The refusal of former police officer Vitaly Maksidov to acknowledge himself as a victim of the actions of Samariddin Radzhabov, a defendant in the “Moscow case,” is a simple and at the same time powerful act that reminds law enforcement of the existence of universal humanistic ethical standards that are more important than a false understanding of corporate solidarity.

Radzhabov's case is similar to other episodes of the "Moscow case": first he was accused of participating in mass riots at a rally on July 27 that was not sanctioned by the Moscow mayor's office, and when no evidence of riots was found, Radzhabov was charged under Part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code - a threat to use violence against four police officers at once. According to the investigation, Radzhabov threw a plastic bottle towards the police officers, which fell on the sidewalk without hitting anyone, producing "a sharp impact sound, imitating the destruction of an unknown object with the danger of causing bodily harm." And police officers Linnik, Maksidov, Kombarov and Vnukov "perceived Radzhabov's actions as a real threat of violence against them," Mediazona cites the ruling.

Until now, police officers and National Guard officers have supported the prosecution's version of events, giving identical testimonies about moral suffering or physical pain from touching the body or helmet - several people have already been sentenced to real prison terms for this. This is how the Radzhabov case unfolded - but something went wrong. Maksidov, who was working at a political rally on July 27 for the first time and was initially a witness in the case, refused to recognize himself as a victim. The initiative to transfer him from witness to victim came from the investigators, Maksidov told Radio Liberty and Meduza. According to him, he understood that Radzhabov's actions did not pose any physical or moral danger to him: "I could not allow myself to be a victim in such a case - a person's life is at stake."

Maksidov says he was not afraid of losing his job: he wrote a letter of resignation before the July 27 protest, partly for personal reasons, partly because he was unhappy with the rules of the Interior Ministry system. Perhaps this made his choice easier, although he insists that he would have done the same thing anyway: “It’s a simple human act.”

But simple human actions today are doomed to attract attention, if only because people rarely see how universal human ethical norms prevail over corporate principles among security forces. According to Maksidov, no one ordered the protesters to be beaten, but there were plenty of people willing to do so (he himself says that he never used force against protesters). None of the investigators forced anyone to give the testimony they needed, but they gave it. And when “one who didn’t shoot” is found, it’s always impressive: it turns out that this was also possible.

A policeman without a baton