"Mediazona": Freedom Square

On April 20, a rally against the “self-isolation regime” was held in Vladikavkaz, which resulted in mass detentions, clashes between demonstrators and security forces, and a wave of administrative arrests. On that day, 145 patients with COVID-19 were identified in North Ossetia. Now the number of infected people has grown to 1,801, and two dozen participants in the rally have become defendants in a criminal case. Yulia Sugueva talks about its details.

On April 20, about 1,500 residents of North Ossetia took to the Freedom Square in Vladikavkaz. The action was conceived as a people's gathering against the "self-isolation regime", because of which many in the republic lost their jobs, but already on the spot those who gathered began to put forward political demands: to dismiss the government and the head of the republic, Vyacheslav Bitarov, to hold early elections, to release the activist and opera singer Vadim Cheldiev. On the same day, the government of the republic promised to provide material assistance to the poor.

In the evening, employees of the National Guard and the Ministry of Internal Affairs began to disperse the protesters who remained on the square, in response, stones were thrown at the security forces.

The next morning, the Department for the Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the Investigative Committee for North Ossetia opened criminal cases on the use of violence against the National Guardsmen and policemen (part 1 of article 318) and on hooliganism associated with resistance to a representative of the authorities (part 2 of article 213 of the Criminal Code). The two cases were later merged.

On April 23, on behalf of the head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin, the case was transferred to the central office of the department. The investigation was assigned to a group of 13 investigators.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than 100 people were detained at the protests on April 20, 65 of them were subjected to administrative arrest for a period of two to 15 days. More than 20 became defendants in criminal cases.

"People were like 300 Spartans." Who and against what protested on Freedom Square

“I just came to express my position and was not there with any party,” says Alan, a participant in the rally in Vladikavkaz, who asked not to be named. - I wanted to know: in addition to the so-called coronavirus, what questions can be voiced in general? I was interested in the economic situation. The head of the republic - he, to tell the truth, is not a timid one - calmly came out, answered questions, but almost nothing was heard through this megaphone, and people - they were, of course, annoyed by this - began to shout.

Alan says that he is engaged in the supply and maintenance of ventilation systems, but with the onset of the crisis, the volume of work has been greatly reduced, and after the introduction of quarantine, it "has become completely non-existent."

“I asked [the head of the republic] a question, why does it happen that we have taxi drivers, manicurists and nothing else in our country? It's scary when [people have] higher education, but they are forced to work in a taxi. He told me: “Can you essentially ask what you propose?”. I told him: “If you cannot raise the economy, distribute interest-free loans to the population, they will raise it themselves.” We must feel like citizens of the country,” Alan retells his dialogue with Bitarov.

According to him, while there were a lot of people at the rally, the police did not interfere in what was happening, but in the evening, when the square was almost empty, the head of the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mikhail Skokov, announced that if the rest did not disperse in 10 minutes, the security forces would begin to "storm".

“And there were like 300 Spartans, there was basically no one left,” says Alan. - This is the Caucasus, you can’t say that, we’re not dogs. At first, people tried to talk: ‘Don’t do this, don’t come at us, we came here to express our opinion, to hear answers to questions,’ but [the security forces] were already of little interest — they started hitting their shields.”

When the rally participants began to be pushed and beaten on the heads, “confusion began”: “some beat, others defended themselves as best they could”, throwing stones in the direction of the security forces.

Alan himself considers the COVID-19 pandemic an overblown problem. “People don’t believe in this coronavirus at all. 15-20 percent are still afraid of something, and 80 percent understand that this is a big lie. An elephant has been blown up so much out of a fly that it’s simply ridiculous for people, ”he is sure.

At the end of the rally, Alan recalls, he walked away from the square to buy mineral water, and at that moment he was detained by people in civilian clothes. The Soviet District Court of Vladikavkaz concluded that the man "took part in the mass simultaneous stay and (or) movement of citizens in public places" (Part 1 of Article 20.2.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), which caused a violation of public order, and appointed him 15 days of administrative arrest.

“Those who are from the federal center just wanted to suppress the small percentage that remained [in the square]. If they now report that people have gathered, and they could not do anything with such a large number of riot police, the National Guard ... They needed to announce to all of Russia that the Caucasus was suppressed, one of the regions of the Caucasus. Because if there had been no [dispersal], then, perhaps, Ingushetia, Kabarda, and Dagestan would have risen. They were afraid of it,” says Alan.

Another detainee at the rally, a 29-year-old resident of the city of Alagir, asked not to be named. He claims that on that day he ended up on Freedom Square by accident - he came to Vladikavkaz on business, saw a crowd and “for the sake of interest” came up to look.

He was detained in the afternoon - and also people in civilian clothes and medical masks.

“Well, the people were already on the verge, someone literally had no food there, someone had financial problems, someone lost their job because of this fuss,” the Mediazona interlocutor explains the motives of the audience. - Let's say I worked as a simple worker at a construction site and as a driver. I went out - I earned it, but now I can’t go out. Fortunately, there are pensioners at home, and we feed ourselves from this. Everyone took loans to somehow live, most of them you pay for a loan, they also don’t give any holidays. Now I'm sitting here and I don't know what to do."

A resident of Alagir was arrested for three days under the same article as Alan. He does not deny the reality of the pandemic, but finds social support measures insufficient against the backdrop of quarantine. “Now they show on the Internet that food packages are given out to the poor people. How much is enough? For a week? What's next? Go out again? Yes, there is a coronavirus, everyone gets sick, but they don’t turn on emergency situations to help the people somehow, but simply [announced] self-isolation,” the man is indignant.

According to lawyer Serhiy Denisenko, who collaborates with the Apology of Protest project, protocols were drawn up against the majority of those detained at the gathering under Article 20.2.

“In terms of administration, I had 14 people. People had to be caught in temporary detention facilities, they made their way, often they did not want to let them in. They were [distributed] all over Ossetia: three people in the village of Chikola, one in Ardon, another in Beslan, the third was thrown into Mozdok in general. There were also in the village of Oktyabrskoye and only two in Vladikavkaz itself, ”the lawyer lists.

“They will be identified by video recordings.” What are the protesters accused of?

Last week, the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for North Ossetia reported that more than 20 people were already involved in criminal cases initiated after the action in Vladikavkaz.

According to lawyer Denisenko, the first defendant in the case appeared on April 25, he was John Dzhioev, who participated in the people's gathering. “I was in the Investigative Committee and just heard the conversation, as the local investigator reported on the phone that he had detained the first person under 213, part 2,” recalls the defender.

Denisenko says that he was supposed to represent Dzhioev at a meeting on an administrative offense, but they refused to let the lawyer go to court. On April 28, the Leninsky District Court arrested Dzhioev until June 21.

The latest defendant in the case of hooliganism today was 32-year-old resident of Vladikavkaz Artur Bugulov. On May 10, the Leninsky District Court sent him to a pre-trial detention center. During the meeting, it turned out that the man was diagnosed with coronavirus - the initial analysis was positive.

Bugulov was detained only on 27 April. According to reports from two police officers, he was identified after watching video from the rally. The next day, the same Leninsky court arrested him for 15 days under Article 20.2.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. In the explanation that Bugulov gave at Center E, he admitted that at first he tried to calm the people who were throwing stones at the “riot police officers” who were pushing them, but then he was hit several times, and then, “succumbing to a feeling of anger”, he also threw stone in the direction of the security forces. Where the stone fell, Bugulov did not see.

“He managed to get through to me, I went straight to the court,” says Denisenko’s lawyer, who represents Bugulov’s interests in an administrative case. According to the defender, at the meeting they looked through a disc with a record where a person similar to Bugulov throws stones: “There were opera officers at the administrative office, they said they were collecting material.”

On May 10, during a meeting on an appeal against an administrative arrest in the Supreme Court of the Republic, it became known that at the same time, the Leninsky Court of Vladikavkaz was considering a petition from the investigation to arrest Bugulov.

“We tried to establish video conferencing, and at that time he was being arrested in another court. Then it turned out that he had a coronavirus - a health worker was standing next to him, ”says Denisenko.

Coronavirus is also suspected in another defendant in the case of the rally - a 23-year-old resident of Vladikavkaz, who was detained on April 30; he was also caught on video of protesters throwing stones. On May 1, the Leninsky District Court of Vladikavkaz arrested a young man until June 21 on charges of hooliganism (Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code), but in the pre-trial detention center, where he was taken from the court, the prisoner “had a temperature” and returned him to the temporary detention facility. Talking about this "Mediazone", the relatives of the young man insisted on anonymity. The diagnosis, however, has not yet been confirmed, now the relatives are waiting for the results of the re-analysis.

“In fact, judging by the videos, they will all be installed. There were a lot of operas there, a lot of people [shooting on phones], - Denisenko's lawyer believes. “At the same time, I don’t know how they will work under Article 318 [of the Criminal Code]. Suppose, employees of the Russian Guard were injured from being hit by a cobblestone, but the camera is aimed at the crowd, and it is clear who threw the cobblestone, and where it hit, which person, it is not clear. The phone does not trace the path of the cobblestone. And it should be specific: such and such hit a specific employee.

According to the decision to initiate a case on the use of violence against employees of the National Guard and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code), the participants in the rally “deliberately used physical violence against employees of the National Guard and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in North Ossetia-Alania Tavitova V.T., Grigoryants G.R., Dzhatieva N.S., Jamalova E.R., Kokoeva A.R., Ziligaeva L.J., Baskaeva S.A., Bityaeva K.M., Bagaeva M.G., Byazrova I.K., Khinchagova Yu. T. and other unidentified law enforcement officials.”

Baritone from the Mariinsky Theater, bank clerk and citizen of the USSR. Whom the investigation considers the organizers of the clashes

Against the activist and opera singer from Ossetia Vadim Cheldiev, who published posts about the upcoming April 20 rally on his Telegram channel, three criminal cases have already been opened.

On April 15, he was accused of spreading “fake news” (Article 207.1 of the Criminal Code) about the coronavirus, which Cheldiev called “a grandiose scam of the 21st century.” The next day, the singer was detained in St. Petersburg and escorted to Vladikavkaz.

Vadim did not misinform his readers, but only questioned the official data on the pandemic, says Soslan Tsutsiev, a friend of Cheldiev, a lawyer and director of the Vladikavkaz gymnasium No. 4. “[Vadim did not throw in fakes], he really perceives reality this way. On many points I disagree with him, but even more I disagree with the fabricated cases. If he said something, give an examination, give a trial, ”he argues.

On April 19, the Investigative Committee opened a second case against Cheldiev - on the use of violence against a policeman (Part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code). According to the version of the policemen who escorted him, the singer hit one of them, Atsamaz Pliyev, twice in the face.

However, at a meeting on choosing a measure of restraint in the Leninsky District Court of Vladikavkaz, Cheldiev said that the police themselves staged the attack.

The version of the singer in the retelling is also given in the arrest warrant: Cheldiev knew that he was “accused of abusing the freedom of the media, which does not entail grave consequences for him, and therefore he had no reason to aggravate his situation and strike Pliev.”

On April 20, the singer was arrested and sent to a pre-trial detention center in Pyatigorsk, and the next day the Industrial District Court of Vladikavkaz fined him 75,000 rubles for spreading a fake about the coronavirus (abuse of freedom of the media, Article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).

“Vadim comes from a poor family, they live in a small house on the outskirts of Vladikavkaz. We studied together at the Lyceum of Arts at the choreographic department in Vladikavkaz. Vadim left after the 9th grade, entered the choreographic department at the School of Arts, ”recalls Soslan Tsutsiev.

On the advice of a teacher, Cheldiev transferred to the vocal department, and a year later he left for St. Petersburg, studied at the Academy of Young Opera Singers at the Mariinsky Theater and the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, performed at the Mikhailovsky and Mariinsky Theaters, the St. Shostakovich Philharmonic.

“In 2017, he returned to his homeland and, with the Bulat Gazdanov Folk Instruments Orchestra, traveled through all the villages of the republic with charity concerts. It was [then] that he saw the situation in which the common people find themselves,” says Tsutsiev.

According to him, after that, Cheldiev began to engage in charity work and organized the Iron Ziu Foundation.

“The concept of ‘iron ziu’ [means] mutual assistance of people living in the same territory. And Vadim began to revive these traditions of patronage among the people,” says Tsutsiev. Cheldiev, he continues, bought musical instruments for children from low-income families, sought scholarships for students of creative specialties, collected money for those in need on his Instagram page, rented a room for a warehouse of clothes that residents of the republic donated to the poor, negotiated help with grocery stores and furniture stores. workshops, "forced" officials to solve the problems of ordinary people. In addition, the singer supported protests against air pollution from the Electrozinc plant.

In 2018, Tsutsiev recalls, Cheldiev told him that he met with Vyacheslav Bitarov and suggested that the head of the republic organize an opera troupe that would give concerts in countries where there is an Ossetian diaspora.

“He already started calling the soloists, but after that [Bitarov's administration officials] stopped answering. They began to push him away, they stopped inviting him to concerts, ”says Tsutsiev. “And he began activities on Instagram related to exposing the authorities, and he himself was harassed by the authorities and bots, his pages were blocked at least five times.”

About a year ago, Vadim, according to Tsutsiev, "received information" that drugs could be planted on him, and returned to St. Petersburg.

On May 1, the FSB Directorate for North Ossetia opened a third case against Vadim Cheldiev - about public calls to carry out extremist activities (Article 280 of the Criminal Code).

According to the version of the investigation, which was cited by Kavkaz. Realii”, the singer has been publishing video messages on his Telegram channel for several months calling for the overthrow of the constitutional order and other crimes.

In this case, Cheldiev is still in the status of a suspect, says his lawyer Batraz Kulchiev.

“Of course he denies. Even if they just made up [accusations], calls for extremist activity still do not come out. There is a detailed interpretation [of extremism], that is, there [should be] public calls for a violent seizure of power and so on,” Kulchiev argues.

Soslan Tsutsiev blames people “from the sect of the USSR” for what happened to his friend, whose ideas, without understanding, Cheldiev undertook to popularize shortly before his arrest. In recent posts and video messages, he really called for a return to the “legal field of the Soviet Union” and claimed that “our country has been under occupation since 1993.”

“Well, I call them a sect. They took our gullible singer into circulation, and now he rocked for this USSR for two weeks. It's just that everything that Vadim remembers good things from childhood was connected with this collapsed power. But he has no thoughts of creating a new state or calling for a coup. There is a call for justice, so that the people will manage the wealth of this country,” Tsutsiev is sure.

“This is an accidental meeting on the Internet on the part of Vadim and, it seems to me, a non-random movement of these sectarians towards Vadim, because no one knew about them, and Vadim raised this banner,” the singer’s friend shares his guesses.

the most literate and "savvy in matters of the revival of the USSR." Among his supporters, Cheldiev calls Ramis Chirkinov, a 56-year-old resident of Vladikavkaz,

Chirkinov considers himself a citizen of the Soviet Union; in an interview with a BBC correspondent, he said that he “beats off” fellow countrymen who are cut off for non-payment of gas, electricity and water. In one of the videos posted on Cheldiev’s YouTube channel, Chirkinov demonstrates the Soviet flag and coat of arms, a car with a sticker “USSR is alive” and a gate of a house with a sticker “USSR citizens live here.” In this video, an elderly activist says he is being pressured.

in Cheldiev's telegram On April 15, a message appeared that unknown people had burned Chirkinov's car at night.

On the day of the rally in Vladikavkaz, April 20, he was detained on the way to Freedom Square, says lawyer Sergei Denisenko, representing Chirkinov's interests. A report of disobedience to a police officer (19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) was drawn up against the man, and the Sovetsky District Court arrested him for 15 days.

On May 5, the activist was charged with organizing hooliganism (Part 3, Article 33, Article 213 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, Chirkinov was in the telegram chat of Vadim Cheldiev's supporters, where he "requested, controlled and analyzed information on the number of people willing to take part in the rally," and also incited the protesters to demand the resignation of the government and the head of the republic. Chirkinov does not admit guilt.

The next day, the Leninsky District Court of Vladikavkaz arrested him until 21 June. According to Denisenko's lawyer, Chirkinov has been assigned a psychiatric outpatient examination.

Lawyer Batraz Kulchiev does not rule out that Vadim Cheldiev may also be charged with organizing hooliganism. In this case, this will be the fourth criminal case against the singer.

“When [Chirkinov] was detained and when a measure of restraint was chosen for him, [it was] indicated that he, together with Cheldiev, organized all this,” explains the singer’s lawyer. “But how can you even lead some hooligans, being already detained?”

Another supporter of Vadim Cheldiev, 29-year-old Post Bank employee from Moscow Arsen Besolov, was also charged with organizing hooliganism at a rally in Vladikavkaz (Part 3 of Article 33 of the Criminal Code, Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, Besolov, together with Cheldiev and Chirkinov, called through telegrams to participate in the people's gathering. On May 13, the Leninsky District Court arrested him until June 21.

The young man was the administrator of the chat room of Cheldiev's supporters, he was detained on April 29 in Moscow and brought to Ossetia. According to Besolov's sister Zalina, a neighbor saw eight people burst into Arsen's apartment: six in masks with weapons and two in civilian clothes. They took the detainee away in a car with Ossetian license plates.

The court in Vladikavkaz arrested him for 15 days under Part 1 of Article 20.2.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. The court agreed with the arguments of the police, who claimed that Besolov had organized a rally against the "self-isolation regime."

Neither the court nor the temporary detention facility allowed a lawyer to see him.

Besolov was not in Vladikavkaz at the time of the rally, but on April 20, there was a rumor among local activists that he had been detained, his sister Zalina says: “He said it himself on purpose, and others passed it on. He was in Moscow at work.”

According to Zalina, her brother does not deny the danger of the coronavirus, he “did not call on anyone” to go to the square, but informed about the upcoming national gathering and, together with the rest of the chat participants, helped low-income families and people who lost their jobs.

“People who are dissatisfied with their life in Vladikavkaz united, they themselves appointed the 20th, and they did not call for Bitarov’s resignation in the chat, these people were already lost [at the rally], there were also provocateurs,” Besolova’s sister explains. - Everyone had questions and demands that people start working, because people were left without income. We have many people working for themselves, and they are left without anything.”