and academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Viktor Vasiliev were punished.

“Don’t talk a lot, only to the point, otherwise they will cling to words,” experienced violators of the law on rallies warned mathematician Viktor Vasiliev. For the first time in his life, an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (the “Vasiliev invariants” are named after him), president of the Mathematical Society of Moscow, member of the editorial boards of seven scientific journals in Russia and around the world, who found himself in court, looked very confused and smiled embarrassedly at his fellow mathematicians who kept coming up and coming up. The consideration of Vasiliev’s administrative case was scheduled for 15.20, however, as it turned out, six people were called at once by 12 noon, and there was something similar to a line at the clinic at the door of the office. "Who is last? - the violators asked each other. “Will they call us or knock on the door ourselves?”

Director of the Institute for Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Kuleshov, many of his colleagues, graduates and former teachers of the 57th mathematical school in Moscow came to support Vasiliev. Some of them were also detained on the day the verdict was announced in the Bolotnaya case. “I have an appointment for tomorrow, but I will apply for a postponement,” said one of those who came. “I have to go to a conference in St. Petersburg, I’ll give a report there.” The mathematicians discussed the situation in Ukraine and had already begun to discuss current work matters, when suddenly one of them saw that the famous director, author of the films “Russia-88” and “Gop-Stop” Pavel Bardin, his son, was standing modestly at the door to the courtroom famous cartoonist Harry Bardeen. “Oh, I finally figured out at what point cinema art and exact sciences intersect!” - one of the mathematicians proclaimed, and everyone who came headed into the hall along with Bardin.

Pavel Bardin
Photo: Vitaly Belousov / RIA Novosti

There was an incessant, nasty whistle in the hall, either from a fire alarm or from some faulty device. The bailiffs did not know what to do with this. “Don’t you have a tin foil hat?” - Bardin asked the court secretary, who just threw up her hands. Judge Natalya Cheprasova left the deliberation room and winced. “Does the noise bother you?” - she asked Bardin. “Not very much,” he answered phlegmatically, and the meeting began. Cheprasova read out the police report, according to which the director violated the rules for holding a public event on February 21, did not comply with police demands and chanted: “Freedom for the prisoners of Bolotnaya!”, “One for all and all for one,” and also “Shame!”

Bardin said that he did not admit his guilt; he did not go to the rally, but to the verdict of the participants in the case of the riots on May 6, 2012, expecting to get into the Zamoskvoretsky courtroom. Arriving on Tatarskaya Street, he saw that the entire space was cordoned off by police, and remained standing. He was detained by two police officers without identification badges; they did not introduce themselves or explain why they were detaining him. He spent more than three hours at the police station, which is a violation of the law, and the police report on his arrest was written as a carbon copy. It was generally printed in advance, and only information about the detained person had to be entered into the document. In addition, Bardin indicated that only police officers detained him, and others filled out the documents - this is a violation of the law. Judge Cheprasova took careful notes. Then she left to make a decision.

The whistling continued, the bailiffs were asked to do something about it. For example, call a specialist. "What will I do. Usual Russian ************* [carelessness],” responded the bailiff. “Wait, wait,” one of the people of science exclaimed. - This is not an alarm, the sound range is completely different! Call the secretary! The secretary entered the hall, she was asked to check her computer, she turned it off, the sound stopped, everyone clapped.

The clapping stopped when Judge Cheprasova made a decision: Bardin’s guilt is fully proven by the police report and the statement of the prefecture of the Central District of Moscow, which says that no notifications were given for the rally on February 21. The court assessed Bardin's testimony critically, considering it an evasion of responsibility; the punishment was a fine of 10 thousand rubles. The director shrugged his shoulders and, leaving, thanked the mathematicians for their support.

He was replaced in court by Dmitry Ilyashev, an employee of the Institute of Ecological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. A strange thing happened to Ilyashev: he was detained not on February 21, but on the 24th. Not at the Zamoskvoretsky court, but at the beginning of Tverskaya Street (there, on Manezhnaya Square, another protest against the verdict in the “Bolotnaya case” took place that day). On Tverskaya, Ilyashev met with his old friend named Ryabinin - they agreed to meet at the metro and go discuss work-related issues. They saw a crowd of people, approached out of curiosity, and then Ilyashev was detained.

The researcher’s defense lawyer began to inundate the judge with petitions: that a record of the meeting be kept in court (in administrative proceedings this is not necessary), that the police officer who detained Ilyashev be summoned to court. Finally, the police report should be removed from the case file; according to the defense lawyer, it was drawn up improperly. Cheprasova each time left to confer for about twenty minutes, then refused the requests. She only allowed to interrogate the detainee’s friend, who repeated word for word that they had not thought about participating in a political action. Nevertheless, Ilyashev was found to have violated the same article 20.2 of the Administrative Code and received his fine of 10 thousand. “Please excuse me for taking up so much of your time,” Ilyashev, looking shocked, addressed the audience. The bailiffs warned that for laughing during the announcement of decisions they would be kicked out of the hall.

The next accused, a former employee of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, and now unemployed Evgeny Petrenko, said that he really was at the Zamoskvoretsky court, did not participate in the rally, and said to the riot policeman in the back: “What are you doing, guys.” After which he was detained by the same riot police. It took Judge Cheprasova 15 minutes to make a decision - a fine of 10 thousand rubles. The bailiffs took the woman out of the hall for laughing loudly. “I will remove you from the hall for the slightest sound,” the angry judge warned.

People awaiting the trial of Viktor Vasiliev

Photo: Sergei Parkhomenko’s personal Facebook page

Finally, Viktor Vasiliev entered the hall. At first the bailiffs didn’t want to let him in, thinking that he was from the support group. But the academician explained that it was he who would be judged, and modestly sat down on a chair near the cage for the defendants. “Who are you anyway,” the judge addressed him. “Why did you sit so far away, but let’s get closer.”

Vasiliev modestly introduced himself as the chief researcher at the Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Judge Cheprasova read out the standard police report: he participated in an unauthorized rally of up to a thousand people, refused to follow police orders, chanted “One for all and all for one,” as well as “Freedom!”, and resisted arrest. Vasiliev responded to this that he did not participate in the rally and did not even know that there would be one. He went to the verdict in the case on May 6, but saw that everything around him was blocked. Then Vasiliev saw the “strong hand of a police officer”, which grabbed him, and he obeyed. “Look at me and tell me if I could have resisted,” said the 57-year-old mathematician, who is far from athletic.

— Were you waving your arms? - Vasiliev’s defense lawyer asked him.
“No, it was impossible to do this in the crowd,” he answered.
— Did you chant the slogan “One for all and all for one”?
“No, this is not quite my slogan,” answered the academician.
— Did you resist the police? - continued the defender.
- Come on, the employee seemed very polite to me. He said: here, please, be careful, don’t stumble,” said Vasiliev.

Two witnesses testified that they saw the mathematician being detained, and he did not offer any resistance. “No one was detained that day with such dignity and calm,” one of them, Vladimir Uralov, told the court. “We can say that this was a unique detention of its kind.”

After half an hour, it became clear that the “unique detention” would result in a standard fine—the same ten thousand. Representatives of science as one began to applaud loudly, only their faces were very unkind. The judge stood up from her seat and slammed the door to the deliberation room behind her.

Andrey Kozenko