Don't believe, don't be afraid, don't be daring

New members of the PMC of the Krasnodar Territory ignored the hunger strike of the convict

On November 16, convict Yuri Bolgov went on a hunger strike in colony IK-4 in Armavir. For the three years that Bolgov managed to serve, he never clashed with the administration of the colony and did not have penalties. A few months later, he planned to file a petition for parole, but then an inspection of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Krasnodar Territory arrived at the colony.

According to Bolgov's wife Elena Vasilyeva, her husband called her on November 4th. “During the round of the inspectors, he was in the residential section,” says Elena. - He was in removable shoes, that is, in slippers. The inspector did not like this, and he gave the order to draw up a report and place Bolgov in an isolation cell. Yuri tried to explain that the remarks were unfounded - this is a residential section and he is required by law to be in changeable shoes. The inspectors disliked the prisoner's attempt to speak even more. And they set the task of putting Yura in the ShIZO at all costs. Several attempts were made to find a reason for placement in the ShIZO, none of which was successful. Yuri did nothing. And then, a few days later, one of the employees of the colony “humanly” asked Yuri to sign an alleged refusal to work (the basis for punishment). My husband did not sign anything, although he already knew that everyone who “didn’t like” the regional authorities of the UFSIN in the same way had been in isolation for a long time. The husband had suffered a heart attack a week before this test and was undergoing treatment in the medical unit. Placement in the ShIZO could end badly for him. I understood that something bad was brewing and turned to the regional prosecutor Kirgoev, the leadership of the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Krasnodar Territory, personally to the head of the colony Tomazov. I had high hopes for the members of the PMC of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. I called them right away."

On Wednesday, November 16, the day Yury completed his IV course, the operationally organized commission in the colony nevertheless sent Bolgov to the ShIZO "for violating the rules of the order and refusing to work." On the same day, Bolgov wrote a statement about the hunger strike. Elena called the chairman of the local PMC. Stanislav Podberezny, a young priest known as Father Vladimir, asked to send a written application (although an oral application is sufficient for an emergency departure of the POC to the colony). “I wrote an official appeal to the PMC mail. The next day, the chairman sent me a message stating that he had entrusted the case to his deputy, Marina Kaluzina. We phoned her, I asked her to go to my husband in the colony as soon as possible, I was ready to pay the expenses of human rights activists, the law does not prohibit this. I was told that the PMC members would be in Armavir on business only on Wednesday, that is, in a week. “Then at the same time we will visit your husband in the colony,” they told me. I explained that on Wednesday he would already be out of the ShIZO and their urgent help would no longer be needed,” says Elena. Another day passed in negotiations with Father Vladimir and his deputy Kaluzina. And only on the third day, Lena's appeal was finally sent by e-mail to all members of the PMC.

Of the 19 people elected to the fourth convocation of the PMC of the Krasnodar Territory, only one (!) Was ready to urgently leave for colony IK-4. Valery Mardyko asked the chairman (Vladimir's father) to find him a partner (according to the law, it is impossible to check places of detention alone). “Father Vladimir replied that he himself would be able to go with checks only in December due to family circumstances, and if one of the human rights activists wants to go, please let him go. Then a stormy exchange of letters followed between the remaining members of the PMC of the Krasnodar Territory. As a result, the PMC came to the conclusion that they do not see any threat to the life of the convict,” said Mardyko. And father Vladimir sent a message to Lena: “I cannot and do not have the right to force them.” And stopped answering calls.

When I reminded father Vladimir that, according to the law on public control (FZ-76), members of the POC must respond to each application received, including the obligation to give an official response if they refuse to check, father Vladimir said: “We are a volunteer organization, we are not on a salary, not on a position. And how should we react if a person has actually violated the regime? He was not beaten, not humiliated. He violated the regime himself and was subjected to punishment, which is regulated by the internal regulations of the Federal Penitentiary Service. And now, for a reason incomprehensible to us, he decided to simply sabotage the activities of the institution with his hunger strike.

- How do you know that the convict really violated something?

So his wife said it herself.

Elena tells exactly the opposite and that is why she asks for your help. Her husband was illegally placed in a ShIZO. How did you find out that her husband violated something if you yourself did not check and did not go to the colony?

- I clarified this issue with the first deputy head of the regional FSIN (that is, it turns out, a representative of the very authority that did not like Bolgov's slippers - A.S. ).

Marina Kaluzhina, deputy chairman of the Krasnodar POC, a former employee of the internal affairs bodies, assures that if the applicant is not informed about the results of the work, this does not mean that it is not being carried out. “What is the meaning of the work, I can’t explain to you yet, because different channels are used there. The fact that Bolgov went on a hunger strike is not entirely true. In the near future we will get an objective picture of what is happening, but now I can’t tell you everything, ”Kaluzina said. According to her, the request to the Federal Penitentiary Service was poisoned on Friday. It turns out that human rights activists knew about the hunger strike in the ShIZO, but did nothing for two days. When it is planned to visit the colony, Kaluzhin does not know. “Are we supposed to notify the applicant when we go there? We do not act in the interests of third parties, we act in the interests of the law, in the interests of respecting human rights, ”Kaluzina said.

While the members of the Krasnodar PMC were waiting for a response to their request, other convicts from colony IK-4 called Elena every day and told how Yury was feeling (during his detention in the ShIZO, calls and meetings are forbidden to a person). Bolgov continued to refuse food, his wife was in despair. She called the head of the colony Tomazov, who replied that he had no idea who she was and hung up. Father Vladimir called the woman only after talking with a Novaya journalist. He said he was very busy and would call back in the evening. Didn't call back.

And only when Elena Vasilyeva published an open appeal on the website of the project “Russian POCs - a new generation”, and members of the Rostov POC joined in solving the problem, the situation moved forward.

“I got a call from the colony,” says Elena. - They said that everything is fine with my husband and he is already eating. The same was said by Father Vladimir, who contacted the colony and talked to both the convicts and the administration. To be honest, I did not believe either the authorities of the colony or our PMC. Until, quite unexpectedly, Yura himself called me. He said that he would be released from the ShIZO before the end of his sentence and that for this he would be taken to the medical unit for health reasons.”

As one of the members of the PMC of the last convocation said, there has never been such a case in the history of the Krasnodar POC. To organize an inspection, a verbal statement, a call from relatives of prisoners was always enough. “The situation with Bolgov requires immediate intervention, because there is a threat to the life and health of the convict. Instead, members of the commission collect some documents, cannot find a second person, are constantly busy with something. Most of them have never been involved in public control and have no idea what human rights are,” said the human rights activist.

After the elections to the fourth composition of the PMC, experienced human rights activists from the Krasnodar Territory were left behind: Marina Romanova, Olga Golubyatnikova, Alik Le, Anna Mitrenko. The composition of the local PMC changed almost completely and only two people from the previous one got into the new convocation. One of them has never visited any of the regional places of detention during the three years of the previous convocation. All the other 17 people became members of the PMC for the first time. They have neither the experience of public control nor the desire, as the situation with Yuri Bolgov showed, to acquire this experience. Which is not surprising: most of the new members of the Krasnodar PMC were recommended by the Public Council under the Federal Penitentiary Service.