Seven years in two pages of text. Letter from a journalist accused of justifying terrorism

I (we?) - Svetlana Prokopyeva. I am a journalist, and I could be imprisoned for seven years for “justifying terrorism.”

Almost a year ago, an explosion occurred in Arkhangelsk. The explosion was unexpected, stunning - 17-year-old Mikhail Zhlobitsky blew himself up at the entrance to the Arkhangelsk FSB building. A few seconds before, he left a suicide note on Telegram. He wrote that he was going to blow himself up because “the FSB has gone crazy, fabricating cases and torturing people.”

This explosion in Arkhangelsk became the topic of my next column on the radio “Echo of Moscow in Pskov”. “Acting deliberately,” I wrote a text entitled “Repression for the State.” On November 7, the program went on air, and then the text version appeared on the Pskov news feed website.

Almost a month passed when PLN and Ekho Moskvy received warnings from Roskomnadzor - our quasi-censor saw in my text “signs of justification for terrorism.” At the beginning of December, administrative protocols were drawn up, which in the magistrate's court cost two media outlets 350 thousand rubles in fines. At the same time, the Pskov Investigative Committee began an investigation under Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - against me personally. The prospect of a criminal case clearly loomed, but we laughed and twisted our fingers at our temples. What the hell is the justification for terrorism? Roskomnadzor in its warnings did not indicate a single specific phrase or even word where there were “signs”, and could not indicate - such words are not there. As it soon became clear, this does not matter.

On February 6, I opened the door when the bell rang, and a dozen armed men in helmets pushed me back with shields to the wall in the back room. That’s how I found out that a criminal case had been opened.

A search is a disgusting and humiliating procedure. Some strangers rummage through your things, others watch indifferently. Old records, cash receipts, letters with foreign stamps - everything suddenly takes on a suspicious, criminal connotation, everything requires explanation. Your things, the most important and necessary ones - a laptop, a phone - become “physical evidence”. Your colleagues and relatives can now easily turn out to be “accomplices.”

That day I was robbed - they took three laptops, two phones, a voice recorder, and flash drives. Six months later, they robbed me again, blocking my accounts. I was still only a “suspect” when I was added to Rosfinmonitoring’s list of active extremists and terrorists. Now I can’t get a bank card in my name, open a deposit or get a mortgage - the state has cut me out of normal economic life.

All they had to do was take away the last thing from me—my freedom—and so, on September 20, my procedural status changed. Today I am officially accused of a crime under Article 205.2, part 2 - justification of terrorism using the media. This is a fine of up to a million rubles or imprisonment for up to seven years.

I do not admit guilt and consider my criminal case to be a banal revenge of offended security forces. In that text, I held them responsible for the Arkhangelsk explosion. I wrote that the repressive state waited for a response. That brutal law enforcement policies brutalize citizens. That blocked legal paths push the energy of protest into such a socially dangerous direction.

If you're not afraid, post a quote:

“Strong state. Strong president, strong governor. A country in which power belongs to the security forces.

The generation to which the Arkhangelsk bomber belonged grew up in this atmosphere. They know that you can’t go to rallies - they will disperse you, or even beat you, and then condemn you. They know that single pickets are punishable. They see that only a certain set of parties can you safely belong to, and only a certain range of opinions can be expressed without fear. This generation learned from examples that you won’t get justice in court - the court will rubber-stamp the decision that Comrade Major came with.

The long-term restriction of political and civil freedoms has created in Russia not just an unfree, but a repressive state. A state that is unsafe and scary to deal with.”

I still think so. Moreover, in my opinion, with this criminal case the state only confirmed my theses. "Punish. Proving guilt and convicting is their only task. The slightest formal clue is enough for a person to be dragged into the millstones of legal proceedings.”

I did not condone terrorism. I analyzed the reasons for the terrorist attack. I tried to understand why a young guy who had to live and live decided to commit suicide . Perhaps I was wrong in reconstructing his motives - and it’s good if I was wrong! - but no one has proven this. Accusation instead of discussion is, you know, a rather primitive and rude position. This is a fist to the face in response to a verbal remark.

This is a fist in the face of every journalist in our country.

It is impossible to know in advance exactly which words, in what order, placed, will offend the next security official invested with power. They called the opinion expressed a crime. They construct a criminal out of a man who simply did his job.

Using the same principle, you can invent a criminal case from any more or less acute text. It is enough to find “experts” who will sign the “expert opinion” the investigator needs. Knowing this, will you take on a problematic topic? Will you pose questions that are sure to piss off the authorities? Do you dare to convict the one who wears the shoulder straps of a crime?

My criminal case is the murder of freedom of speech. With my example before their eyes, dozens and hundreds of other journalists will not dare to tell the truth in time