Stand next to the struggle

Hundreds of Muscovites went to single pickets in support of Ivan Golunov

On June 6, a special correspondent of Medusa, a journalist-investigator Ivan Kolunov, was detained in Moscow. He is suspected of spreading drugs; Packages with prohibited substances were found during a search in the backpack of Ivan, and then in his apartment . Golunov said that the drugs were thrown back to him. After the detention of Golunov was beaten, he was not allowed to call a lawyer, they did not give food for more than a day . The Medusa editors are confident in the innocence of the journalist. From 16:00 the next day (it was known about the detention only on June 7) in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Perm and other cities, shares were held in support of Ivan Golunov. A series of single pickets near the building of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Moscow (Petrovka, 38) did not stop at night, several hundred people took part in it. The Special Corps of Medusa Kristina Safonova watched the pickets.

At about four o’clock in the afternoon, Ilya Azar and Alisa Kustikova, journalists of Novaya Gazeta, are sitting on one of the parapets of passionate boulevard. They are preparing posters for the picket in support of a colleague-the journalist Medusa, Ivan Golunov, who was suspected of attempting to sell drugs on a large scale.

Golunov was detained in the center of Moscow on the afternoon of June sixth - but this became known only half a day after what happened: until late at night he was not allowed to contact a lawyer and notify loved ones. During a search in a backpack, a journalist found a bag with narcotic substances. Police refused to check the backpack and hands of Golunov, as well as conduct a medical examination that would show whether he used drugs. In addition, Ivan was not allowed to sleep and eat. He denies his guilt. Colleagues do not believe in his guilt. The journalists who came to the picket are convinced-Golunov is pursuing because of his professional activity.

The first with a poster in defense of Golunov at the entrance to the building of the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs on Petrovka 38 was Ilya Azar - one of the authors of the idea of ​​conducting pickets. His colleague Alice Kustikova at that time stood on the corner of the building. Several police officers are following what is happening.

The detentions begin when Azara is replaced by Pavel Kanygin, also a new journalist. He came to a picket with his wife and child. A police officer approaches Kanygin, asks to present documents. Then he takes out a red notebook and rewrites the data from the passport for a long time. The policeman explains to the questions of journalists why the check is being checked that it is impossible to stand on a picket with a backpack, since its contents are unknown. To test the things, Kanygin is taken to one of the three nearby car rods - he soon leaves with the journalist.

Following Kanygin, police detain everyone who has posters in their hands. So far, all this is journalists. Ilya Azar, Viktor Shenderovich, Alexander Polivanov, Grigory Tumanova and Victoria Ivlev are planted in the car Zakak - some of the autozaks will write that the formal reason for the detention is the “Rules of 50 meters” - participants should stand at such a distance from each other so that the event can be considered a single picket.

Alice Kustikova manages to hide the poster and avoid detention.

“I came because I am engaged in investigations. For me, Ivan Golunov is a person who can be equal to. He works very cool with sources and data. What happened yesterday, I consider an attack and a story related to his professional activity directly. We must fight for our professional rights. Therefore, I consider it my duty to support Ivan, ”says Kustikova.

Together with journalists, police officers also take posters. But new picketers are replaced by the taken away. “This is a disgusting, fabricated business. Revenge for the investigation of Ivan Golunov. [...] Any decent person must resist this, ”says Anna Narinskaya’s literary critic.

“What are you standing? Lean! ”, The walkie -talkie breaks. Police are standing next to Narinskaya, but do not dare to detain her. A journalist is asked to go to the car Zakak only after screams from the walkie -talkie are repeated several times.

Unlike Narinskaya, the former Medusa editor of Alexander Gorbachev, they are delayed almost immediately after he got up with a poster near the building. Soon, both autozaks leave for Tverskaya AVD to draw up a protocol under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the rules of public event). But in the end, journalists are simply released. Many of them return to Petrovka.

By six o’clock, a crowd gathers at the building of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Some come with ready -made posters, others write slogans on cardboard and album sheets. “The policemen took the poster, I will draw more,” says Anastasia Lotareva, editor -in -chief of such cases. She adds that she came to the picket, because this is a matter of professional solidarity.

There are more and more people who want to demonstrate the support of Golunov, and people decide to organize a queue. In this they are helped by police officers who ask everyone to step aside and not interfere with the passage of citizens. As a result, a line is built from the entrance and almost to the end of the building; The picketers are at the corners of the building. Attention is attracted by a young man named Denis Zakharov-there are no inscriptions on his poster, only the QR code, according to which you can find the articles of Ivan Golunov.

“The main thing is that they [articles] be read. Because the articles are the most important thing in this story, ”says Zakharov. - I came because it is very difficult, there is nothing to read. And he [Ivan Kolunov] is good, he wrote good things, correct. When such people [delay], I want to go out. ”

People continue to flock to Petrovka. Some of them are brought for protesting bottles and cans of water, disposable glasses and apples. Supplies are left right at the fence of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Documentalist Olga Stefanova led to a picket “pain for people who try to fight for the truth, for acting with them as with cattle-and the desire to“ share this struggle for the truth, stand next to her. ”

Hide for a while, the police return to the building with a roulette. Having measured the distance from one picket to another - the same 50 meters - they again begin to detain. In the police department, including the municipal deputy of the Basmanny district, Viktor Kotov, journalist Vladimir Haifets, activists Daria Polyudov, Daniil Shadymov and Alexei Klimishin. There, administrative protocols for violation of the procedure for holding a public event will draw up on them.

Despite the new detentions, people continue to come. Waiting in line takes at least an hour, but this seems to be not worried about anyone. “There will be two such lines to say freedom to Golunov,” one of the posters written on one of the posters. Other slogans: “My name is Ivan Kolunov. I am a journalist. Hold me too, "" Stop tossing drugs "and" Guys, you can’t! "

Journalist Vladimir Maksakov holds a poster with the inscription “Please free Ivan Golunov! King of Westeros. " He decided to participate in the picket, because this is the only opportunity to express his attitude to the detention of a colleague. “It is clear that the matter is wise with white threads, but so that it is so ... It goes beyond all the limits of good and evil,” says Maksakov.

“Sometimes some injustice in life occur. The tragedy, as it was last year in Kemerovo. Now the situation with Kolunov, ”says Yandex employee Yuri Bolotov. - These events are sad on their own. At the same time, you believe that you live in a modern country, in a certain civilized society. And then this happens, and you understand how much this is not so. You cannot be proud of the country in which this happens. ”

According to Bolotov, the reality is that people who take revenge on journalists rarely bear punishment - on the contrary, they “leave the post of governor of the problem region to increase the leaders of United Russia”. “If this happens one more time, if those people who do this with Kolunov will not be punished ... you need to leave,” says Yuri Bolotov.

At the beginning of the eleventh - six hours after the start of the pickets - people continue to stand in line. The police are activated again and trying to drive people away with the help of a watering machine. The effect is reverse: people tired of the heat only rejoice in sudden coolness. Then police officers include megaphones and bring them to the walkie -talkies; A sharp, unpleasant sound spreads throughout the street. People in response begin to sing along, dance and laugh.

-DJ-Set-shit, come on!

- What kind of audio?

-An experimental Noise concert in support of Ivan Golunov! - Screams from the crowd are heard.

After half an hour, the police stop attempts to disperse the crowd and hide in neighboring alleys. On the other side of the street, a woman with a poster chants: “Freedom! Freedom! "

After midnight, Petrovka 38 is still in line.

Kristina Safonova