"I love myself, so I have to go out"

On January 16, the 75-year-old Muscovite Vladimir Ionov opened the first criminal case in Russia for “repeated” (that is, more than three in six months) violations of public events. A few hours before, Ionov in handcuffs was brought to the Tver District Court, where Judge Ivanov sentenced the pensioner to a fine of 20 thousand rubles for participating in an inconsistent campaign on January 10 - then Ionov was detained during a single picket with a poster of Je Suis Charlie. Next, another conviction was sentenced, this time for participation in the action on the eve of January 15, on Manezhnaya Square, and another fine - 150 thousand rubles for a “repeated” violation.

Although both court decisions have not yet entered into legal force, it was they who formed the basis of the criminal case - along with sentences for participation in two more shares, September 13 and 14. A single picket, the only type of protest promotion that does not require coordination with the local authorities is very easy to make illegal: just approach and stand next to it. This is the reason for the detention of Ionov both in September and in the case of JE Suis Charlie.

Going to the special designer No. 2 to support his ally Mark Halperin , after the action on January 15, Vladimir Ionov told the OVD-Info about the latest detentions-and about how it all began.

It was a long time ago, many years ago, when Limonov, Kasyanov, Kasparov, Ryzhkov came together together. Once a fee was assigned to Pushkinskaya. I got out of the subway and see - everything is. I want to go to them, and everything is fenced, everything in the police - the police, the police, the police. I can't get there. I walked around, first along Tversky Boulevard, then through McDonald's. I’m going, and I will meet a woman with such eyes: “Do not go, they beat people there!” But I still reached, I'm scared, but I got it. I look - and there are no longer my supporters, but the ourselves gathered. Well, I have nothing to do there, I turned back. I was so angry, I was pounding everything: "How so, what kind of mockery of people is this!" Upstairs, on Pushkinskaya, there are stationery. I went, bought a sheet of Watman, a marker, folded it four times - it turned out a small one, a quarter - and wrote: "There was a lot of police, but she did not help Miloshevich." Then everyone fiddled with Milosevich. I was told that ours gather on Turgenevskaya, and I came to Turgenevskaya with this poster. I leave the metro, and there are such bouts, and below there is a chain of riot police. I got up, holding this sheet. Well, I stood for two or three minutes, these who can read-read, who could not-looked. An officer appeared and shows me a finger: "Take it." And, of course, they took me, put me on the bus. Only I was put on the bus, then the massacre began - acceleration, beating, screams. We sat in a car swing this time, and then they told us: "Go out." And all, we went. Because we are nobody. It started with this.

On January 15, I just arrived at the Manezhnaya Square - to see who will come. I appeared there at half-eight. Literally a few meters passed, then an officer comes up to me, whom I know in the face, and he knows me, because he is all the time on Manezhnaya Square. He said: “This one,” and that’s all, led me to the car carrier. Then there was a night in the police department, it was inconvenient to sleep, although on the mattress, I practically did not sleep. Then there was a court where I was awarded a fine of 150 and 20 thousand. And after that, just a mockery began. They didn’t return anything to me - neither laces, no suspenders, no phone. They began to carry me, they pulled the time in the police department, they were mumming me until late in the evening. I called all the time on “02”, but there was no effect, there the duty officer was already running from me, because he was tired: he needs to work, and I call. Then they forcibly brought me out into the street, put me in the car and drove to the prosecutor's office.

In the prosecutor’s office, no one wanted to talk to me. They told me: "Do you have a lawyer?" I say: "There is a lawyer." And until the lawyer arrived, they didn’t say anything to me. And then they said: against you, since you have a number of violations, a criminal case has been instituted. I knew that a new decree was published, about multiple violations. But I went out without nothing to the Manezhnaya Square, I had nothing, no intentions, I just went out to the square as a citizen and did not think that there would be some consequences. But there was an order to take - Mark [Halperin] and me, there was a FAS team.

Honestly, I did not realize that I would have to not answer any questions at all. But the second day of this mockery, such a way of life, so to speak, went on the second day. And, excuse me, when I know that in our Technical Lane, the lieutenant general is thrown out of the windows ... I’m not a fighter, I, frankly, was frightened-where they take, what they are taking, God knows him. Some werewolves took in uniform, other werewolves in uniform are taken somewhere ...

If I were more or less adequate, if I felt like a citizen, not a cilia, then I would simply not talk to them, because I got there unkindly: they grabbed me like a thing, and brought me. The night would have sat there, would have announced a hunger strike - this is what citizens do. And since I am a huggled citizen, I commanded, agreed to all these criminal actions. Since I am mutilated - disfigured by the Soviet government and the current one, I behave so accordingly, shyly, what to take from me. Psychology is already worked out, fear sits in the liver.

A person feels, of course, very bad when he understands that anything can do with him. Moreover, after such a night, after all. And even more so when freedom is about to, here! I had a seminar in the Sakharov Center for the evening. The person is already set to freedom, and he is taken and forcibly taken somewhere. The nervous shock is serious, I still can’t move away.

On Saturday, January 10, we came about fifteen. The picket is single, and all people came indifferent, not dead souls, each has several posters. I had seven of them, but then I stood with Charlie. There were many who wanted, and we stood in turn at Zhukov, literally two, three minutes. I just got up, managed to raise my hands - and [the police] came up to me. Then, however, they told me, a loyal was approached me, some kind of title, and therefore I was taken away. Mark Halperin began to intercede for me, and he was also taken away. Here we are two and left.

And they took it interesting. This title was imprisoned with us and taken, they did not bring literally fifty meters to the China-Gorod police department. The title was dropped out - we, they say, will take him on foot. And we were taken to another department. I suppose they were scared, because people gather and are waiting for us, meet. And since Red Square is nearby, they turned around and drove to another police department. Why do they need: a holiday-and here is an extra noise and a din, some people who disagree. All consonants, everyone shouting “cheers”, and here such a bunch of disagreements. I think that's why.

In September there were single pickets. A lot of opponents of these pickets gathered, they grabbed and beat me, torn posters. The authorities, of course, stood on the side of these people who attacked - they do not know patriots or titles. Power has always been on their side and always supported.

I have never, standing in a single picket, have not violated any rules. Sometimes he distributed some booklets from Parnassus, this is not forbidden, sometimes he distributed the magazine “The New Times”, “New Gazeta”-old numbers, because there is a lot of information, this is an opposition newspaper. I did not violate anything, but there were many people who were opponents of my standing with posters, they came with a whole orava and wrote that he was so, against the authorities, against the people, swinging the boat. But I explained to them that the Russian boat drowned in October 1917, and now we are floating a pirate ship.

How else can I express a protest, peacefully and without weapons? I am not a fighter, I was awakened all my life, passed sideways. But I knew that I live in a state that should protect. And Yeltsin, no matter how he was a drunkard, he defended, he did his work in Budennovsk, he freed the hostages. And Putin, since he was taught to wet, in Nord-Ost soaked 130 people and 330 in Beslan. It doesn't suit me. I just love myself. I know: I will fall into a situation like "Nord-Ost" or Beslan, he will soak me. Moreover, he does not take prisoners to find out who, from where. There are all the dead. Here, in fact, is the whole story. Just love for yourself. I love myself, so I have to go out.

My posters have always been very hard, quite unpleasant for Putin. For example, “I change Putin to the euro”, “Putin is the enemy of the people”, “the balls are alive and works Putin”. The last poster lies at home, it has not yet been tested: "Putin is a cancer of the people." This one is not yet driven. But they told me not to go out yet, so I, because people think of me, care about me, a lawyer and associates once tell me, I can’t - I can go against the authorities of the criminal, but I can’t against my associates. They said: "So far, do not take a week." That's why I am no side. After all, I was still taken from me to leave.

Now I am going to the specialist No. 2 - to visit the brand, they will not let me in, of course, but to see, to chat with people who are with me of the same blood. There is inertia. Here is the law of inertia. And then everything suddenly once - and everything stopped. This is somehow uncomfortable.