“Worse than in prison”: Politzek Alexei Moroshkin talks about forced psychiatry

On June 14, Alexei Moroshkin left a psychiatric hospital in Chelyabinsk. There he spent more than a year and a half after he was accused of calling for separatism for publication on VKontakte about the need to create the Ural People’s Republic. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. OVD-Info talked with Alexei Moroshkin about what was happening to him in a psychiatric hospital.

What are the conditions in your hospital?

- At first they began to digest me with pills. My tongue has already begun to bend to the palate. I could not walk.

Such a feeling, you know: you stand - and does not stand, you lie - and does not lie. I want to do something constantly, you do not know what, the restlessness is called, the “restless” is called. Such a state that it is impossible to live.

Then they stopped giving a lot of pills, everything normalized. It lasted about a month.

Do you know what these medicines were?

- No, they do not say what drugs they give. The mouth is checked, they are ordered to raise the tongue - you drink or do not drink. The worst thing is the injections that are absorbed in the body for a month. You can still hide the pills, but you won’t hide from the injection, they will make it, and you are shaking for a month from one injection. Then they stopped doing them. They obviously began to be afraid when the publicity went. Therefore, they no longer curtailed me with medicines, created me more or less tolerable conditions of detention, no one touched me. If there were no publicities, everything could be much worse.

Did they talk to you about your business, did they talk about political topics?

- No.

But theymade a statement due to the fact that you considered yourself political prisoner.

- Yes, it was. But this is a standard scheme: a person must admit that he is sick. If you do not do this, for them it means that you have no critical attitude and you have not recovered yet. This is a general attitude to patients. If you do not admit that you are sick, then you just won’t get out of there.

When the date of the next court meeting became known, where you could extend the deadline for your stay in the hospital, did this reflect on the behavior of the staff?

- Not really. I was immediately told that the first two times I would extend the term, that they have such a practice.

They said that my article is not easy. Now, they say, such a political situation in the country, understand for yourself, the fight against extremism. In the zone, they say, you would not have been sitting easily and not for long, so here you will sit longer. And they even said that my article is equated with terrorism, that extremists and terrorists are in the same way.

This head of the department said.

Was there any more pressure at first, did they limit you to something that they should not?

- There, in principle, there is nothing to limit in, because you are already limited in everything! In addition to drugs that may be bad, the main one is there is absolute boredom. I read magazines, books, of course. But, frankly, such an atmosphere is that it is not read. Everyone is talking about this. In prison it was read. But the hospital is generally worse than in prison. In prison, the attitude of the staff was better, there they also called you, and for the fact that you are political, for some reason were better. In general, I have no complaints to the staff. The point is: the prisons were actively checked by the PMC (public observation commissions for the places of imprisonment- OTD-info ), and this very much contributed to the improvement of conditions, it was very very felt that they were afraid of the PMC. It is felt that the prisons tightened in the field of human rights. And hospitals are not under the jurisdiction of the PMC, access is impossible there, they cannot check and cannot influence.

In these hospitals, in psychiatric hospitals, people are not treated, they are simply isolated. In fact, these are the same prisons.

I saw a lot of people who were placed illegally there, heard stories, how relatives hand them over, and the police can send objectionable there. There are, of course, sick people. The atmosphere in the hospital, of course, is the bad that in prison you are still among healthy people, and in the hospital you are mainly among seriously ill, and more or less a healthy person oppresses it. It happens not even someone to chat with.

How many people did you have in the ward?

- I always lay in wards, where there were few people. They are called chambers for recovering. Ten or twelve people were just there. Large chambers are twenty, twenty -five people.

And what is the contingent there, mainly?

- I was in general mode, this is an ordinary hospital, you lie with ordinary patients. There is also a special mode, there only criminals lie, only according to the articles. At the general mode, there was a frequent rotation of the patients - they will drop, they will lie down for two months, leave. And ten for ten forces (who are forced treatment under the criminal article- OTD-info ), we lie there for a long time, years.

What other reasons for forced treatment can be?

- I was one political there. And so - killings, theft.

But at the same time, they are not placed on a special mode?

- There is such a system: at first they are placed on a special mode or even on a special with intense, and then they are transferred, reduced. After a specialist with an intensive simply special, he lay down there for two years, then they give a common one, two more years old will go away, and only then to freedom. This, too, seems to me unfair.

Why should ordinary sick people even intersect with criminals who lie under the articles? Okay, I am political, but imagine: a mentally ill killer lies with us, recovers, so to speak.

I believe that if he was given a special mode, then he should already be with special mode and write out. But in general, the staff of the hospital treats the coolents not as patients, but as priests. There everyone understands that we are simply serving our terms, we are not recovering, we can be absolutely healthy. They look only at the article. How much you are determined to sit out, so much you will sit. In this case, lie down. Everyone is talking about this, everyone knows this, and everyone agrees with it.

As I understand it, I was released only because I came a new responsible for forced treatment, I do not know what its position is called. First, a woman worked, who since Soviet times occupied this position. And now a new man has come to more progressive views and let me go early.

And the rest?

- Also began to write out early. Well, he is such, more progressive views. "Echo of Moscow" listens. I was even surprised. He heard about me according to the Echo of Moscow and handed it to the head. Probably, this impression on him made it.

But progressive views mean that he is inclined to be more human treat those who are forced treatment? Is it somehow reflected in practice?

- I met him when he conducted a commission for discharge, this happens once every six months. So he does not directly observe the patients, does not conduct visits. Apparently, he does not believe that my crime is equated with terrorism. In general, I believe that I was discharged so early, because there was pressure from the media, human rights activists, and a man came more progressive views.

How was it with dates, how often they were given?

- At the general dating mode twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays. This is one of the advantages of the hospital compared to the prison.

The regional ombudsman did not come to you?

- No. Human rights activists, Schuri (Tatyana and Nikolai Schur, members of the PMC of the Chelyabinsk region of the previous convocation- ATS-Info ) came. No one else.

You said that it was better in the pre-trial detention center, but at some point you were placed there in the medical unit, where there were difficult conditions.

-Yes. Better, except for the "fools". At first I sat at all well-a month in a solitary chamber in the FSBS-prison “Seven”, because there was an FSB investigator (according to Tatyana Schur, several years ago, SIZO No. 7 was transferred to the FSIN, but the FSB has been retained- OVD-INFO ). There is clean, everything is carefully controlled by the PMC. Like at the hotel. Then, when I began to be listed behind the court, I was transferred to the “Odinnka”, the local central (pre-trial detention center No. 1- ATS-Info ). At first I sat in quarantine, it was pretty fun. Then, apparently, since I am political and can influence other prisoners, spread extremist views among them, I sat in “kopecks”, huts for two. He sat with very rich people, entrepreneurs who were accused of fraud. And they had everything - TVs, refrigerators. Therefore, I sat in comfortable conditions, and the attitude of the employees was wonderful. And then, since they put my insanity, I was transferred to the so -called “fool” - a medical unit, for the mentally ill. And there was absolute hell.

Nothing is washed, dirty, one hot water comes from both cranes, then one is cold. Instead of a toilet, a station parach, from which it constantly stinks. Outside the psarny window, dog barking constantly. And the attitude is different, neither to the bathhouse is normal, nor for a walk.

In general, if I wrote a complaint to the European Court, I would definitely win. Compared to what complaints about poor conditions of detention are filed there, I sat in the most hellish conditions. “Durchate” is the very bottom, the worst that you can imagine in a pre -trial detention center. And again, the contingent, the people with whom you are sitting in the Durchate, is a complete nightmare. The killers, those who pass under the articles “Rape”, “Depraved actions in relation to young people” are repeatedly convicted. I was there alone there. Usually in the pre -trial detention center previously do not contact previously inconvenient, they are not planted together. And in the medical units all together sit - and those who have five, six walkers each, and I, which for the first time.

The decision to admit you was unexpected, or did any hints sound before?

- It was unexpected. Probably, the main role was played that once I was in a psychiatric hospital for a month, in the open department, in 2003 due to depression.

The second thing has now calmed down, no one appears?

- Yes.

Have you come to your hospital in this regard?

- They visited, yes. The investigator came to carry out investigative actions, to familiarize themselves with the case. Then the case was sent to the prosecutor’s office, the prosecutor’s office returned, they again carried out some actions, and again familiarized him with the case. And recently the opera came again, again the center for counteracting extremism connected. Shortly before the discharge, they came to the hospital to the head, asked who came to me if I used gadgets. We conducted another search in the apartment, were interested in extremist literature, some ties, tried to find paint and clothes.

What do you think will happen to this business?

- Don't know. They have been investigating for a year and eight months. The prosecutor's office does not approve the indictment. They would have closed it for a long time, it would be the simplest, but, apparently, it is too significant for them, too important. As far as I understand, Moscow pressed them at one time when it happened. If they were just painted with paint, this is one, otherwise in the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

Do you think what to do next, what to do?

-I still don’t think about anything, I want to figure it out with the second case and then I will already decide something. Now I can’t get a job anywhere.

Wherever a certificate is needed from a psychiatrist, for me the road is closed. For several years, I must be marked with a psychiatrist every month, to receive medicines, tablets, injections without fail. If I am again for some reason, even if I am planned, I get into a psychiatric hospital, I will have to lie there at least a hundred days, they will not let me out before.

This is called ADN (active dispensary observation- OTD-info ).

You were arrested after you left Russia, and then returned. Why did this happen?

- I wanted to run away. There was nothing to choose from. He hoped for people that they would help me, they promised help, and then they abandoned me, set me up, and I could not gain a foothold in Ukraine, so I had to go back.