The last prisoner

July 25, a former employee of the company Yukos Alexei Pichugin has a birthday. He is 53 years old, and this is his 13th birthday in jail. The Human Rights Society "Memorial" considers Alexei Pichugin a political prisoner. The European Court of Human Rights almost three years ago called on the Russian authorities to reconsider the criminal case of Pichugin , containing fundamental violations of law. But instead, in Russia there are no unwritten and legally dubious statements about the "third case" against the former owner of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Alexey Pichugin never pleaded guilty, did not false against his former leaders and colleagues in the oil company. Neither in 2003, when in the investigation of Lefortovo to him, in order to achieve the necessary indications, psychotropic substances were used. Not ten years later, in 2013, when behind the same “people in civilian clothes” came to the convicted person in one of the most stringent Russian colonies, “Black Dolphin”, where he was serving a life sentence.

Support letters help to stay in many ways. Thanks to them, he sees not bars and walls, but a window in life. This year, about a thousand letters came to the political prisoner via the Internet. They are not only congratulations and good wishes, but also photographs, drawings, fragments of literary works. All letters were printed, invested in a large registered card and sent to the addressee. The last prisoner of the Yukos case was expressed in Russian, English, Ukrainian, in Hebrew - from Russia, Ukraine, Israel, European countries, from the USA and Australia.

Among the congratulating Alexei Pichugin on his birthday are many famous people.

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I know one thing: Alexey Pichugin is a man of incredible stamina and great courage. This is completely not combined with the villains that are charged with him. I wish Alexei on the birthday of only one thing: the restoration of truth and justice. And as soon as possible.

Boris Akunin (Grigory Chkhartishvili), writer, Japanese scientist, literary critic, translator, public figure

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Dear Alexey Vladimirovich!

We congratulate you on your birthday!

We wish you health, stamina, spiritual and physical strength to withstand all the trials, love and support of relatives and friends, acquaintances and strangers who think about you.

We do not forget about you.

We believe with all our hearts in the restoration of justice and your liberation.

Sincerely,

Lyudmila Alekseeva, Chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group, members and employees of the Moscow Helsinki Group

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Alexey!

Delighted with your courage and resistance!

I wish you not to lose faith in justice, which will definitely triumph!

Health, strength and patience!

Happy birthday!

Dmitry Bogdanov, bard and mathematician-programmer

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Dear Alexey,

Happy birthday. Your exit is next. We believe in it and will do everything that is possible for this. Hold on.

Natella Boltyanskaya, poetess, journalist, radio host

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Dear Alexey Vladimirovich,

On your birthday, everyone who does not believe in your guilt thinks about you and wishes you - the last victim of Yukos’s work - to gain freedom. What can we hope for? To the decision of the European Court of Human Rights or to change the situation in the country? Let's hope for both. This is not only necessary for you, we need it all.

Let our congratulations make your 53rd birthday a little more joyful than other days. I congratulate you on this rare success, with your fidelity and courage, which endure all the trials. Let our warmth be transmitted to you and help you transfer all the hardships.

Happy birthday!

Svetlana Gannushkina, Chairman of the Civil Promotion Committee, Member of the Council and Head of the Migration and Law network "Human Rights Assembly" Memorial "

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Alexey,

Sorry that I am addressing you simply by name - without epithets. It is customary to write "expensive", but I do not dare, because we are unfamiliar. "Dear" - monstrous and too officially. Alexey, I cordially congratulate you on your birthday. I wish you, of course, to leave prison. Alas, I know what a prison for lifelong prisoners. I was given to read letters from the White Swan ... I tried to write something, support them, but every time I could not find the strength in myself. And yet now you need to write to you. It is necessary to utter these banal words. It must be said that my wife, my friends join me ... I don’t know if you believe in God and love poetry. But I hope you will be supported by the poems of Alexander Solodovnikov, who has never served for 6 years in Magadan.

Peter Stark, who underwent forced treatment at the Serbian Institute, wrote music to these verses. I know that now you will not be able to listen to these songs, but when you are released, you, of course, will hear them.

God give you the strength to endure the sent trials.

With great respect for you,

Mikhail Gantman, Candidate of Chemical Sciences, Researcher at the University of Friedrich-Aleksandra (city of Erlangen, Germany)

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You are so well done ... like no one. Edmond Dantes, in the world of Count Monte Cristo-you know how much he sat? 14 years. He came out well done and an eagle. We are waiting.

Veronica Valley, singer, poetess, bard

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Dear Alexey!

Accept my warmest birthday congratulations!

I wish you health, strength, courage and resistance. I leave no hope to see you free.

Sincerely,

Nina Katerli, writer

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Dear Alexey Pichugin!

I can not help but start with the expression of my admiration for your courage and fidelity to principles and honor. Now many forget these things, but they exist while there are people like you. I congratulate you on your 53rd birthday, I will not forget about you and your fate.

Pavel Litvinov, a participant in the human rights movement in the USSR, one of the participants in the demonstration on Red Square against the introduction of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968

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Dear Alexey!

Happy birthday to you!

I wish you and your loved ones, fortresses of the spirit, faith that justice will win.

In Russia, there are many people who remember you, wish you to revise the sentences issued to you with Russian "courts". Watching what is happening today in the country, an increasing number of people are convinced that these institutions are able to make any decision necessary for the authorities.

Alexey Melnikov, member of the Rodp Bureau "Yabloko"

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Dear Alexey!

Every time I think about your fate, I experience two opposite feelings. A sense of despair and a feeling of endless pride in a person. It’s hard to know, and for certain (I read a lot about how the courts in the “Pichugin case” passed) that a person who did not commit any of the crimes imputed to him was sentenced to life imprisonment. That all this is “politics”, because it was necessary to start the Yukos case somewhere, well, they started, they couldn’t finish everything. And pride in a person causes your innovation.

I sincerely wish you health and mental strength. Please remember that here, in the wild, many people, close, acquaintances and strangers remember you and try to help you. Remember every day. They act - at the slightest opportunity. Here are the efforts of politicians, human rights activists, lawyers, journalists. None of us will give up until we achieve your liberation and justification at all points of vile and false accusations.

Happy birthday, Alexey!

Hold on!

Ilya Milstein, journalist

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Alexey,

Happy birthday to you.

I think about you every day, I will compass and struggle for your free future.

Over the past year, we managed to prove in independent courts that we received unfairly in relation to us. And we continue to explain to people who have caused us so much evil that the punishment is inevitable. I believe that justice will triumph and you will find yourself free.

I wish you health, strength and faith in the future.

I hug.

Leonid Nevzlin, former vice president of the NC "Yukos"

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Dear Alexey!

Another year of your unfair conclusion has passed. You remained the last prisoner of Yukos. And now it has already finally become clear that your fate is inextricably linked with the fate of another person who sentenced himself to a life imprisonment in the Kremlin. This is bad news.

The good news is that both of his sentences are appealed in the highest instance - in heaven. On the same day you will be released - he is from the Kremlin, you are from prison. This day will come quite soon. Your ill -wisher committed a terrible and blasphemous crime: he raised his hand to our common foreman - Kievan Rus. Providence will find a way to pay tribute to him. You will return to your adult sons. Like us, they are all proud of your courage and a sense of officer honor. See you soon!

Sincerely yours,

Andrey Piontkovsky, political scientist, publicist

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Dear Alexey Vladimirovich!

You spent 12 terrible years in dungeons. Never during this time you trembled, have not stipulated either yourself or others. In the conditions in which you are, this is an unprecedented feat. Today, when we constantly plunge into the atmosphere of lies, meanness and cowardice, you are a living example of honor and nobility, real chivalry.

Unfortunately, we cannot write that we sincerely hope for the speedy triumph of justice and liberation. But we constantly think about you, pray and hope.

With all our hearts, we congratulate you on your birthday. We bow to your stamina and incredible courage.

This year it was said unusually a lot about military exploits in the name of the Fatherland. But today the front does not follow the battlefields and trenches, it passes where the truth and honor are faced with baseness and slander. And in this invisible, but terrible battle, you are an example of officer honor and genuine Christian resistance to slander.

It was thanks to such as you, Russia survived in the days of enemy invasions, bloody troubles and the triumph of evil.

Health to you, strength and vigor.

God is not in force, but in truth.

With respect and a low bow,

On behalf of colleagues-lawyers from the Foundation "In Defense of the Rights of Prisoners", the All-Russian Public Movement of the Protection of Human Rights "For Human Rights", the Human Rights Council of Russia and the "hot line"

Lev Ponomarev

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Dear Alexey,

If you knew how tired of sending me congratulations for you by mail, how I want to do it personally! To shake your hand and say: "I respect you very much. For courage, courage and kindness. For honesty and generosity. I wish you health and happiness."

And to finish it. But - I have to add: "I wish you strength and patience. And faith."

And also a recognition: your stamina holds a surge of me. When it seems that there is nothing to breathe at all, I say to myself: he did not give up there.

It helps, true. Thank you.

Julia Sereda, editor of the news service of the portal "Human Rights in Russia" (Hro.org), Ryazan "Memorial"

Vera Vasilieva is an independent journalist, the author of the books “How Alexei Pichugin was judged”, “The third court of Alexei Pichugin: Chronicles of the Yukos case”, “Without witnesses? It’s non -Zemnolin: Notes of an eyewitness of the correspondence process”, “Alexei Pichugin - paths and overwhelming”