A Georgian spy and the career of an investigator: an interview with the daughter of a man convicted of treason

Over the past twenty years in Russia, more than a hundred people have been convicted of treason and espionage, especially serious crimes against the state. Almost nothing is known about many cases, and those whose details did come out raise doubts. OVD-Info publishes an interview with Parpulov’s daughter Yulia, prepared by Alexander Lity as part of the Team 29 project “The Complete History of Treason, Espionage and State Secrets in Modern Russia.”

“I signed my own death sentence”

Still, what was your father’s “betrayal”?

“He is credited with being in contact with the Georgian secret service and passing on information to them. Our entire case is based on the first interview conducted after the search, with a free lawyer. The father says that he sincerely believed in the free lawyer: he believed that he would protect him. My father cannot see without glasses, and during the interrogation he did not have glasses. The investigator recorded his story about the incident in Georgia distorted, but the lawyer said that everything was written down correctly and needed to be signed.

Dad says: I signed my own death sentence. After this, investigator Roman Troyan (investigator Troyan also led the cases of “Sochi state traitors” convicted of sending SMS messages to acquaintances in Georgia on the eve of the Russian-Georgian conflict of 2008 - OVD-Info ) made him an accused. He sent him to Krasnodar, called us and said that his father was accused under Article 275. The father says he was in shock; the investigator himself called an ambulance for him. My father’s blood pressure rose and a hypertensive crisis began.

Do you think the investigator understood that he was imprisoning an innocent person?

“It seems to me that he doesn’t care at all.” He tried to force my father to sign a confession. Dad told me: Troyan comes again and says, sign a confession, we’ll only give you eight years. Dad: what should I write? Troyan: don’t worry, we’ll write to you, and you sign. Dad: excuse me, but will you let me read it? Troyan: no, it's secret. That is, they know very well that my father is not to blame.

My father was in pre-trial detention center No. 5 in the Krasnodar region for two years. FSB pre-trial detention center, where Troyan has an office right behind the wall. All the letters were delayed: they were delivered to my father two or three months apart. Visits were prohibited; the only contact was through a lawyer. This was a method of blackmail: the father was told that if he signed a confession, he would receive visits and the ability to make calls. After our case, as far as I know, Troyan was promoted (Roman Troyan became the head of the FSB Investigation Department for the Krasnodar Territory - OVD-Info ).

“They did not take into account that my father did not have access to the data that he is accused of transmitting.”

What kind of person communicated with your father in Georgia? How did the Russian intelligence services find out about this?

— When my parents went to Georgia to visit relatives in 2010 and crossed the border, according to my mother, they wrote everything about themselves in a questionnaire to the border guards, including their positions. Then a migration service officer came to my relatives’ home in Georgia and said that they had filled out this form incorrectly. He asked dad about Sochi: Olympic construction was going on then, he was interested in the changes taking place in the city, and said that he had not been with us for a long time. Dad says they didn't discuss anything work-related.

Then the investigation decided that this man was allegedly a spy, an employee of the Georgian secret service. They say they have some evidence that he is a spy, but in our case, for unknown reasons, there is none. Because of my father’s meeting with this man, they came to search us: the investigation decided that my father had allegedly been recruited, that he was providing data to the Georgians. Only they did not take into account that the father did not have access to the data that he is accused of transmitting.

Did the immigration officer or the person pretending to be one seem suspicious to your father?

“Dad says he didn’t like him right away.” He tried to shift the conversation to suspicious topics, but his father replied that he knew nothing. The “migration specialist” was interested in flights from Russia to Abkhazia, to Gudauta airport. The military flies to Abkhazia, and my father was involved in civilian aircraft. He could not know anything other than the well-known fact that the military was flying to Gudauta. No one had any friendship with him. Dad says he was cold to him.

“As I understand the logic of the FSB, they stopped my father in time”

Did your father have a security clearance?

- Yes, my father has clearance, he has classified information at work. But when you get acquainted with secret information, you sign in the journal. Dad says that there is no signature anywhere, that he was familiar with the information that he is accused of transmitting, he did not see any drawings or diagrams of military flights.

There is no evidence that my father was acquainted with this information, but they say that it is enough that my father could use his security clearance. As I understand the logic of the FSB, they stopped my father in time. Although, sorry, four years have passed. If he wanted it, he would have used it long ago.

Why didn't the lawyer try to challenge this?

- Don't know. Everything in our case was classified, I found out about this when he was already in the colony. The lawyer told us that he had all the documents about my father’s innocence, that the whole story was ridiculous. But, judging by the verdict, the lawyer did not provide any documents to the court. He provided only clippings from the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, which said that MI-8 helicopters flew to Gudauta. The verdict is not secret, but the lawyer hid it from us for a long time. The lawyer did not tell us anything about the case, citing secrecy. He took a lot of money.

Dad says the lawyer (in the court of first instance - OVD-Info ) did not fight to prove that my dad did not look at the secret documents. They tried to prove this in the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court said: why didn’t you prove this in the previous instance? Why are you only starting to explain this in the Supreme Court? The Supreme Court decided not to delve into this case and leave everything unchanged.

What struck me most at the trial was when I asked my father’s subordinates to come and testify, they refused, answering that they were forbidden to do so under pain of dismissal. I arranged for a former airport employee to testify in court. Since the current employees were banned, they had to call someone who was no longer working. He told everything as it was, but the court considered him an interested party.

Friends generally stay away. People are more afraid not of the article, but of the fact that the FSB is conducting the case. Some are intimidated by their superiors, others work in the civil service and are afraid for their careers. Since they love my father very much, they can ask about his condition and say that they are worried. Sometimes they call and ask if there is a chance.

Were you and other relatives interrogated regarding the case?

“The mother was interrogated on the first day after the search. She signed the testimony without reading it. The investigator influenced her and said: sign. God only knows what she signed. She is a trusting person, of a different generation. Moreover, if you are a fan of TV series: on TV, the investigator is always looking for the truth, on your side.

The investigator called me to Krasnodar. As such, the interrogation did not work out. On the fifth question, he closed it: I said that I would use Article 51. This is what my lawyer advised me to do. The second time I was summoned to court. They didn’t ask me many questions at the trial.

“They just held him and tried to convince him to admit guilt”

What were the conditions in the pre-trial detention center?

— Very small cells, in Krasnodar in the summer it is very hot, the walls get hot, and at the top there is only one small window with a mesh. Imagine being in such a chamber where there is nothing to breathe for a person whose blood pressure is over 200? There are three people in the cell. You are allowed to go out for an hour into an area about ten meters away, enclosed by concrete walls. We only managed to give him a fan.

My father is the kind of person who doesn't complain. He says it will withstand any conditions. My father was not beaten: we asked the lawyer to go to the pre-trial detention center every month and monitor this. I was given a meeting before the trial; the court gave permission, not the investigator. During this time, dad lost 20 kilograms.

On this date, I asked my dad if he was being beaten, then they reprimanded me and the date was stopped. Before the second date, I was told that such questions cannot be asked: you can only talk about the weather, about relatives. I couldn't find out what was happening there. There were few investigative actions with the father; they simply held him and tried to convince him to admit guilt.

Where is your father sitting?

— Now in Tambov, in IK-1, it is located in the city center. He's glad he got there. The colony is exemplary. He is in the disabled-retirement group, they have their own regime, they often go to the hospital. My father is retired, but he asked to work. He was sent to peel onions in a damp basement. He started having problems with his lungs. He was sent to the hospital and was told that he was unfit for work. They said: read books, go to a club, take a walk. My dad is the kind of person who doesn’t have conflicts.

“We began to understand that there are dozens of us”

What stage is your business at now?

— Our lawyer did not apply to the ECHR; we missed all the deadlines. All that remains for us is to file a supervisory complaint, this is now being done by Ivan Pavlov (lawyers Ivan Pavlov and Evgeny Smirnov entered into Parpulov’s case after consideration in the Supreme Court - OVD-Info ). We thought for a long time that we were the only ones until Alla (Terehova, the wife of Gennady Kravtsov, convicted of treason - OVD-Info ) contacted us and told us that she and Gena had a similar story. Then publications appeared about Svetlana Davydova, we began to understand that there were dozens of us. Only those with whom we communicate are about six people, and all of them got there in 2014.

Now all hope is for a supervisory complaint: perhaps naive, but I still hope that it will be considered seriously. They will pick up the documents and realize that my father did not know this information. The Pope says that his speech in the Supreme Court examined all the mistakes made by the court in the first instance, in the Krasnodar Regional Court.

When he applied for a pardon (in October 2017, Parpulov submitted a petition for pardon to the president - OVD-Info ), he wrote: I only admit that there was a misunderstanding - now I would behave differently with this person. He probably would have kicked him out right away. The pardon commission answered him: but you don’t admit guilt, do you?

Being included in the “Sobchak list” (in April 2018, Ksenia Sobchak handed over to Vladimir Putin a petition for pardon for 16 political prisoners, among them Parpulov - OVD-Info ) was unexpected, but it also gave hope. I was at a reception at the presidential administration, where they told me that there would now be a different attitude towards the pardon of my father.

What advice can you give to people who find themselves in this situation?

- Before you sign anything, think ten times. You can’t trust either the investigator or the lawyers. Only proven lawyers can be trusted. It’s better to be silent more, not to rush. It is necessary to publicize what is happening as quickly as possible. If you remain silent, you will serve all your years; no one will look into your case. You need to shout everywhere you can in order to reach the top.