Microphone business

Andrey Kozenko tells what Leonid Volkov is being persecuted for

The prosecutor's office of Novosibirsk approved the indictment and transferred the microphone case to the court of the Central District. The accused is Leonid Volkov, one of the closest associates of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny. According to investigators, in July 2015, Volkov allegedly tried to tear out the microphone from the hands of the Lifenews employee Alexander Prezensky and damaged the equipment. A little later, when the examination found out that the microphone was working, the arrogue gave additional testimonies, where he clarified that Volkov "grabbed him by his left hand, causing physical pain." Thus, Volkov is accused under a rather exotic article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - the obstruction of the legal activity of the journalist. It provides for up to six years in prison. Special correspondent of Medusa Andrei Kozenko talks about the details of the “microphone business”.

The incident occurred in Novosibirsk on July 17, 2015, when the “democratic coalition” under the flag of the Parnas party tried to register to participate in elections in several subjects of Russia. In Novosibirsk, as in other cities, the activities of the opposition on the eve of the campaign were constantly surrounded by scandals: either the unknown people hacked the phone of the chief of staff Leonid Volkov, then they ordered a hunger strike to him in the office (activists declared a hunger strike against refusing to register a “democratic coalition” to participate in the local elections), then threw the headquarters) excrement.

On July 17, about ten activists of the “National Liberation Movement” (GCD; patriotic “anti-Maidan” movement of State Duma deputy Yevgeny Fedorov) and employees of Lifenews broke into the office. One of the employees - Alexander Pozhansky - came close to Leonid Volkov and Alexei Navalny.

Lifenews employees and other publications close to the Kremlin at Navalny’s headquarters have long been related to undisguised hostility (mutual antipathy). On the preserved video of the incident amid the chanting "Shame on the traitors of the Motherland!" Svetnansky tries to break through to Navalny, but Volkov does not let him in. "Do you have a hand to break your hand?" - At that moment, the correspondent is interested in Leonid Volkov. The response words are illegible; Then, Poznynsky repeats several times: "Let go of the microphone." Finally, the nodes begin to throw eggs, and the substantial part of the incident can be considered completed.

A few days later, on July 23, Poznight wrote a statement to the police on Volkov (Volkov himself was sure that this happened with the filing of the federal edition of Lifenews) that the opposition was damaged him by the microphone. From the capital's edition of the publication, a certificate promptly comes that the property is estimated at 36.7 thousand rubles, including VAT. At the same time, Poznight twice testified that the wolves did not cause any damage to his health.

In the meantime, the examination found out that the microphone, firstly, works; And secondly, it is far from an ideal state - and no one will determine what kind of damage it was the wolves that left behind. Then, Suznansky gave new testimonies (this happened on September 8), saying that Volkov grabbed him by the left hand, causing physical pain. So the opposition turned from a suspect of the accused under Part 3 of Article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - the obstruction of the legal activity of a journalist, combined with violence against a journalist or his relatives or with the damage or destruction of their property.

The 144th article is an extremely rare in legal practice due to a very blurry wording: "The obstruction of the legal professional activity of journalists by coercive them to disseminate or to refuse to disseminate information." By this logic, you can make a criminal anyone who urgently asked the journalist to write or not write about anything; As a result, the article is simply not applied. According to the public protection fund, from 2005 to 2014, only 200 cases under this article were initiated throughout Russia. Most of them did not reach the court, and there were only ten cases of a sentence in favor of journalists during this time.

The extensive database of court decisions “Ros administration” generally considers law enforcement practice under an article in an article by a technical error and refers to a page with sentences for much more understandable crimes such as petty hooliganism or drug acquisition. According to the Prav.ru portal, in 2011, according to the 144th article, they tried to attract singer Valery Meladze. Leaving the secular Raut, he attacked the Komsomolskaya Pravda photographing his employee. The case did not reach the court, although there was a lot of noise in the press. Even earlier, in 2009, in the Krasnodar Territory, three people who prevented television people from conducting the shooting of a traffic accident received fines and mandatory work. At the same time, the lawyers of the defendants demanded to re -qualify the incident to much more understandable beatings (Article 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Finally, in December 2014, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened the case under the 144th article against the chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine Valentina Nalivaichenko-for the obstruction of the work in Ukraine of the Zvezda television channel and the same LifeNews. However, in Ukraine there were few high-ranking officials, especially the security forces, against whom the UK did not open the case, and the 144th article there is clearly not among the main ones.

On the morning of October 19, Volkov received an indictment in the Novosibirsk prosecutor's office. “It has 74 pages,” he told Medusa. - There is nothing unusual. Like, the crime event has been fully proved. About 20 witnesses are declared - these are almost everyone who was in the courtyard of our headquarters during the incident. However, the testimonies of people from GCD are recognized as reliable and deserving. The testimonies of the employees of our headquarters are recognized as contradictory and aimed at ensuring that I will evade liability. Everything is as always. "

The case file was sent to the Central District Court of Novosibirsk. He will set the date of preliminary hearings, and then announce when the case will be considered on the merits.

Volkov added that he intends to stay in Russia and attend all court sessions. “We are very determined and intend to prove that I am completely innocent, and that there was no crime at all,” he said. In confirmation of his decisive mood, Volkov directly from the prosecutor’s office went to the police and wrote a statement about the deliberately false denunciation of him by the Presidents, two more employees of the Novosibirsk editorial office of Lifenews, as well as the head of the LifeNews holding, Aram Gabrelyanov. They, convinced of Volkov, lied to the police that the editorial microphone was spoiled.

Alexander Zavodnsky refused to talk with Medusa. The Novosibirsk edition of Lifenews first reported that he was on the set, and then called back and noted that only the Moscow edition of the publication was authorized to give comments. In the federal edition of Lifenews, the Medusa correspondent was asked to write a request, but they could not quickly answer it.

“Microphone” will be another matter directed against Alexei Navalny and his associates. Navalny himself is convicted three times on the cases of Kirovles and Yves Rocher , as well as the slander of the municipal deputy Alexei Lisovienko. The brother of politician Oleg Navalny is in the colony in the case of Yves Rocher. Another close associate of politics Georgy Alburov was convicted of the theft of the painting “Bad Good Man” from the fence near the railway station in Vladimir (and amnesty ). Some of Navalny's associates are abroad: among them Vladimir Ashurkov , who received the status of a political refugee in the UK.

Andrey Kozenko

Moscow