Time of lieutenant colonels

Peter Miloserdov - about what the fight against corruption is similar when looking on the other side of the prison grate

The governor H. was arrested by Minister Y. The FSB Z officer was detained. If you believe the news, in Russia there is a fight against corruption. This is a good argument in favor of Putin's authoritarianism: there is no money, freedoms - too, but everyone is equal before the law.

Stay in prison provided me with a unique opportunity to chat with the defendants in high -profile affairs. From the television portions where the Sobr knocks out the doors, they get here, into the special blocks of "sailor silence." The picture of the realities of the “fight against corruption” formed like a puzzle, from pieces - conversations with arrested officials, businessmen, and security forces. Hence this struggle is seen as a large -scale epidemic on repaying property, groaning money, and the factory of affairs for the sake of stars on the uniform. It is the epidemic, since the basis is not the plan of the top, but the model of behavior (social virus) of the middle level security forces, lieutenant colonels.

If you, based on common sense, you believe that there is some kind of landing plan, that it is backed up by the data collected and someone leads it, you are mistaken.

Those of my interlocutors who tried to find a person who made a decision on their arrest were convinced of this. Yes, you can easily find out the names - investigator, prosecutor, judge. But who made the decision not formal-legal, but in fact? The one who said “FAS!” Cannot find it.

Among my interlocutors were those who naively believed that “Comrade Stalin was not reported” about their arrest, that the main thing was to reach “who should”. And when they called on the WottsApp “their”, bored with years officials, at best they heard: “Old man, they made a decision on you somewhere upstairs, I can’t help with anything.”

It became obvious that “who follows” does not exist, in its place a black hole. An illustration here is a Soviet joke. Brezhneva is taken on a government limousine, the Secretary General is irritated by slowness - he loves a quick ride - he sits behind the wheel and drives with a breeze. The flying limousine stops the traffic cop, sees Brezhnev’s driver's seat and, having been speechless, waves the tender: they say, pass. And he replies to the questions of his colleagues: “Can you imagine who really rode there, if he has a driver Brezhnev?”

So in our case: in the place of a conceivable high -ranking figure is actually an empty place. A decision -making - no. There is no “repression machine”, there is no plan, no mechanism. But there is a model of the behavior of lieutenant colonel, working in the conditions of paranoia of the upper reaches, a “Deriban” of assets, an atomized society, which issued them a mandate for contempt for the right for the sake of “order”. According to this model, decision -making is replaced by the collective silent consent of semi -enony figures.

Confirms this gloomy theory and the course of the investigation on loud matters. And he is this: nothing really is investigated, not looking. As many people as possible, including almost random, are arrested, they are declared a “criminal community” (Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). And-they are waiting for one of them, without removing the hardships of prison life, he will conclude a pre-trial agreement (in exchange for a shorter term) and wave the necessary indications. Let the numbers not mislead you: dozens of people in the investigative group, hundreds of volumes of business.

Of the dozen investigators, two or three people really work, the rest for one-time assignments.

Of the hundreds of volumes, three quarters-copies of court decisions, internal correspondence of the bodies, all this is rethured two to three times. What will go to court under the guise of evidence is five percent of the volume of the case, several volumes. De facto consequence is not conducted, but imitated.

Case Ivan Golunov is an example of a case generated by a “black hole”. Recall his result: a scandal for the whole country, the initiator of the case - was not found. I am sure that if it was possible to open his wrong side, it would have turned out that not a single one or less high-ranking rank made a decision to initiate the case. It seemed to be “selfless”: someone made the name of Golunov in the materials of operational developments, someone forged the examination, someone threw something, someone signed something. Of course, not just like that, in someone’s local, lieutenant colonel-interests.

In the same way, political affairs appear in a “black hole”. For example, for the refusal to cooperate with the FSB, I received an absurd, in the spirit of the 37th year, an accusation of preparing a coup in Kazakhstan. Of course, even earlier, for the refusal to cooperate with the authorities, one could wait for some kind of subject, but not prison! In the course of finding out who exactly my landing was needed, it was possible to reach the high offices. “Yes, we don’t need it” - was a typical answer. And they added: "Time now, understand."

And now the time is such that the driving force of decision -making, and their own style has become a hysteria, neurosis. The realities of the Russian “besieged fortress” are such that each of the besieged suspects the neighbor of readiness to surrender. This gives rise to paranoia in the top, which is exploited by Lieutenant Colonels. An example is “Moscow business”, landing participants in protests in Moscow. Who made a political decision on their arrests? The country's leadership? I believe that there were no requests for tough measures from above. Decisions were made by performers, in the format of collective, anonymous departure from responsibility (the same “black hole”). And only then they were silently visited the tops. But the person who said “Plant them!” Most likely there is no.

I am not a lawyer to bribe takers. But, seeing the wrong side of what is happening, I claim: the fight against corruption acquired the nature of repression. The security forces actually “appointed” the state apparatus with a collective scapegoat. The official is obviously, in the fact that he is an official, accused of corruption.

Lieutenant Colonels strengthen their authority at the cost of the collapse of the state apparatus: a wave of landing has already led to the fact that only those who are afraid to make at least some decisions remain in it.

After all, if earlier they punished for violation of informal rules of the game, today - for their compliance. In such an environment, the official generally stops working.

The destruction of the rules of the game was also deplorable to officials from the security forces. The only difference is that they dug this hole for themselves. The arrests of the FSB officers, the TFR also contribute to the spread of paranoid morality "die today, and I am tomorrow."

Businessman N decided that his partners are deceiving, and turned to the TFR. They opened the case, conducted searches. But N. himself became the suspects in the case. However, the investigator hinted to him that everything would be possible to beat for a bribe. N was indignant at the blackmail, went to the FSB. They were delighted there, supplied with labeled bills. The investigator of the TFR was taken with red -handed. Bottom line: both are sitting. N-by the fact of the case, the investigator-for extorting a bribe from N.

By the way, in the majority of cases there are not only state interest against businessmen, there are not even interests of an all -Russian scale. Khodorkovsky at one time was imprisoned, motivating this with the need to preserve the power structure, the case was supervised from the very top. Today, a nameless lieutenant colonel would have been initiated against the MBH, out of interest to “squeeze” 700 green greens. And by the way, Khodorkovsky would have received about the same period.

What is he, this lieutenant colonel, the hero of his time? He is relatively young, born in 1975–1980 Like many who were born in these years, he saw the scream of an eternal union and, struck by the ease with which the empire collapsed, does not believe in anything eternal. In addition to money, the era of which replaced Sovetskaya. He hates entrepreneurs, they are in his language - "hucksters." He does not respect officials. One of them (a large regional bump) accompanying him for interrogations Feesbashnik proudly stated: “Soon we will get to your governor, there are no authorities for us.” The more status the accused is, the more vengeful delight. Yes, and stars on the uniform can be added.

Does the tops of the scope of the activities of anonymous lieutenant colonel are satisfied? I am afraid that such a statement of the question is no longer possible today. And that's why.

“Kremlin” today do not see supports in any of the active layers. Neither in business (they do not want “hucksters” to tighten the belts), nor in the state apparatus (loafers and intriguers), nor in the middle class (potential “traitors of the Motherland”), nor even in the Uralvagonzavod (these do not want to tolerate the lack of money). Therefore, a fairly numerous and indicatively loyal middle link of the security forces becomes the only support. In this regard, the question of whether the tops are arranged by the epidemic of landings is no longer worth it. However, I assume that in the Kremlin there are a lot of those who understand: the “mandate for violence” in the hands of the lieutenant colonels will not bring to good. The power "tail" will eventually begin to wag the power "dog", leading to a multiple of the system. But because of paranoia and fear of decision-making, everything remains as it is.

The question "How much more will it last?" Many set themselves. In the will, he is not pronounced aloud, participating in a conspiracy of silence, depicting stability and loyalty. But in prison I heard him from my interlocutors many times. There is no exact answer to it and cannot be. But the snake has already begun to devour its tail. In conditions of reduction of the “feed base”, the security forces began to plant each other.

The bicycle for stability needs movement. To the lieutenant colonel - criminal cases, and in all growing volume; Enemies of the state are needed - businessmen, officials, opposition. The combination of three factors: the Soviet principle of collective (without) responsibility, post -Soviet thirst for profit and paranoia of recent years - gave rise to a unique self -propelled mechanism to fabricate criminal cases. But if someone believes that this extra-demonstrative semi-dictatorship is stable, pinch yourself. You are dreaming.

PS

Political strategist Petr Mercerodov was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for the alleged creation of an “extremist community” in Kazakhstan; The testimony against him was given by a man who first saw Miloserdov in the courtroom and knowing about him only from the Internet. The Human Rights Center "Memorial" in 2018 recognized Miloserdov as political prisoner. Currently, he is in the Sailor Silence isolator, expecting to consider his case with an appeal instance.