"Kitty in raincoats": an interview with a member of the PMC of St. Petersburg Ekaterina Kosarevskaya

In July, a set of public observation commissions (PMCs) in 42 regions of Russia starts. Human rights activists and activists from several cities decided to help people who want to become members of the PMC. OVD-Info talked with the coordinator of the project “Form the PMC 2019” Ekaterina Kosarevskaya about the prison, cats in cloaks and how to be a cool member of the PMC.

It is so difficult to become a member of the PMC that a whole project of assistance to candidates is needed?

Our idea is just that becoming a member of the PMC is easier than being a member of the PMC ( grins ). Anti -advertising.

From the side it seems that the PMC is such special guys who are in some ways departmental, in the Public Chamber (OP), the Human Rights Council. And what is needed, I don’t know, to be a human rights activist for the last 40 years, to be born under the table of a human rights organization.

In fact, in order to become a member of the PMC, it is necessary to satisfy not a very long list of formal criteria: to be incredible or with a extinguished criminal record, not to have relatives in a conclusion, not to be a security forces, not to be a lawyer, and then gather and submit documents. One of the main goals of our campaign is to bring to potential members of the PMC that all this is not difficult. The second goal is to help with the bureaucracy, with the paperwork.

How is the PMC formed? People who are in one way or another are related to human rights, approximate or charitable work-formally, in fact, it can be former security forces-they get acquainted with any organization, take a package of documents and send them to OP. Further, OP checks whether the documents are correctly drawn up, and then still looks who is really worthy to be a member of the PMC.

Three years ago, it became clear that OP is more likely choosing those who will not be a good member of the PMC, and at least scores those who were a good member of the PMC before. For whom it is clear that he will create difficulties for structures that violate the rights of prisoners.

For example, in the Chelyabinsk region, the fourth convocation did not take Tatyana and Nikolai Schur. The Public Chamber said that they did not have enough experience of human rights work. And at the same time, they have two convocations of the PMC, an investigation of the so-called rebellion in Kopeisk, which began due to torture.

Why is it all? To the fact that this selection is quite opaque. I would like to see how it works. It would seem that the decisions of the Public Chamber should be made in a way open to society. From July 20 to September 20, our goal is to help draw up documents, and tell that the PMC exists and it would be nice to enter it. And then we will watch how the selection will take place.

How did the idea of ​​the project appear?

I was a member of the PMC of the fourth convocation, which now ends, and during the set of the third convocation I was 22 and I could not get to the PMC. But we, together with Yashka (member of the PMC Yana Teplitskaya- OTD-info), really wanted the PMC to be active and consist of some adequate people. We walked and told everyone about this mechanism, got acquainted with organizations that could nominate candidates for PMCs, did a lot of this. So, by the way, they met Azaria, which then nominated us. Now, six years later, they just remembered skills.

I realized that it was necessary to engage in a new convocation in St. Petersburg, because many people who helped us began to say that they want to come. And just because no one does it, it needs to be done.

The [human rights activists- OVD-info ] Dima Makarov and Sasha Krylenkova came up to me and said: "Let's take care of the PMC for 42 regions." It seemed to me very tempting. This was practically the same as I was going to do in St. Petersburg, the technical instructions are almost the same, working with organizations is the same, only global. And almost immediately, the coordinator of the Open Space, Ilya Ershov, with whom, including, we are doing everything are doing everything.

Are the local public chambers are engaged in a set to regional PMCs?

The federal op. And this is not so bad. In the regions, local OPs know very well who does not need to be taken to the PMC. And in Moscow they may not notice those who will become a class member of the PMC, who will protect the rights of prisoners, and they will be missed.

But what about the "cool" member of the PMC?

There are those who, having talked with a person whose face there are traces of torture, will come out and say that there were no violations. In the Vladimir region, it was that people talked with the person who swallowed the language, and said that, according to him, he swallowed the language voluntarily. As he explained, it is still not clear, because he can no longer talk. Such people, of course, are non -balance members of the PMC.

There are still no members of the PMCs who receive the mandate and do nothing. They can be spoilers who were scored to fill out the commission. Or are these people who overestimated their strength-they received a mandate, but at some point they stopped working.

A cool member of the PMC can be a thousand different ways. Everyone works very differently. There is so much work and places of imprisonment that an ideal member of the PMC can only be with the help of a flywheel of time, pushing 24 hours a day to 100. Having fired from work and receiving passive income: they don’t pay for the PMC.

In Yekaterinburg, for example, Vyacheslav Bashkov, who was also not taken in the fourth convocation, was, for example. He was engaged in a lot of police departments, made a guide to departments, made reviews of departments in the regional media. He managed to achieve that the detainees were released after three hours of detention, and that bedding appeared in the departments, and to give food. In some departments, the torture pipes are dismantled, to which the detainees were packed.

Tatyana and Nikolai Schur made a detailed investigation of the rebellion in Kopeisk, they did not succeed in success, the guilty people were not punished, but the case continues. In Moscow, thanks to Anna Karetnikova, fresh vegetables began to be taken in insulators. And the employees of the committee against torture on the mandate go to the places of imprisonment and receive appeals about torture.

How much will members in the PMC interfere with a person in life, work?

This is not the simplest activity. You need to understand how important this topic is for you. In my opinion, she is wildly important. The ability to fall into closed, sealed places in which the worst thing occurs in this tightness. The harder, the worse. I think if you close some hypermarket and leave people there, then after a while there will also be a disaster.

And then you need to be prepared either to give a tangible piece of time for this lesson, or be able to build boundaries. If you understand that you are ready to take one evening a week to the PMC, visit the institution once every two weeks, process appeals once every two weeks, write conclusions and posts on Facebook. I think this is already much more than no members of the PMC do. At the same time, yes, the prison is addictive.

Is the prison pulling?

Well, yes. True, I was distracted by the FSB in due time. When we met the first case of torture from the FSB, which we saw with our own eyes, the center was very shifted from prison to the fight against the torture of the FSB.

Former member of the PMC of St. Petersburg Leonid Agafonov, after I found out that I had sent documents to OP, said: "Katya, do not do this in any case, you will not have a job, there will be no personal life." I would say that he was wrong.

And why is this topic in general: prison, torture, PMC? What were the entrance points?

Apart from the prehistoric, when I was 10 years old, and I saw on TV that the former KGBSHNI became the president of the country ...

That is, already at the age of 10 there was an understanding that the KGB is bad? Where?

Firstly, it always seemed important to me to be where it is the darkest. The environment, some common cultural places, around were people who remembered that the KGB was bad. This is such a zero entrance point.

Then, another entry point: Yana Teplitskaya and I are sitting with her and - probably not from the laptop yet, but from a stationary computer - we read Anna Karetnikova LJ.

Then-in August of the 13th, raids on migrants. They were placed everywhere: in the police departments, and in buses, and in the attics of an abandoned FMS building, and in the apartments of bailiffs. Then she did everything that she could: she talked with the police and explained to them that they did not know how to count up to 48 (the detention hours- OVD-info ), it turned out to even rescue people, went to the courts. This was my first close acquaintance with closed institutions.

The next entrance point is when, thanks to the mandate of a member of the ONK, I entered the pre -trial detention center, where I heard Viktor Filinkov’s story about how he was tortured.

But at some point I was terribly tired, I wanted to hand over the mandate. This, by the way, is also a working procedure, you can hand over the mandate, and then the organization that nominated you will have a priority to send a new member of the PMC. You can find a replacement in the middle of the way. So I dreamed of such a replacement, looked at my acquaintances and thought who to send in his place.

And then Viktor Filinkov happened, who showed us traces of torture, I went out onto Shpalelena Street and thought: “How so, I could now be without a mandate, and how would I forgive myself?” Sometimes you perform actions, and you understand that they are life -forming. Important and correct. This was one of these - due to the fact that I had a mandate.

Will you be submitted to the new convocation yourself? Which region?

Yes. It remains to decide where I will live the next three years ( laughs ). Well, in general, where I will live for the next three years, most likely. Most likely, it will still be Petersburg.

What are the chances that beautiful people from the Public Chamber, knowing how boring and inactive member of the PMC you will let you into a new convocation?

It will be very interesting for me to see how they will explain why they did not let me in. If they do not let me in. I do not know how OP is listening to the recommendations of regional FSIN and FSB. In fact, such an intrigue as. I do not know what the regional FSIN will say about me, it is quite difficult for us to interact with them. I never talked with the FSB, except for my complaints that they torture people - they never answered.

Well, let's see. If this seemed a completely useless action, I would not start, because completely useless actions, unlike a hopeless struggle, do not seem attractive to me.

On your stickers are cats similar to superheroes. To be a member of the PMC, you need to be a superhero?

These are not superheroes. To be a member of the PMC, you do not need to be a superhero. This, damn it, two cats in some strange raincoats. You are a cat in a cloak that is trying to make what seems correct. And then a person approaches you and says: well, what a superhero you are! And you are just a cat, and it’s good if in a cloak.