Translated material
Political pressure: media digest (January 15-21, 2015)
Navalny
The Investigative Committee checks the activities of the Anti-Corruption Foundation founded by Alexei Navalny
“Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was taken for interrogation to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. According to Navalny, he was met at the entrance by 12 people who showed him the investigator's decision to bring him in forcibly. The day before, on January 15, the oppositionist's lawyers reported that he was summoned for interrogation because of the check of the RF Investigative Committee against the Anti-Corruption Fund. The investigator scheduled the interrogation for January 16, but Navalny refused to go that day, citing being busy. In an interview with Mediazona, Navalny's lawyer Vadim Kobzev said that the Main Investigation Department of the RF Investigative Committee is conducting the check, and this "rarely ends with something good." He suggested that the check is related to the request of State Duma deputy Mikhail Degtyarev. In December 2014, he demanded to check the Navalny fund for fraud with donations from citizens.
“The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation is checking information about possible fraud by the leaders of the Anti-Corruption Fund, established by Alexei Navalny. This was reported in the press service of the UK, answering a question from a TASS correspondent. "The audit is carried out at the request of the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Science and High Technologies Mikhail Degtyarev on the grounds of a crime under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, on the fact of embezzlement by deceit and abuse of trust by the leaders of the Anti-Corruption Fund of the funds of citizens transferred by them as donations to the Foundation," the press service said. On December 18 last year, Degtyarev announced that he had sent a request to the Investigative Committee with a request to open a criminal case on the facts of abuses in the Anti-Corruption Fund. He clarified that ten days ago, appeals were also sent to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Justice. According to Degtyarev, the organizers of the fund "have settled down well", and "90% of the donations are spent on loved ones and a horde of close associates." "The grounds for suspicions in the creation of cunning schemes lie in the fund's public report," the deputy stressed. <…>
"The investigation is checking information about the illegal actions of the Fund's managers and employees when spending the funds transferred by the donors. In particular, in 2013 alone, the Fund received about 24 million rubles from 16,000 donors, and most of these funds were spent on staff payments (60%), and not for the purposes for which the Fund was allegedly created. To check the financial and economic activities of the Fund, the investigation issued instructions to the relevant operational services," the Investigative Committee said. The investigation needs to verify the legality of the actions of the Fund's employees, among whom are the defendants in the criminal case on the theft of the painting "Bad Good Man" Georgy Alburov and Nikita Kulachenkov. "Moreover, if the accused Alburov, in respect of whom a measure of restraint in the form of a written undertaking not to leave, is in front of the investigator, then Kulachenkov hides from the investigation and is put on the wanted list," the Investigative Committee recalled.
"Given that Kulachenkov carried out electronic correspondence with other employees of the Fund, as well as in order to search for him and establish possible involvement in illegal actions with the funds received, a search is being conducted at the Fund's office," the UK said.
“The Investigative Committee was waiting for Alexei Navalny yesterday. The fact that the oppositionist was summoned to give explanations on the activities of the FBK was reported by his lawyer Vadim Kobzev. “The investigator for especially important cases of the Main Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of Russia called. They have a new check on the activities of the Anti-Corruption Fund,” Vadim Kobzev wrote on his Twitter. “Aleksey Navalny is summoned to the Main Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee to give explanations.” Later, Navalny clarified that the same investigator who conducted checks on Kirovles, Yves Rocher, SPS and the theft of the painting Bad, Good Man was waiting for him with explanations. The FBK founder did not want to meet again with the "old acquaintance" and ignored the challenge. After that, law enforcement officers ordered Navalny a drive. On Friday morning, officers took him to the Investigative Committee in an official car. "Decree on drive. They are being taken to the UK,” Navalny describes what is happening. There are three policemen in the car with me. Nearby is a car with three people in civilian clothes.” The fact of the presentation of the order to bring in was confirmed by Navalny's press secretary Kira Yarmysh. “Yesterday we were told that the Investigative Committee is starting an audit of the Anti-Corruption Fund,” she told Gazeta.Ru. - Aleksey refused to go and give them any explanations, since no criminal case was opened. As a result, a drive was issued. Together with Alexei, both of his lawyers went - Vadim Kobzev and Olga Mikhailova.
While Navalny was with the investigator, law enforcement officers came to search his office. Olga Sobol, a lawyer with the Anti-Corruption Foundation, told Gazeta.Ru that this happened around noon. “Employees seized all the FBK documentation, accounting books,” Sobol commented on what was happening. - Formally, in the decision to conduct a search, it was written that it was allegedly carried out as part of the case of the theft of the painting "Bad, Good Man", in which Georgy Alburov is accused (an employee of the Anti-Corruption Foundation. - Gazeta.Ru). But in fact, we believe that they came precisely because of the activities of the foundation itself. Because law enforcement officers requested all the documentation of the fund, personal belongings of employees are examined: tablets, laptops, phones. Some of them are taken away. We have information that a pre-investigation check of the foundation's activities is currently being carried out. We expect that a criminal case will be opened soon.” Olga Sobol also noted that law enforcement officers did not use force against the employees of the fund. However, out of about 30 security officials who entered the office with machine guns and cameras, only three agreed to introduce themselves: two security officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and an investigator of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. “During the search, there were many violations of the law,” continues the FBK lawyer. - Most of the employees refused to introduce themselves, and the employees of the fund were not given the right to a lawyer. No one was given the opportunity to call a lawyer. We reported about the search in social networks. It was from there that the defenders learned about what was happening and came themselves. Of course, in this regard, a number of complaints will be filed in all possible instances. We understand that complaints are unlikely to cause any positive changes, but we will still file them with the prosecutor’s office and the Investigative Committee and write to the European Court of Human Rights.” Immediately after the explanations in the Investigative Committee, Alexei Navalny himself, who is its founder, also left for the fund. Lawyers also went with him. But Georgy Alburov, in the framework of whose case, according to the decision, a search is being carried out, was not at work today. The press center of the Investigative Committee clarified that the search could indeed help in investigating the circumstances of the case of the theft of the painting. But it is carried out all the same, as Gazeta.Ru previously suggested, in order to check the activities of the fund after the statement by Mikhail Degtyarev, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Science and High Technologies. “The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation is currently conducting a procedural check at the request of Mikhail Degtyarev, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Science and High Technologies. In addition, among the employees of the fund there are defendants in the criminal case on the theft of the picture “Bad, good man”, one of whom (Nikita Kulachenkov) is hiding from the investigation and put on the wanted list,” the press service of the Investigative Committee reports. Aleksey Navalny himself also speaks about claims against FBK, confirming that donations to the fund are indeed a source of payment of salaries to employees. “The UK is dissatisfied with the fact that FBK spends the collected money on office rent and staff salaries. And what, excuse me, should we spend them on? he wrote on social media. By the way, there is no article in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation that directly provides for punishment for the misuse of targeted donations.
“The director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation founded by Alexei Navalny, Roman Rubanov, was summoned for questioning by the Investigative Committee. He was interrogated, among other things, about the activities of the FBK and Navalny, as well as the whereabouts of Nikita Kulachenkov, an employee of the FBK investigation department, said Rubanov on his Twitter on Monday, January 19. “I left the UK - they asked about the whereabouts of Kulachenkov and about the painting. And all this is an occasion to talk about the “FBK case”. They asked what he does at FBK, what Navalny does at the office, and what I know about the theft in the office, ” said Rubanov . He noted that the investigator of the Investigative Committee could not tell why it was necessary to be present at the interrogation.
Oleg Navalny, because of a fantastic story for children, was suspected of trying to hand over instructions for release from a pre-trial detention center
Moskovsky Komsomolets, January 21 :
“Oleg Navalny, brother of a well-known oppositionist, sentenced to 3.5 years, got into a funny mess at Butyrka. Behind bars, a prisoner wrote a story that was considered .... an illegal instruction. The details of the curiosity and what it can result in, found out "MK". Oleg Navalny complained to human rights activists over the weekend that they had taken away his notebook, which contained children's stories. The Federal Penitentiary Service promised to look into the incident and soon the notebook was returned to Oleg, but... Human rights activists became witnesses of the further skirmish between the employee of the detention center and the prisoner.
Navalny: - They cut out my story from there. Whole!
An employee of the pre-trial detention center, he is also a Censor: - There was a step-by-step instruction on transferring prohibited items to the cell.
Navalny: - What are you talking about?! This is a fantastic story. Amusing. It was in the form of a letter to his wife and children. It described an unmanned aerial vehicle that costs a million rubles. Where would my wife get so much money? And how would she send this device here?
Censor: - But you described all this. And how to give conventional signs, and how to find the window of the desired camera among all the windows. Schemes, plans. Everything is there.
Human rights activist: - Oleg, is it true?
Navalny: - I repeat, this is fiction. There is, for example, a paragraph on how to distract the guard: for this I use the image of one of the characters in the Star Wars movie, Chewbaki. Where would I find Chewbacca in Butyrka?
Jokes are jokes, but the story ended up in Navalny's personal file. The prisoner worries that because of this, an entry like “prone to illegal actions” will appear in his file.
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And I didn’t break anything, I didn’t even try to send this story to my wife, ”he justifies himself. In response, the jailers remind that Navalny took the notebook with the story to the office where he had a meeting with the lawyer.
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Yes, just in a notebook all the notes, including in my criminal case. All this is some kind of absurdity! Even if we imagine that my wife would send a flying machine to me and I would receive a mobile phone in this way, what would I do with this phone? You can't hide anything here. It is devoid of meaning and purpose. I wrote the story out of boredom. For 14 days no books were brought, and there was no TV set in the cell. How can a person be forbidden to compose, to fantasize?
prosecution
Tatar activist accused of inciting ethnic hatred goes on hunger strike
begun a hunger strike in the pre-trial detention center in Kazan “ Rafis Kashapov , a Tatar activist, who is awaiting trial on charges of inciting ethnic hatred, has . Kashapov's supporters consider the charges to be politically motivated. This is reported by the Tatar-Bashkir service of our radio station. Kashapov's colleague Renat Nurali told RFE/RL that Kashapov went on strike "in protest against political repression in Russia, the lawlessness of the Russian prosecutor's office and courts, the violation of the rights of Russia's indigenous peoples and Russia's involvement in the military conflict in Ukraine." Kashapov, who heads the Tatar Public Center in Naberezhnye Chelny, the second largest city in the Republic of Tatarstan, advocates for the preservation of the Tatars' national identity, language and culture. He has strongly criticized Russia's annexation of Crimean Tatar-populated Crimea from Ukraine and Russia's involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The activist was arrested on December 28 upon his return from Turkey on charges of inciting national, racial and religious hatred via the Internet.”
A resident of Izhevsk is going to be judged for the image of Christ being raped on the cross
“In Izhevsk, a criminal case has been brought to court against 23-year-old Timur Shoev, who published in one of the social networks “an image of Jesus Christ, against whom a group of people commit violent acts.” Shoev was charged under article 282 on extremism. The image posted by the defendant was declared extremist in January 2014. It appears on the federal list of extremist materials under the number 2271: "An image that shows a group of people carrying out sexual acts of a violent nature against Jesus Christ, crucified on the cross." At the same time, the report of the prosecutor's office of the Udmurt Republic states that Shoev published the image on January 7, 2013 - a year before the court recognized it as extremist.
“On January 15, 2015, the prosecutor's office of Udmurtia announced that a criminal case had been submitted to the court regarding the placement of a caricature of Jesus Christ on the Internet. The criminal case was initiated under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred) in relation to 23-year-old resident of Izhevsk Timur Shoev, who posted on his social network page “an image of Jesus Christ [crucified on the cross], against whom a group of people commit violent acts” (recognised in January 2014 extremist material) and anti-Christian comments on it. Regarding the image, it is known that the court concluded that it "had a negative psychological effect on the religious feelings of believers by humiliating their dignity." The criminal case has been sent to the Oktyabrsky District Court of Izhevsk.”
Doctors were not allowed to see nationalist Alexander Belov in the pre-trial detention center
“Investigator Nikolai Budilo refused to let doctors into SIZO 99/1, where the nationalist Alexander Belov (Potkin) is being held, his defender Ivan Mironov told Kasparov.Ru on January 16. “His health condition worsened, problems with the spine. We asked him to be provided with neurological medical care, he needs an MRI. But my client was refused to let the doctor in and conduct a study. We will appeal this decision through the court,” the lawyer said.
Earlier, on January 12, it was reported that in the coming days, Belov would be sent for an inpatient psychiatric examination at the Serbsky Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry. As it became known, one of the leaders of the “Russians” movement, Belov, after the extension of his arrest for three months, was transferred to pre-trial detention center 99/1 (Kremlin Central, federal prison No. 1), notorious for special methods of psychological pressure. Belov is involved in the legalization of property obtained illegally (Article 174 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to the investigation, the defendant and his associates, on behalf of the former owner of BTA Bank Mukhtar Ablyazov, for several years managed assets illegally withdrawn from the financial structure in the form of land plots in the Moscow region. The investigation believes that, on behalf of the former owner of the bank, Belov was engaged in the legalization of property. The prosecution also believes that the nationalist established contacts for Ablyazov with Kazakh nationalists and selected journalists to put pressure on the authorities in the interests of the former owner of BTA Bank. The other defendants in the case are on the international wanted list.”
Another suspect arrested in a case initiated in Crimea after a meeting with Mustafa Dzhemilev
"Crimea. Realities", January 21 :
“The court of the Central District of the city of Simferopol on Wednesday, January 21, chose a preventive measure in the form of detention for a period of two months to Edem Osmanov, who was detained in the “May 3 case”. This was reported to Krym.Realii by an activist of the Crimean Tatar movement, the head of the Central Election Commission of the Kurultai, Zair Smedlyaev. Commenting on this court decision, he noted that "another wave of persecution of the Crimean Tatars has begun." “For 10 months, having failed to increase the number of those cooperating with the authorities, another attempt began to find them with the help of repression,” Smedlyaev said. 34-year-old businessman Edem Osmanov was detained on Monday, January 19, in the village. Chernomorskoye at a gas station on suspicion of using force against law enforcement officers during a meeting of the leader of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev in Armyansk on May 3, 2014. On the same day, law enforcement officers took Osmanov to the temporary detention facility in Simferopol. During the interrogation, which was attended by the lawyer of the detainee Emil Kurbedinov, Osmanov was charged under Part 1 of Art. 318 (“Use of violence against a representative of authority”) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The relatives of the detainee claim that Edem Osmanov did not physically resist law enforcement officers. During the past year, law enforcement officers detained four participants in the meeting of the leader of the Crimean Tatar people, Mustafa Dzhemilev, in Armyansk on May 3, 2014. Later, in respect of Edem Ebulisov, Tair Smedlyaev, Musa Apkerimov and Rustam Abdurakhmanov, the preventive measure was changed and they were released from the pre-trial detention center. Eskender Bilyalov, adviser to the plenipotentiary representative of the President of Russia in Crimea, gave guarantee for them. Observers noted that this happened a few days after the meeting of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Russian head of state Vladimir Putin.
extrajudicial prosecution
Navalny's supporters were attacked in a cafe
"Echo of Moscow", January 17 :
“An attempt to attack supporters of Alexei Navalny was made in Moscow. In the evening, a group of unknown people broke into one of the cafes in the area of Chistye Prudy. There were opposition activists there at the time. The attackers behaved aggressively, a brawl almost ensued. The arriving police detained about 15 people from both sides; later all were released.
OVD-Info about the attack and the consequences
In the Omsk region, activists of the movement "Public Control" were beaten
“On Friday, January 16, in the Omsk region, unknown persons attacked and severely beat two activists of the “Public Control” movement, Alexander Sedelnikov and Ruslan Alekhin. The attack took place in the evening, both were attacked at the same time in different parts of the Bolshereche district center. Oleksandr Sedelnikov told Novaya Gazeta that he managed to notice in the attacker's hand "a black baton, similar to a bailiff's one." The man in the mask inflicted 3-4 blows on the head with it - on a traumatic brain injury received in childhood and became the cause of his disability. “I fell - blood gushed, he tore the case out of his hand, it contained a video camera, a laptop, court documents. He got up, tried to run after him, began to scream. A man living in a neighboring house responded. Seeing him, this guy started hitting the briefcase with a club, probably to break the camera, then threw it away and ran on.” The villager called an ambulance. Alexander was taken to the intensive care unit, now his condition is assessed as "moderately severe." Ruslan Alekhin said that on the way to the house he saw an approaching shadow in the spotlight. The stranger, whose face was also masked, was holding a heavy object wrapped in newspaper - "an armature or a piece of pipe." He hit Ruslan with it once, but in such a way that a dent remained on his head: the pain was severe, the medical certificate indicated numerous fractures. Ruslan got to the hospital himself. Soon the police arrived there on the call of the doctors. Bolsherechensky police department initiated a criminal case. The press service of the regional police told Novaya Gazeta that in the interests of the investigation, the versions were not disclosed, but they assured that everything would be carefully checked. Public inspectors from Bolsherechye, Alexander Sedelnikov and Ruslan Alekhin, part-time employees of the press service of the Human Rights Committee, were filming in the courtrooms, in the judges' and prosecutor's offices. The videos they shot, posted on the website of the Human Rights Committee and Youtube, caused a great resonance in the region and in the region.”