One against Putin

For what in the Kursk region they are pursuing opposition to Olga Lee

In early March 2016, the deputy of the Kursk Regional Duma and the editor -in -chief of the newspaper Narodnaya Journalist Olga Lee published a video message in which she harshly criticized President Vladimir Putin. A month later, two criminal cases were instituted against her - on charges of slander and extremism, and local deputies considered her guilty of "encroachment on the constitutional system." Olga Lee worked as a cleaner, created a scandalous newspaper with the money of an entrepreneur engaged in modeling business, and became a deputy of the regional discord from the Communist Party, being in a conflict with the party. In addition, she became famous for the call to the social networks not to pay for the housing and communal services. The history of the opposition deputy and journalist is told by the special correspondent of Medusa Daniil Turovsky.

Olga Lee was born in 1986 in Kazakhstan's Abai, a city with several city -forming enterprises - a sewing factory and coal mines. In the early 1990s, the factory and the mine closed, there was no other work. “The city was dying out, everyone tore the claws - who could not have water, gas,” Medusa says. The mass departure of the Russian -speaking population began from the city; Olga Lee's mother took her and her two brothers in Kursk, where distant relatives lived.

In Kursk, the family rented a small house. Lee studied at first at a comprehensive school, a little later she went to school with a mathematical bias. She finished her with a gold medal. In 2003, she entered the Faculty of Economics of the South-Western State University (then-the Kursk Polytechnic Institute).

She was not interested in her studies, from the second year she switched to the correspondence department. She had time for time, and she began to earn extra money as a cleaner. “I thought what to do - not to wash the floors for all my life. I decided to create a platform where it will be possible to make appeals, complaints, joys, ”she says“ Medusa ”. “True, there were not so many joys.” For help in the creation of the newspaper "People's Journalist", she turned to the local entrepreneur Konstantin Berezin (the real surname - Susolkin).

Berezin is the owner of the model magazine Sasha and the Kursk Hotel "Diana". The publication website states that the company offers work to models aged 3 to 30 years, promising a salary of up to 10 thousand dollars. Berezin himself on his social network describes his activities as "the search and introduction of people in advertising and show business."

Several sites on a free hosting were created about Berezina: one of them posted his photos along with the satirist Evgeny Petrosyan, the Lyceum group, composer Igor Krutoy, and there are also photos of Berezin with half -naked girls. Some photographs published there were taken in the spirit of the Children's Fashion community closed in VKontakte (in 2013, the service administration blocked it at the request of Roskomnadzor; photos of children in candid poses were published in the community). “This was all my deputy, whom I drove out because he pawed the girls. But there is nothing like that there. I’m a bachelor, plus I'm in clothes, ”Berezin said Meduza. “And the stars just came to my hotel.” In one of the numbers of Kursk Pravda - newspapers close to the regional administration - Berezina is called (the material is removed from the site, but stayed in the cache ) “managing hotel with striptease and“ sweet girls ”.” “This is all slander, they just invited the“ sweet girls ”group to act, but I can’t ask them to change their name? He said. - If I am a pimp, why am I not in handcuffs? And my magazine was created to self -realize girls. ”

Berezin agreed to help Olga Lee - according to him, “allocated her paper” for the newspaper. The "People's Journalist" began to appear monthly in December 2006. In addition to Berezin, according to Lee, “people's journalists” are helped by “caring entrepreneurs”.

From the moment the newspaper was founded, it began to print incriminating evidence. Already in the second issue, “sensational details about the activities of the deputy governor” were published . In the newspaper, materials under the headings like “shame the president. The shame of his administration. Shame on United Russia. Shame on the Popular Front and everything that is connected with this power. ” In 2011, the local branch of the Communist Party achieved the initiation of a criminal case due to the publication of a “distorted image of the coat of arms of the Russian Federation, which is abuse of state symbols in the“ People’s Journalist ”. The "People's Journalist" published "journalistic investigations" about the tax service of the region, the prosecutor's office , and courts . Compared to ordinary journalistic investigations, the texts in the “People’s Journalist” are at least very expressive.

In 2011, Olga Lee elected a deputy of the Kursk Regional Duma on the list of the Communist Party - despite the views of different views on how state symbolism should look. “It went without entering the party and not planning to enter in order to avoid the collection of signatures,” she explained . Olga Lee calls herself an independent deputy. Konstantin Berezin became her assistant.

In 2012, Lee managed to get a meeting with the chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin. “The meeting impressed me, Bastrykin is the only one who listens and hears,” she says “Medusa”. “We talked on a variety of topics - in the Kursk region.”

In 2013, she became famous far beyond the borders of the Kursk region, having recorded a video message with a proposal not to pay for housing and communal services. “I think that it is obvious to everyone that the housing and communal services system are completely rotten and it is necessary to take extreme measures,” she explained. In December 2013, Lee organized a rally against corruption in Kursk, several hundred people came to him.

In the summer of 2015, she helped to record a video message from the Kursk farmer Anastasia Dolgopolova to Vladimir Putin (Medusa told this story in detail). Then I understood that such videos are a working genre and a way out in a situation where "you will not reach anyone, and the exit to the federal media is closed."

I ask whether she considers herself - a journalist or politician. “I do not consider myself a politician yet, I am a journalist,” she says. “I am engaged in journalistic investigations, at the level of the Kursk Regional Duma it is almost impossible for me to prove myself as a policy.” "Is journalism and politics not opposite classes?" - I'm clarifying. “I do not agree with this, any journalist, as a person, always carries his subjective point of view,” she said. “And if, as a politician, a certain number of people support me, then there is some kind of truth in this.”

On March 4, 2016, Olga Lee recorded a video message to Putin. In it, she announced the existence of a criminal conspiracy in the “upper echelons of the authorities against her own people”, the inaction of the FSB, the genocide of Russian citizens, Putin, she accused of “absolute indifference to the fate of millions of citizens”. “For your inaction, Mr. President, will follow the opposition. <...> Mr. President, you, being the guarantor of the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens, do not guarantee them anything, ”she said in that appeal. Lee said Medusa that there is no need to link the publication of the appeal with any events - she “just boiled”.

By publishing an appeal, Lee, according to her, expected that a commission would be sent from Moscow to Kursk to check the prosecutor's office and other departments. However, they decided to check Olga Lee. On March 24, 2016, a criminal case was brought against her under part 1 of Art. 298.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (slander in relation to the judge in connection with the consideration of cases or materials in court) for publication in a “people's journalist”. “In the article, she indicated and disseminated knowingly false information defaming the honor, dignity and undermining the professional reputation of the judge of the Leninsky district court of the city of Kursk,” the SK said in a statement. We are talking about the material published in September 2015. It said that "the judge of the Leninsky District Court [Lyudmila] Shurova shouted as a habalka, and found our colleague even before familiarizing themselves with the case materials." Olga Lee said “Medusa” that “the case is a failure from a legal point of view” and she has nothing to do with the release of the newspaper. "Are you the editor -in -chief?" I specified. “I was on vacation,” Lee answered.

The next day, March 25, at a meeting of the Kursk Regional Duma, deputies publicly condemned Lee. “Her speeches contained insulting statements to the President of the Russian Federation. We assume that she thus encroaches on the constitutional system, territorial integrity and calls for inaction in the fight against terrorism. And this is at a time when we need to rally, ”Igor Zorya said at a meeting of Unicorn. Another unicorn - Viktor Karamyshev said: “I feel sorry for you, you have two children. The sponsor starts you in the wrong place. ” (Lee has two daughters - four -year -old Ksenia and two -year -old Sayuri; she is divorced.)

On April 1, 2016, Li had a second criminal case against Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (arousal of hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity). According to the investigation, the deputy posted on the Internet video of his speeches, which, according to linguistic research, contains “statements aimed at humiliating the dignity of a group of persons on the grounds of belonging to the social group of government representatives, in particular law enforcement officers and the judicial system”.

“All this is due to the fact that I am going to go to the State Duma elections, they decided to get rid of me. I have information that I have given a team from the presidential administration for me, ”the regional deputy told Medusa.

On the morning of April 4, Olga Lee, together with Konstantin Berezin, arrived in Moscow. She met with the chairman of the Yabloko party Emilia Slabunova.

“Open Russia” proposed to discuss cooperation options, but now I will hardly be considered, I’ll go to the State Duma from the “Yabloko”, ”Meduza says. After a meeting in Yabloko, they, together with Berezin, headed for the Boris Nemtsov’s memorial on the Big Moskvoretsky Bridge, bought a bouquet of red roses along the way.

“Nemtsov always impressed me,” says the deputy. - Like Yavlinsky, Navalny, Khodorkovsky. These are people who are for the change of power, for trying to reduce the level of corruption in power. I would like to meet with Putin. I would ask him questions about the political prisoners, and why the presumption of innocence does not work, well, the main question is when he is about to leave. ”

While Lee puts flowers to the memorial, Berezin looks at the Kremlin. “And for some reason no one shoots there,” he says suddenly. - In general, I am a fan of Kvachkov (Vladimir Kvachkov was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment for preparing an armed rebellion in Russia. - approx. Medusa ). In the sense of his courage, not ideas. ” He points to Lee. “See how calm she is? He says. “But there were cases.” He says that she was sent a photograph with Nemtsov’s body, unknown people came on the street several times with the words “I haven’t changed your mind yet?” Lee herself told Meduza that this winter the editorial office was attacked by a man with a knife, and before that she was cut off the brake hoses by the car.

On April 6, Olga Lee was called for interrogation in the IC in the Kursk region - to the department for the investigation of especially important cases.

Daniil Turovsky

Moscow