This terrible word is “federalization”

Call of the Regions

While the idea of ​​“federalization of Ukraine” is actively supported in Russia at the official level, talk about federalization in relation to the regions of the Russian Federation is now being persecuted.

Back in July, the first reports appeared about the upcoming March for the federalization of Siberia, planned in Novosibirsk on August 17. One of its organizers, Alexei Baranov, explained to OVD-Info that federalization does not mean separatism at all, that those who are preparing the event are against the collapse of the country, but are in favor of the nationalization of enterprises, so that money from production does not go to the oligarchs, but is distributed by the state for the needs of the population . The main slogan of the march is “Stop feeding Moscow!” (by the way, events under this slogan have already been held in the regions more than once). In addition, the organizers of the march defend the idea of ​​regional policy independent from the center, which corresponds to the principle of federalism adopted in the state, and also talk about the need to create a Siberian Republic within Russia or equalize the rights of the regions of Siberia with the republics. However, they also said that they wanted to “troll the authorities” supporting “supporters of federalization” in the southeast of Ukraine.

Later it became known that similar events were being prepared in other regions, also scheduled for August 17. They started talking about the federalization of Kuban and the Urals. There were also reports about the March for federalization in the Kaliningrad region. Some messages even mentioned certain “people’s republics”, similar to the self-named Donetsk and Lugansk.

Reading is prohibited

The authorities reacted nervously to these plans. According to the Information and Analytical SOVA Center, since August 1, several dozen pages of online publications that mentioned the Novosibirsk march have been blocked. We started with an article by one of the organizers of the event, former “Other Russia” activist Mikhail Pulin, on the “New Sense” website. Event pages on social networks were blocked. In addition, more than ten publications, including quite well-known ones (among them “Polit.Ru”, “Regnum”, “Rosbalt”, “Grani”), received notifications from Roskomnadzor with a requirement to remove the relevant materials. The notifications stated that the materials contained “calls for mass riots, extremist activities, and participation in mass events held in violation of the established order.” The majority obeyed: for example, from the website of the publication “Slon. Ru”, an interview with the famous Novosibirsk artist, organizer of the absurdist “Monstrations” Artem Loskutov, which mentioned the march, was deleted , despite the fact that Loskutov, according to Alexei Baranov, has nothing to do with the organization of the march. (Some publications then preferred, when mentioning the event, not to say anything about its topic .) And on the website of the publication “New Region” not only Maxim Sobieski’s article “Siberians are preparing a march for federalization” was blocked, but even a note that the mentioned article was closed for viewing in Russia.

They don't let us get together

In Novosibirsk, Krasnodar and Yekaterinburg, notifications were submitted to hold marches, but, of course, local authorities refused to coordinate them (it is important to note that blocking and mailing of notifications began before the mayor’s office made the decision to refuse). In Krasnodar, the reason for the refusal was that the organizers indicated Gorky Park in the notification, while its official name is the City Garden (although on the maps it is called in the old way ). The organizers of the Yekaterinburg event were told that work would take place in the place where they wanted to hold it after City Day. The Novosibirsk City Hall also referred to the fact that “The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation gave an unambiguous assessment of the content of the action planned for August 17 as a public event aimed at undermining the constitutional order” (information taken from an article on The New Times website, deleted at the request of Roskomnadzor and reprinted on website "Free Zone", in connection with which the editors of the site received a notification ). The response, signed by Deputy Mayor of Novosibirsk Gennady Zakharov, stated : “To ensure the inviolability of the constitutional order, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian Federation, the march will be refused.”

In Yekaterinburg, after the refusal, the organizers of the event submitted another notice of a picket on the same day, but several hours later than the first notice - but the mayor’s office refused , citing the fact that the cleanup after City Day would last until 23:00. The organizers renamed the Novosibirsk march the March for the Inviolability of the Constitutional Order. But it did not help. As Mikhail Pulin told OVD-Info, Alexey Baranov was told during negotiations at the mayor’s office that they had information that Right Sector militants would come to Novosibirsk for a march.

As a result, in Yekaterinburg the organizers decided to hold the event in the format of single pickets. In Krasnodar and Novosibirsk they preferred to hold a public gathering. “In any case, people who decide to take part in the march will find a way to exercise their constitutional right to freedom of assembly, people will come out in accordance with Article 31 of the Constitution, we are not calling for anything illegal,” said Mikhail Pulin.

Lamb's head

Activists involved in organizing marches have recently come under pressure. Over the past week and a half, Alexey Baranov and other applicants of the march in Novosibirsk have been summoned to the Center for Countering Extremism. Judging by the explanations of Baranov and Stanislav Karakovsky , Artem Loskutov was mentioned during the conversations. The page of another activist involved in organizing the event, Dmitry Polyakov, states that, as the organizers at Center “E” explained, unknown persons filed “several dozen applications against them with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor’s office.” “But we calmed the police, there are no plans to terrorize the march, and State Department agents are not paying us any money,” Polyakov wrote. Baranov was also asked about Mikhail Pulin and Maxim Sobieski, who, according to OVD-Info , were also called to Center “E”, but apparently were not found.

The matter was not limited to these conversations. On August 14, Baranov was summoned to the local Ministry of Internal Affairs in the morning, and to the prosecutor’s office in the evening, and was interrogated at the prosecutor’s office for about two hours. At the same time, according to him, before he went to the prosecutor’s office, four people approached him and told him that he could have problems related to life and health if he did not stop organizing the march. They mentioned his relatives, their names and addresses. Baranov is sure that these people are connected with the authorities. “I’m not a well-known person, I work as an electrical installer,” he explains, saying that it would be difficult for people not acting on instructions from the government services to find out anything about his relatives. The prosecutor's office again asked him whose money was being used to prepare the march and whether the organizers were planning to carry out any revolutionary actions. After that, Baranov did not spend the night at home, fearing that he might be detained on suspicion of some crime: “For example, they will say that I snatched someone’s phone ,” he suggested. The next morning, Baranov’s parents discovered that a severed sheep’s head had been planted under the door of their apartment, where he was registered.

One of the co-applicants of the march, Konstantin Eremenko, who was also previously interrogated at Center “E,” received a call, according to Baranov, from the FSB and was told that he might have problems, that they might find drugs on him. Some people also called the parents of another organizer of the march, Alexander Atabaev, as well as the parents of his girlfriend and, as Baranov said, asked if they knew what kind of person she was communicating with. According to Mikhail Pulin, “jocks are guarding people at the entrances.”

Altai activist Dmitry Bychkov was also interrogated about the details of organizing the march: as he told OVD-Info , employees of Center “E” hinted to him that the march was being financed by Ukraine to destabilize Russia.

Altai will not be forgotten

The intelligence services managed to find Mikhail Pulin and Maxim Sobieski in Altai. They, together with Pulin’s wife Maria Katynskaya, were hitchhiking and were detained in the village of Maima near Gorno-Altaisk (Altai Republic), and, according to Pulin, “almost the ‘Interception’ plan was introduced, orientations were distributed to employees.” Pulin and Sobieski told OVD-Info that, according to their information, they were caught for five days. “The majors detained,” Sobieski noted, grinning. The detainees were taken to the local Center for Countering Extremism, allegedly to give explanations about their membership in an extremist organization, and Pulin was interrogated by the head of the regional Center “E”, Alexey Popov. According to Pulin, the fighters against extremism were interested, in addition to the details of organizing the event in Novosibirsk, their further route and future plans regarding political activities. Sobieski was also asked how he felt about the events in eastern Ukraine, why he traveled with Pulin and his wife, and whether it bothered him that Pulin had so many criminal records (Pulin, a former member of the banned National Bolshevik Party and the Other Russia, was persecuted along with other National Bolsheviks and was sentenced to four years in prison in two cases; The Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners recognized him as a political prisoner). Maria Katynska, who had nothing to do with the organization of the march, was also interrogated about the travel route, whether she was a member of any political organization, and whether she was going to take part in any public events. After interrogation, all three were released.

However, the adventures of the trio did not end there. Sobieski separated from his spouses, caught a car to go to Novosibirsk, and already on the territory of the Altai Territory he was stopped by a traffic police squad. They checked his documents and released him, but by that time the car had already left, and the traffic police officers themselves caught him another one. Then he was stopped again , after which the driver of the car wrote a complaint against Sobieski that he allegedly threatened him, demanding to change the route. Sobieski sat in a police car for about an hour and a half, in his words, “in an open field” (it was already the dead of night) in the Talmensky district of the Altai Territory, then he was taken to the police department in the village of Talmenka. The police referred to the driver’s complaint and a certain Operation Magistral. In addition, they asked if he was from Kostroma (Mikhail Pulin is from Kostroma). At the police department, in the absence of a lawyer and in the presence of two detainees, who, according to Sobieski, were clearly drunk, acted as witnesses, they searched the journalist’s personal belongings, found nothing suspicious and released him, having received written explanations from him. They also talked to him about the Novosibirsk march, asked about Pulin and said that he was ruining Russia with money from the US State Department. About six hours passed from the moment Sobieski was first detained in the Altai Territory until his release from the police department.

Pulin and Katynskaya also caught a car; two people were sitting in it. The activist and his wife were driven all night, and on the morning of August 15, as Katynskaya told OVD-Info , they reported that they “got lost, got lost, there was fog,” and as a result, “by some miracle” they ended up in Gorno-Altaisk . This did not cause suspicion among Pulin and Katynskaya. But soon, already on the territory of the Altai Territory, they were detained by traffic police officers. This happened near the turn to the village of Troitskoye. Along with the traffic police officers there was an investigator who informed the detainees that they were targeted in connection with the theft. In Pulin’s backpack they found... a certain mobile phone (Baranov looked into water), unfamiliar to him and his wife. Katynskaya suggests that the people who gave them a lift “were operational officers who planted this phone. It turns out that they left Gorno-Altaisk , drove around it and arrived in Gorno-Altaisk in the morning . ” Pulin and Katynskaya were taken to the police department of the Troitsky district of the Altai Territory, Pulin was interrogated, after which, late in the evening, a car took them back to the Altai Republic for investigative actions - according to the information, the phone was stolen there. At the same time, Katynskaya was not formally even considered detained, there was no talk of initiating a criminal case, and Pulin’s status was also unclear. They were brought to the police department of the Maiminsky district of the Altai Republic, to a building next door to where they had been interrogated the day before by the head of the Republican Center “E” Popov. Here they stayed overnight. The next day, investigative actions took place, as a result of which it was discovered that there were no fingerprints of either Pulin or Katynskaya on the phone. Moreover, the person from whom this phone was allegedly stolen has disappeared. Nevertheless, Pulin and Katynskaya - in the status of witnesses in a criminal case of theft - were left at the police department. They were told that on the morning of August 17, investigative actions would continue (so they were unlikely to get to Novosibirsk).

In every possible way

In Novosibirsk itself, on August 16, were detained Alexey Baranov and Alexander Atabaev . This happened at the congress of the National Bolshevik Platform, a structure that includes the organizers of the Novosibirsk march who left the Other Russia and disagreed with the fact that the leader of the unregistered party, Eduard Limonov, supported the position of the Russian state on the Ukrainian issue. The detainees were later released, but were ordered to appear before the Investigative Committee on August 17—an hour and a half before the start of their planned event, which means that they are unlikely to attend it either. In addition, Baranov was familiarized with the materials of the administrative case under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which was initiated following a statement by certain citizens from the city of Kupino, located at a considerable distance from Novosibirsk, that Baranov had encouraged them in a bar to go to a prohibited march. According to Baranov, this is fiction, and Kupino was chosen so that it was impossible to invite these people as witnesses. He also said that police officers made changes to the statement right in front of him. The trial in this case is scheduled for August 21.

And at this time in Kuban

Kuban activist Daria Polyudova, who was participating in organizing an event in Krasnodar, was also persecuted (she previously lived in Novorossiysk, where she was constantly detained, including at single pickets, and imprisoned on administrative matters). On August 15, she reported to OVD-Info that a certain young man accosted her on the street, who began accusing her of being a nationalist and “running into her,” after which the police appeared and detained her, accusing her of petty hooliganism. Polyudova was taken to the building of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Western District of Krasnodar, there was no contact with her for several hours, after which Krasnodar Solidarity activist Viktor Chirikov told OVD-Info that she was being left there overnight. The police accepted food and cigarettes for Polyudova from Chirikov, but did not give them to her. On August 16, the court sentenced the activist to 14 days of arrest. In addition, as Chirikov told OVD-Info , employees of the local Center “E” visited the elderly owner of the apartment that Polyudova rents and intimidated her that she was sheltering an extremist, a fascist, a person capable of stealing the apartment. Now, after her release, Polyudova will have to look for new housing.

OVD-Info is waiting with interest to see what residents of Russian regional centers will face on August 17 if they want to gather somewhere and talk about federalization.