"There was a team to cruelty"

Interview with designer Konstantin Konovalov. His leg was broken during the detention three hours before the rally - and then they fined for participation in the rally

On September 17, the Savelovsky court of Moscow fined 10 thousand rubles, designer Konstantin Konovalov for participating in a protest campaign on July 27. Konovalov was detained near the building of the Moscow City Hall, where the action was supposed to take place - but three hours before it began. During the detention, his leg was broken, he still undergoes treatment. Due to the injury, Konovalov could not appear at the meeting-which the court warned in advance, hoping that the consideration of his case would be postponed, but this did not happen. The judge found a young man guilty of violating the rules of mass shares. Medusa talked with Konovalov about Russian courts, other defendants in Moscow Affairs and attempts to achieve justice.

- Today, the Savelovsky court in your absence awarded you a fine of 10 thousand rubles for participating in the action on July 27, on which the police broke your leg. How did you learn about it and what do you think about the solution?

- Friends sent me a link to the news on the "rain" about the court decision in my case. I think this is a political matter. If we take the story of Pavel Ustinov, who was imprisoned [for three years and six months], probably my detention looked, plus minus, like him. The only difference is that I ran, the police stood still and then grabbed me abruptly, and there the police ran at him and grabbed it sharply. For a few seconds I tried to push away, which is completely normal for a person who suddenly jumps on, but did not resist any way, because they put me on the asphalt and began to twist my hands. Then they transferred me to another place - they had a leg in general. In the situation of Ustinov, the policeman dislocated his hand, and the man was put on at all. In mine - they broke my leg. According to this logic, they should also plant someone, but of course they will not.

I was fined, because the court needs to fix the position of the Investigative Committee that I participated in the procession . The Investigative Committee called a single run on the sidewalks and lanes of a procession, although it is obvious that I did not participate in the procession. If the court made another decision, there would be a question for the Investigative Committee. And so they have a court decision that I participated in the procession, then they all the more broke my leg "legally."

If I went to court, I would like to ask the judge a question. For an unauthorized rally, a large group of people needs to agree on a place and time. It coincided that I came to this place, but not at that time. If I came to this place on another day, they knocked me down - it would also be considered their logic that I participated in an unauthorized rally? I think this is nonsense. They initially lied, then they began to lie further and now they support their lies.

- You informed the court in advance that you could not come, because you are treating. Did you assume that the court can pass without you?

- I wrote off with other detainees in administrative violations in chats. They wrote that if someone is on vacation, for example, the courts are transferred. This is a normal practice. Initially, my lawyer wrote a letter to the court that he had a vacation - he bought tickets during the meeting and asks him to transfer it. Then they hospitalized me - it also hit this time. I wrote an official telegram to the court. Everyone who was judged was given the e-mail of the Savelovsky court and said that if you need to postpone a meeting or something else, you can write to this address. I also duplicated him that I was in treatment.

For some reason, I probably-I thought that they would be postponed. Still, a resonance business raises questions-after all, I clearly did not participate in the rally. I still have some kind of naivety strings. I think: "No, it cannot be." And then it turns out that it can.

- Do you plan to challenge the fine?

- Yes, we will do it with a lawyer. I do not understand the legal intricacies, it is better to ask my lawyer exactly how we will act.

- How do you feel now?

- I am in rehabilitation. I spend almost the whole day on treatment: physical exercises, physiotherapy, various procedures. Doctors say that I have healing - in any case, training and muscle load - better than usual people. Maybe due to physical training. I feel better now, but doctors predict a complete recovery by the end of the year. While I need to walk with at least one crutch and with an orthosis that fixes the leg. I still can not tolerate a strong load on this leg.

- As far as I understand, you failed to get free and high -quality treatment. How much have you already spent on treatment?

- It is difficult for me to evaluate in total. I spent about 100 thousand rubles, plus the well -wishers helped with the treatment I don’t even know exactly how much. This is all not free medicine, it is quite expensive. Not to say that critically - for me, probably, "you can live." But if a person who earns 30 thousand a month got into this situation, then this would have hit his budget much, because he would spend what he earns in six months a year.

With free treatment we have strong problems. In theory - in order to get a referral for a particular examination in a free clinic, you need to go to the head physician and knock out, cursing and demanding. In the case of the knee, I realized that if I try to be treated for free, it will remain lame with a high probability or restoration will take years.

- You were not only harshly detained, having broken your leg, but for a long time you were not allowed a doctor to you, and then a lawyer. Do you have an understanding why the authorities treated you like this?

- Everything that happened there was based on orders. All police officers received inadequate orders, no one made their decisions. If the police officer called an ambulance, he would have arrived from his superiors: what does he show the initiative? People who were performers, one might say, completely took out their brain, left the avatars who were controlled ineptly by someone upstairs. So it turned out that the lawyer was not allowed to me, they didn’t let the ambulance to me. These employees did not particularly understand what was happening. They themselves mired in a lie and that they simply perform some game. I have in my car carpet due to the fact that people simply leaned out the window, they began to beat them with batons along the knees from the back. There was simply a team for cruelty, so they behaved cruelly and did not fulfill their duties, because they waited for the go -ahead from above, what to do. This indicates how not the entire system is non -working. If each police officer fulfilled the laws, intelligible orders, probably, would have been nothing terrible, they would not have beaten anyone, they would not have just detained anyone. But we have another situation.

The problem, probably, is that even if a psychologically normal person give power, his roof flies. If he feels impunity, if his inner conscience allows people to beat, he will do it with even greater zeal, because no one will punish him. The riot police began to wear these masks, and they generally had a free field for such activities - they can beat anyone, and there will be nothing for them for it. The institute of impunity protects them.

- You complained to the Investigative Committee on employees who detained you. There, and then in court, they refused to accept your complaint. Do you continue to attempt to achieve justice?

- We were refused by the Investigative Committee with a completely outrageous unsubscription that I participated in the procession, and the employees acted within the framework of the law, and the Investigative Committee does not see any problem at all that my leg is broken. Then we sued this decision. The court’s opinion was the same as that of the 17-year-old Alexander Kostyuk, who was hit on the head with a club. There, the surnames were just changed. The court refused because the conveyor refuses to everyone who submitted to the Investigative Committee. The judge at the meeting was indignant that I did not get up when he turned to me. My leg is broken. He is with surprise: “The leg is broken?”, - and this is after getting acquainted with the case, that is, he did not at all read the matter. Everything for a look, everything is puppet. The sensations are disgusting from visiting such a trial.

The representative from the Investigative Committee in the court said that he did not see any violations that they broke my leg. I am sitting, looking into his eyes: "Are you not ashamed?" He was ashamed. At first he buried his eyes on the table, and then he went away at all and did not even listen to the judge’s decision, because he knew him. We submitted to the Moscow City Court, but we have not yet decided on the date of the meeting. I don’t know if something to expect from this meeting. Most likely, everything will pass the same.

“But are you ready to go further to the European Court?”

- Yes.

- It seems to you, what fair punishment would be for the police who broke your leg and have been treated with you?

- I am not ready to judge in this regard. Probably, in a normal society, it would be necessary to conduct a trial of these people and figure it out. I asked the Investigative Committee to establish the names of these employees and understand this situation, but the Investigative Committee does not want to understand this. I have no strong anger towards these employees, because I understand that there are such people in society. It’s just that these people got into the police, and they were given unlimited power and arbitrariness, so they behave like that. If we had a normal system, then if these people showed cruelty at least somewhere, they would just sit on time and certainly would not have accepted them to the organs.

- After the detention, you went to other protests. Have you been scared because of what happened?

-I went to stocks before, not to say that something has changed. Probably, I understood on myself what arbitrariness is, which we read about in the conditional "mediazone". You read about these cases, you think: what a tin. But still, the subconscious mind does not fully believe in it. But when you come across, then the world is revealed.

- You did not start to be afraid of the police?

- No, I'm not afraid of them. During the rally on the boulevards, a police officer came up to me and in a displeased voice, with a mockery said: "He has not yet recovered?" - And quickly left. It was, to put it mildly, unpleasant, vile. First of all, I am a little afraid of the provocateurs that I faced. Someone came to my porch, molested the neighbors. Some guys came to the clinic, almost attacked me with shouts "We will break your second leg." I have a concern from the provocateurs - I do not know who hires them, who organizes it. These are people who are clearly inhabited by someone to scare or simply cause discomfort and give rise to paranoia.

- You mentioned Pavel Ustinov and his sentence. What do you think about the affairs of other defendants in Moscow business?

-To some extent, maybe I was lucky. But this is strange to say, because they are all [defendants in “Moscow business”] are not to blame. Perhaps one of them can be attracted by administrative articles. Suppose a tit, who wrote a vile tweet , can be fined a little, but not to plant for five years. Evgeny Kovalenko, who threw the urn , did not reach her. If you look objectively, he stood up for a guy and a girl, who were beaten for nothing, and acted correctly. How to evaluate that he threw the urn? Maximum as an administrative violation. According to Yegor Zhukov , a shame is generally a shame-investigators did not find a crime and went to look for at least something on the blog. According to Kirill Zhukov , who pulled the Rosgvardein’s helmet ... I don’t know how to comment on it. This is frank nonsense. Not a single person was put at least for something objective. The maximum that some of them can be given is administrative fines.

- At the same time, there are many victims of the actions of the security forces. But in their affairs, as in yours, there are no progress. Do you think that you need to change this situation?

- I see that the other guys go through exactly the same routes: the Investigative Committee, the court. They have the same unsubscriptions as mine. They [the Investigative Committee and the Courts] mock and write the same thing, changing the surname. They have no desire to deal with this. It seems to me that they have a desire to show: “Look, there is lawlessness, and you will not do anything about it. Because we are power and we control this lawlessness. ” There is no article on which the courts can be attracted for making decisions word for word, without delving into business and only changing the surname. All involved in the justice system just need to be removed forever from work.

Kristina Safonova