Learn not to be afraid

In Rostov-on-Don, the trial of the “Crimean terrorists” Sentsov and Kolchenko ends. Reporting Ilya Azar

In Rostov-on-Don, the first of two high-profile “Ukrainian processes” ends-the case of filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and Anti-Fascist Alexander Kolchenko (the process of the pilot Nadezhda Savchenko will most likely over the next few weeks). According to investigators, Sentsov led the terrorist group in Crimea (Kolchenko was its ordinary member), which set fire to the offices of United Russia and the Russian Community of Crimea, and also planned to blow up the monument to Lenin in order to force the Russian authorities to return the peninsula to Ukraine. Kolchenko really participated in one of the arson, but denies his participation in the terrorist group, and the director Sentsov does not admit his guilt in general. On August 19, the film director in his last word urged the Russians to "learn not to be afraid." On the same day, in the debate, the prosecutor asked the court for 23 years in prison in a strict security colony for Sentsov and 12 years for Kolchenko. The latter before the verdict was sentenced by a meeting of the North Caucasus Military Court, the special correspondent of Medusa Ilya Azar was observed.

“Dear journalists,” the voice of the bailiff rattled the entire North Caucasian military court, “we received information that one of the accredited media intends to destabilize the situation!” The excited bailiff, along with the spokesman, promised “in case of riots” to expel the violators and not to let go of the court.

The threat to a stable situation in court, according to bailiffs, were T -shirts with the inscription “Freedom Sentsov and Kolchenko” and the silhouettes of the defendants. The bailiffs carefully studied the passports of Ukrainian journalists and searched for destabilizing clothing items; However, it seems that they did not notice that Sentsov’s cousin Natalya Kochneva spent all the debate in this T-shirt (“We are like some kind of gopniks,” Sentsov laughed, seeing a T-shirt).

In addition, the bailiffs with suspiciously squinted at the embroidered shirt, in which the sister of the Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko (on Friday, the Rostov Regional Court will determine the jurisiness of her case) Vera. She was never allowed into the courtroom under various pretexts.

Accusation

The first in the debate was the representative of the prosecution - prosecutor Oleg Tkachenko. According to investigators, the Ukrainian director Sentsov led the terrorist group, which in the spring of 2014 set fire to the office of the Russian community of Crimea in Simferopol and the United Russia branch. The same group was preparing on May 9 to undermine a monument to Lenin and “Eternal Flame” in the Crimea capital, but these criminal intentions were stopped by the FSB officers.

Tkachenko in his final speech at the trial told the details of the fires, separately pointing attention to the hatred of the “Crimean terrorists” to the Russian Federation and ruthlessness to random victims. “Both buildings were located in the area of ​​dense buildings, there were children with hearing problems next to the United Russia office, but this did not stop the arsonists ... In both cases, the objects of arson were organizations in the name of which the word“ Russian ”or“ Russia ”, which hung Russian flags,” said the prosecutor. “How many times will they still say today about Russia? Tin! " - the guy who came to the court with his sister Savchenko (Ukrainian ribbons hung on the handle of his portfolio).

The terrorist group (if it existed) pierced on the purchase of explosives. The group participant, an assistant teacher at the Crimean Institute of Culture, Arts and Tourism, Alexei Chirniy, asked for help with the “bomb” of his friend, chemist Alexander Pirogov, who turned to the FSB. Subsequent negotiations of Chirnia and Pirogov were recorded on the video. And when on May 9, Chirniy took out from under the bridge in Simferopol the “bomb” (more precisely, her dummy), he was immediately arrested.

Video recording of Chirniy conversations with Pirogov is the most serious evidence of the prosecution. According to the prosecutor, Chirniy "was extremely sincere, did not hide his anti -Russian views and plans to undermine the monument." “The motive for his behavior was dissatisfaction with the political situation in Crimea in the spring of 2014. He did not think about possible consequences. He says about possible passers -by at the time of the explosion: Sorry that Allah recognizes his own. And there are also his personal cannibal desires to arrange an explosion at the station in Simferopol so that “Muscovites feel horror,” the prosecutor said.

The Chirny began to speak with the red -handed almost immediately after the arrest, recognizing his participation in terrorist activities and immediately calling the names of the accomplices - Oleg and Gene (then the surnames were added to them). At the same time, in a video recorded in a video, Chirny never mentions Sentsov, but only criticizes for the inactivity and fruitability of the “main one, who says at all that he is“ automatic ”.

There is nothing more in the video, but the prosecutor already says at this stage: “It is clear that Chirny is not alone, there is a group of performers and leaders. He does not name specific names, but, calling the group morons and morons, expresses dissatisfaction with the actions of the main one, which does not participate in arson. ” During interrogations, Chirniya claimed that Sentsov led arson and talked about "the need to arrange an indicative action, namely an explosion of a monument to Lenin."

The version of the investigation about the terrorist Sentsov is based solely on the testimony of Chirniya and another “member of the group” - lawyer Gennady Afanasyev (the same “Gene”). They both pleaded guilty, concluded a deal with the investigation and have already received seven years for participation in the terrorist group. However, during the debate about the testimony of Afanasyev, the prosecutor Tkachenko practically did not say: on July 31, Afanasyev refused the testimony, saying that he gave them under pressure.

At the end of the performance, the prosecutor finally moved to the misconduct of the defendants. The director Sentsov and the anti -fascist Kolchenko, according to the prosecutor, "took the ideology of the" Right Sector "( the organization is prohibited in Russia - approx." Medusa " ) and began to be guided by it in their actions." Tkachenko recalled the words of the leader of the “right sector” Dmitry Yarosh about the need to destabilize the situation in Crimea with the help of a partisan war. The prosecutor and the book “The cook Book of the Anarchist”, which was found on the Sentsov’s computer, mentioned. "Have you found Main Kampf?" - Savchenko’s sister laughed in the corridor ( both books are prohibited in Russia - approx. Medusa ).

In early April 2014, at one of the meetings, Sentsov called for active radical actions and gave instructions to blow up the monument to Lenin, with the help of Lawyer Afanasyev, “organized arson of organizations related to Russia,” said the prosecutor, actually retelling the testimony of Chirniya. The prosecutor also recalled that there was a Makarov pistol in the case, which allegedly belonged to Sentsov and on which during the examination found his biological material.

The prosecutor completed his short performance with a powerful chord: he asked Sentsov for 23 years in prison in a maximum security colony, and Kolchenko - 12 years old.

"Nifiga for yourself!" - the local journalist exhaled, the Korgor of Novaya Gazeta Victoria Makarenko. The relatives of the defendants were shocked: Kolchenko Larisa was not faced (she refused comments), and Natalia’s sister, Natalya, went out to smoke during the break on the porch, complained that she had not been given a date with her brother. “Not a single letter even came to me, and I do not receive mine, including photos of children. For him, in general, the most important thing is now - children, not even Ukraine, for the sake of them he is holding, ”she said.

Protection

Sentsov’s lawyer Dmitry Dinze was not surprised to condemn Sentsov to the request of the prosecutor to 23 years. He calmly said that he had no doubt about the indictment and tough sentence before the process, and the judge will now probably reduce the term of the colony, that Sentsov had promised the investigator in the Simferopol SIZO.

Nevertheless, all three lawyers Sentsov and Kolchenko - Dinze, Svetlana Sidorkina and Vladimir Samokhin - performed in the debate, asking the court to fully justify their clients. “This is a criminal case - a clot of falsifications, and it can go down in history as one of the shameful pages of Russian justice,” Sidorkina said.

After the meeting, she admitted to me that she was engaged in political affairs for 15 years, but this is the “most cynical business” in her practice. “The FSB has led itself unprecedented, absolute impunity. They did everything they wanted, even used illegal methods, apparently knowing that it would get away with them, ”says Sidorkina. According to her, illegal methods were expressed in the fact that the FSB Burdin investigator was present at the beating of Gennady Afanasyev, practically “all procedural documents in the process have violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure”, and the involvement of the “Right Sector” in the case of a complete nonsense and absurdity ”. “After the annexation of Crimea, this Rightswater schizophrenia of the FSB went through Russia, and under any episode with statements in relation to Ukraine [sew the“ right sector ”],” adds Dinze.

All three defenders in the debate said that there was simply no evidence of the existence of a terrorist community in the indictment. “The group was not stable, hierarchically structured and did not act under a single leadership. Kolchenko’s motives were fundamentally different from Sentsov’s motives, the group did not have a single leadership, and each of the defendants in the case decided whether he would participate in arson, ”said Samokhin.

According to the lawyer, arson can be considered terrorist acts only if they are committed in order to influence the authorities. “But no one publicly put forward any requirements, did not take responsibility for arson. How did the authorities hear about the motives of arson? " - said Samokhin. And for the preparation of the explosions of the monument to Lenin and the “eternal fire” Sentsov, lawyers affirmed, has nothing to do with it.

“Chirny was going to hold shares on his own once a month, and he has no words about Sentsov there. On the contrary, about the Sentsov group, which was engaged in humanitarian activities, he says that they do not do dick, and you can’t cook porridge with them, ”Dinze tells me about the video. In the debate, he suggested that the FSB officers with the help of a chemist Pirogov carried out a “provocation” - to fabricate evidence for accusations of terrorism.

Regarding the anti -fascist Kolchenko, who admits that he participated in the arson of the United Russia office, Dinze says: in this building in the spring of 2014, activists of Crimea Self -Defense allegedly tortured the Crimean Tatars and supporters of the Maidan, and Antifashist Kolchenko “excited the lawlessness that was going on there”. Sentsov, according to Dinze, appeared in the case only because the FSB "needed a person who could compose an ended picture of the terrorist community, because Chirniy and Afanasyev did not have extensive ties or authority."

According to Dinze, Sentsov participated in “humanitarian missions”, helped the military, who were blocked in units of “polite people”. “In addition to the words [Chirnia], they have nothing to Oleg, he never contacted the“ right sector ”, he was not the leader of any organizations, he did not prepare any terrorist attacks. And the Makarov pistol, which at least somehow connects Sentsov with the armed group, as Sentsov himself says, could be specially put in his hand, ”says Dinze. The director himself claims that some gun was put in his mouth when he was lying on the floor with a bag on his head.

Sentsov told Dinze that “Afanasyev and Chirny offered their help, he offered them to carry military products, and when they offered to do something more dramatically, he immediately shorten them and offered to calm down, since it would only be worse from such actions.”

The testimony of Chirniya and Afanasyev, according to Dinze, could appear only under torture. In the debate, the lawyer read out Afanasyev’s detailed story about torture: “I was beaten, they demanded that I confess to terrorism, they called Sentsov’s last name and not only promised to bury in the forest that no one would find me.”

“Then they brought me into some room, undressed naked, threatened to rape, drove along the body with a soldering iron, threatened to put it into the anus, they tied the bare wires to my genitals, and threatened that they would mock my mother,” Afanasyev Dinze was counting. He claimed that Sentsov and Kolchenko stipulated only because of pressure, but in fact the director did not call him to any radical actions. Sentsov, according to Dinze, also beat, but he “did not split”; To hide the bruises, the lawyer was not allowed for a long time to the client.

The last word

When the judges went for a break in front of the last word of the defendants, through the open door of the hall, Savchenko’s sister waved to Sentsov's hand.

- Go away and do not wave your hand! - the bailiff said sternly.

- Clates, tease [guys, hold on]! All Ukraine is talking about you!

- Glory to Ukraine! - shouted her friend with a briefcase.

“We are moving away, Vera Viktorovna,” the bailiff said rather and led her out of the court building.

In addition to the sister of Savchenko, Vitaly Moskalenko, General of Ukraine in Rostov, was also present in the debate of the Consul of Ukraine in Rostov. “The accusation is pierced with white threads, attracted by the ears. This is nonsense, and this is visible to any sensible person. I regard this as a political process that resembles the worst times of Vyshinsky, ”the consul told me. He is sure that Sentsov did not know about arson as a hearing or spirit. “But in any case, this act can be qualified as malicious hooliganism, and not as a terrorist attack,” he adds and cites an example of the Russian police refusal to initiate a criminal case on the fact of an attack on the Ukrainian Consulate in Rostov.

The defendant Sentsov, who put on the debate a T -shirt with an intricate pattern and the inscription "Glory to Ukraine", is not at all like a terrorist. He was a well-known young film director in Ukraine, his first film “Gamer” received in 2012 the film press appresses at the Fire Spirit in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Before the last word, almost everyone was allowed to enter the hall (before that, the journalists were launched in shit, since the large courtroom was occupied by another process).

"Let [the journalist and human rights activist] Zoya Svetov, she is like my mother!" - shouted Sentsov and smiled. Svetov was allowed, Sentsov showed a sign of victory on the camera with his fingers. In anticipation of the judicial board, he discussed something with Kolchenko, they joked and laughed, as if it weren’t their prosecutor just offered to send for many years to bars.

The first with the last word was Kolchenko. “I do not agree with accusations of terrorism and do not consider myself guilty, the criminal case is fabricated and politically motivated,” Kolchenko began to say. - As for the formulation of the prosecution, it is generally wonderful - "he made participation in arson in order to destabilize the authorities of the Crimea and the impact on the decision on the withdrawal of Crimea from its composition." If we proceed from the logic of the prosecution, it turns out that if the couple use contraceptives, then with the aim of destabilizing the political situation in the country and defense capabilities. ” Sentsov laughed in these words.

“The marsh process, the landing of Alexei Sutuga, our process, the process of Savchenko - all this with the aim of extending the term of this regime, but, throwing us in prisons, this regime only brings its end closer, and those people who were for the law and order yesterday lose this faith today, and tomorrow or the day after tomorrow people from those very 86% will remove this authoritarian regime,” Kolchenko said.

“I will not ask you for condescension. Everything is clear to everyone - the court of the invaders cannot be fair by definition, nothing personal, your honor. I’ve been in your beautiful country for a year now and watching your TV. Your propaganda works great: most of the Russian population believes that Putin is well done, in Ukraine - fascists, Russia does everything right, enemies around. But there are more smart people like you, ”Sentsov turned to the judge. - You understand that there are no fascists in Ukraine, Crimea was taken illegally, and your troops are present in the Donbass. If you do not squint, then these facts are visible, they lie on the surface. ”

While Kolchenko and Sentsov said, the judge only sometimes raised his eyes on them, drawing curls in a notebook. Having put it aside, he began to absentmindly leaf through the Criminal Code.

Sentsov continued, pointing to the few journalists from federal television channels in this hall: “Here are your troubadours of the regime, they continue to lie, finding some excuse for themselves. But there is a third part of the Russian population, which does not believe in the tales of your agitprop, understands what terrible crimes your leadership commits, but they are sitting in the underground like mice. У нас тоже была преступная власть, но мы вышли против нее, и мы победили. Рано или поздно это произойдет и у вас. Я не хочу, чтобы кто-то пострадал, я просто хочу, чтобы вами не правили преступники», — говорил режиссер.

— Олег Геннадьевич, ну мы же обсуждаем узкие вопросы, и по закону вы не можете говорить обо всем, — наконец, не выдержал судья.

— Единственное, что я могу пожелать третьей части России, — это научиться не бояться, — закончил свою речь Сенцов.

Прокурор во время выступлений Сенцова и Кольченко смотрел исключительно в стол. На бумаге, которая лежала перед ним, за это время он вывел три фразы: «Кольченко с обв. не согласен», «Сенцов не виновен» и «Приговор 25 августа в 14:00».

Когда все вышли из суда, журналист федерального канала похлопал себя по карманам и спросил коллегу: «Ну что, трубадур режима, есть закурить?»

Ilya Azar

Rostov-on-Don