Virtual extremists

On June 20, the Moscow District Military Court, chaired by Judge Vadim Krasnov, sentenced three participants in the extremist community Misanthropic Division (MD)-30-year-old Rostovites Viktor Pekhterev, 26-year-old Muscovite Kirill Khalepo and a resident of the city of Arkhangelsk region, 24-year-old Vitaliy Tsaruk. All of them were found guilty of organizing an extremist community, arousing hatred or enmity, as well as in public justification of terrorism and received from three to three and a half years of the colony.

According to the prosecution, young people sought to overthrow the existing political system in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Eastern and Western Europe and the Baltic states with the further construction of the "National Socialist system on racial". It was supposed to achieve the intended goals by promoting Nazi ideas on the Internet (on the VKontakte social network) and the sale of T -shirts with the MD logo.

Kirill Khalepo (left) and Vitaly Tsaruk in the Moscow District Military Court. June 14, 2017

In the ideology of the "misanthropics" is really little attractive : hatred of people in general, but especially for those who do not belong to the "white race", including Jews, sympathy for Adolf Hitler and Paganism, rejection of the main world religions, but at the same time - "radical" vegetarianism: at first, the participants of the MD forums actively discussed how good it would be, it would be good to kill people, to kill people. who torment animals. With the development of the conflict in Ukraine, the movement also adopted the political turnover: the misanthropics opposed the annexation of Crimea, some went to the Donbass to fight on the side of the Ukrainian army, in particular, entered into the Azov battalion, known for their nationalist views. As Radio Liberty explained, one of the Misanthropics, who fled from criminal prosecution to Ukraine, Roman Zheleznov , nicknamed Zuhel, the movement began in 2013 with the VKontakte group, created by a citizen of Belarus Dmitry Pavlov (he, according to some, lives in Germany and is actively quoted in the materials of the case of Russian misanthropics as the main organizer and leader extremist community MD). “There was no talk of any kind of organization at that time,” writes Zukhel-Zhelezov in response to questions from the RS. “When the events of winter 2013-2014 began in Kyiv, several nameless combat groups of nationalists took this name and attributes as the most suitable for the entourage of that time. Dmitry Pavlov was not present on the Maidan and did not carry out those people.” “MD is an unpleasant ideology,” says lawyer Kirill Khalepo Matvey Zen . “This is a subculture. People hate everyone - women, children, Jews, but they can create a group“ MD Israel ”and hate them. The accusation does not mention this, but for example, the“ Alcoholic Divine ”group, which was generally a comic character. This is the very name of MD.”

Natalia Khalepo (mother of Cyril) and his friend Daria Chuplygin in the Moscow District Military Court. June 14, 2017

The Russian special services, however, have its own version of what MD is - in the often unrealed groups of VKontakte, the FSB saw a whole underground organization with territorial cells, which, even if they did not take any actions in real life, but nevertheless threatened the existing constitutional system "posts on social networks.

Color the tank

The Moscow District Military Court refers to the verdict to the decision of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court, which in 2015 recognized the MD with an extremist organization, on the basis of the same activities in social networks, which, according to the court, poses a "threat to state security of the Russian Federation." Unlike Pekhterev, Khalepo and Tsaruka, MD participants, mentioned by the Krasnoyarsk judge, also conducted offline events: in January 2015 in Krasnoyarsk, they drew the monuments of the Second World War with the inscriptions “Ukraine”, “The DPR Gori in the Fire”, “Glory to the Heroes”, “Death to the Communists!”, Having accompanied their swastikas. In 2014, some “MD supporters” painted on the colors of the Ukrainian flag or monuments to Lenin in Cheboksary, Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk, the same fate befell the T-34 tank and the Katyusha mortar in Novosibirsk. All this, according to the prosecutor’s office and the court, proved the existence of an extremist organization that has gone roots throughout Russia.

Pekhterev, Khalepo and Tsaru, according to the case materials ... They did not take the MD, as there were not a dozen other witnesses of the prosecution

The Moscow court, however, was facing a difficult task: Pekhterev, Khalepo and Tsaru, according to the case file ... They were not in the MD, as there were not a dozen other witnesses of the accusations, which created more than forty of the VKontakte groups under a variety of names: Misanthropic News, MD France, MD, MD Poetry, MD Spain, etc. Several thousand people were signed for these groups, some of them were created by witnesses passing in the case, part of unknown persons, but all of them, as the investigation believes, opened "at the direction of Dmitry Pavlov." Vitaly Tsaru was accused of “following Pavlov” created the MD Violence group, Viktor Pekhterev created the MD Music group and was at the same time the administrator of the MD Poetry group, and Kirill Halepo was the administrator of the MD RUSSLAND group, created, according to the Roman Zeohela, again, at the direction of Pavlov (Zheleznov himself, Zheleznov himself He confirmed the RS that he was an administrator of such a group 2-3 years ago, but did not remember whether he created it from scratch or renamed the existing group). All three only partially pleaded guilty, without denying the placement of materials from an extremist and nationalist sense.

Lawyer Matvey Zen (right) and Victor Pekhterev

In the most important crime - no one admitted the creation of cells of the extremist community, moreover, according to the accused and their lawyers, such a community simply did not exist, so it was impossible to be in it either. “Legally in the Criminal Code, this is called an extremist community. At the same time, if you read the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court" On Judicial Practice in Criminal Extremist Criminal Affairs ", then this should be an organized group," Matvey Zen explains. "An organized group is characterized by stability (that is, its composition does not change), unity, distribution of roles and the presence The hierarchies here, the accusation said that these signs are present in the VKontakte distribution - the administrator, the creator and the editor.

Roman Zheleznov ("Zukhel")

According to Zen, the connection between the groups was traced only in the fact that in groups of the type “MD Ural” or “MD Siberia” administrators placed materials from the main group MD: “They wanted to promote their views, it is clear that the conventional group“ MD Ivanovo ”would cause more interest to the resident of Ivanovo than just the MD group, but there were no independent content in these“ territorial ”groups. Moreover, moreover, moreover, moreover, moreover, moreover, more It is not necessary to live in Ivanovo to create such a VKontakte group, you can open a dozen such groups in the evening, which we see from the case of the case, they will all be cells of an extremist organization, and their administrators and editors, take it and put any of it. ” According to Zen, it is also interesting that only the distributors of extremist information were on the bench (which, according to them, often did not even read the articles they posted - “they were too long”), but they decided not to look for neither the consequence nor the court of the authors of these materials.

The court was trolling

It is curious that the version of the prosecution does not withstand criticism even within the framework of the extremist structure described by investigators, which allegedly entangled half of Europe. For example, there is not a single real evidence that MD was organized by a citizen of Belarus Dmitry Pavlov, as well as his involvement in the creation of endless VKontakte groups. According to the accused and witnesses, they talked to VKontakte with a certain user under the nickname "Troll", but they learned that Pavlov was hiding behind the "troll" only at the investigation.

All witnesses of the prosecution were dependent on law enforcement agencies

In general, most of the evidence base is built on the testimony of witnesses, some of which were previously convicted of placing materials of an extremist nature (but not for participating in an extremist organization, like Pekhterev, Tsaruk and Halepo), and some were not convicted, because they stopped membership in the organization in time without committing other crimes. In any case, according to Matvey Zen, all witnesses of the accusations were dependent on law enforcement agencies: “If you have already served for placing extremist materials, no one can guarantee that you will not get another deadline for participating in the organization,” Zen says. “And if you have not served it, then you are all the more easy to intimidate-from the statute of limitations to six years. And from July 2016- "Package of Yarova" up to ten years. " However, even such witnesses could not give the right testimony in court - almost all of them said that there were no hierarchy, nor direct subordination, nor leadership, nor general goals, in addition to the repost of materials from the main page, that is, there were no signs of an extremist community that the court should focus on. Exactly on the basis of the testimony of witnesses, the court found that Dmitry Pavlov was hiding near the troll, although not one of them saw him in the face. Moreover, the witness Oleg Novozenin, who took part in the hearing on the video from Surgut with Balaklava’s face, said that the MD Siberia was created, without any instructions from the outside. His words were confirmed by Roman Zheleznov, who assured the RS that all local projects were the “initiative of the regions”: “At one time, the communities were created by everyone who was not lazy, and some of them were frankly stupid,” he wrote. The court, however, was not embarrassed that the testimony of witnesses contradict the case file and confirm the position of the defense: “The court reacted critically to the testimony of witnesses, said that that no one was subordinated to anyone was your private opinion, and the fact that the“ troll ”was Dmitry Pavlov under the nickname,” says Matvey Zen. “Only Serge He confirmed the version of the prosecution, but he literally memorized his testimony in the investigation.

Kirill Halepo

The free interpretation of the testimony and the desire to adjust them under the plot of the accusations were obvious during the trial, at one of which, June 14, was attended by a RS correspondent. So, Viktor Pekhterev, during an interrogation in court, stated that in the fall of 2015 he found a job, could no longer do the administration of the MD Violence group, and therefore stopped communicating with the group members, although he did not unsubscribe from its news. During the dialogue of Judge Vadim Krasnov with Pekhterev, it seems that they speak different languages, for the judge the MD community is a cell of an extremist organization, for the accused - the VKontakte group is not obligatory for anything:

Judge Krasnov: You said that from October-November 2015 you left the MD community. Before this date, what role were you there?

Victor Pekhterev: I say that this happened in October-November, because ...

Judge Krasnov: Before you exit there as whom were you?

Victor Pekhterev: I got a job, I have time ...

Judge Krasnov: You do not understand. Before you came out, what was your role?

Victor Pekhterev: I talked with the participants ... What is another role?

Judge Krasnov: If you say: “I left the community,” then you were there if you left it?

Victor Pekhterev: The fact is that I mean by the exit a complete termination of communication.

Judge Krasnov: Wait, if you went out, then you were there someone there. The second-does it mean that there was some kind of community?

Victor Pekhterev: Well ... Formation ...

Judge Krasnov: Be kind, determine your role in this community and what this community does. Who were you there to your exit from there. And the next question: since you were there and went out, so you joined there? How did you join this community? Here are three questions: how did you come, who were there and how did they get out of there? Please answer.

Victor Pekhterev: The girl invited me to make music. We made public. To make music.

Judge Krasnov: You created your own group, thereby joined the MD community, I understand correctly?

Victor Pekhterev: I don't know how to mean it all ...

Judge Krasnov: Tell me how it is.

Victor Pekhterev: I became a group subscriber.

Judge Krasnov: Answer the questions that I posed to you. So, the entry into the community happened, in your opinion, when did you agree to the girl’s offer to create a public with music?

Victor Pekhterev: To place the content ... and then initially "VKontakte" no one will give a person a stranger ...

Judge Krasnov: Again, the conversation begins about nothing!

Victor Pekhterev: Because these are technical points. No one will let a person place something to a stranger ...

Judge Krasnov: You agreed ...

Victor Pekhterev: You can join the group ...

Judge Krasnov: Yes, I don't need technical nuances ...

Victor Pekhterev: The girl invited me, later they gave me rights ...

Judge Krasnov: Who gave you these rights? What kind of girl?

Victor Pekhterev: Bogdana Paleshko. Under the nickname ..

Judge Krasnov: Maybe not a girl. The man under the nickname "Bogdan Paleshko" invited you to which group?

Victor Pekhterev: I don't remember.

Judge Krasnov: Well, this applies to MD or it applies to "good night, kids"?

Victor Pekhterev: Yes.

Judge Krasnov: Have you agreed?

Victor Pekhterev: Yes.

Judge Krasnov: Then she endowed you with what rights?

Victor Pekhterev: Editor.

Judge Krasnov: editor of this group? Which you conscientiously corrected to which?

Victor Pekhterev: Until October-November

Judge Krasnov: How did your exit occur, as you said, from the MD community? I didn’t tell you this, you yourself said it. How did you get out of there?

Victor Pekhterev: Well ... a community in quotation marks.

Judge Krasnov: How did you get out of there?

Viktor Pekhterev: I mean that if I don’t take any content, I don’t communicate with anyone, then I do not belong.

Judge Krasnov: That is, you officially did not retire anywhere, just looked there with one eye.

Victor Pekhterev: There was no need to write statements.

Judge Krasnov: Well, they didn’t leave from there?

Victor Pekhterev: Where?

Judge Krasnov: Can I get away from there?

Victor Pekhterev: You can unsubscribe from the news.

Judge Krasnov: Can you do it so that you are no longer there?

Victor Pekhterev: You can.

Judge Krasnov: Did you do this?

Victor Pekhterev: There are many MD resources there, from some could unsubscribe, from some could not unsubscribe. I have there ("VKontakte." - Approx. ) 600 groups - there about kittens, about puppies ...

Judge Krasnov: The court is not interested in kittens, the court is only interested in MD.

Victor Pekhterev: I don't remember.

Judge Krasnov: That is, you have no data that you were deleted from there. Here in the prosecution there is evidence that from VKontakte that you have not moved from there until your moment of detention. This can be?

Victor Pekhterev: It cannot be.

Paper underground

Law enforcement agencies run up technology in people who do not cause sympathy

Matvey Zen is convinced that the Investigative Committee and the FSB worked out a new scheme according to which any group on social networks can become an extremist community. "Today, 80% of the cases under the 282nd article ( excitement of hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity.-approx. )-these are the cases for reposts" VKontakte. "We are now at the early stage that 80% of criminal cases of creating extremist organizations are criminal cases for creating VKontakte groups. According to Zen, law enforcement agencies restore technology in people, people. who do not cause sympathy, on nationalists, anti -Semites, but then they will switch to everyone else: “Think for yourself: one operative is being introduced in real extremist communities, works, risks life, and the other simply creates the VKontakte group, monitors them for a month, and now, the matter is ready!”

Roman Zheleznov, Roman Zheleznov, agreed with the lawyer: “Few people seriously thought about creating a certain revolutionary underground in Russia, especially through groups on social networks,” he wrote, but such positioning plays into the hands of various “anti -ethnic” departments, it is very convenient for them to escape the hysteria in the media, without much effort, without much effort, There are almost no corpses or “Bigs” for radial statements or prohibited in uniforms without much effort.