"The ancestors will not forgive"

Pomors have been catching herring in the White Sea for centuries. The Russian court considers their traditions to be poaching

“I dissuaded him for a long time and said:“ Do you need the most? ” And he replied: “It is necessary, the ancestors will not forgive me in the next world”, ”in court, Eugene speaks not so much about himself as about why the life of her family is connected with the sea. The husband-a radical pomor, once threw an industrial city and dragged his family to the birth seats-into the village of Umba, where his ancestors began to catch herring in 1647.

Popikhins - a family known in Pomerania, for more than four centuries they were fishermen, are now declared criminals.

The court in which Zhenya spoke, on June 25, recognized her - an accountant of the rural budget office - a poacher. And not just - but with aggravating circumstances: as part of a group of persons, by prior conspiracy. Three years earlier, her husband Sergei was received by a criminal record for poaching.

"New" spoke about this strange criminal case, with fake signatures and dubious evidence. Sergei Popikhin, a fisherman and an entrepreneur who is engaged in the prey of the White Sea herring, became the first resident of the district to win the court at the FSB - proved that the major who compiled a protocol on disobedience to the requirements of law enforcement officials did not have the authority to initiate administrative cases under this article.

So no, the major started a criminal case on Popikhin. Condemned.

Fined. Pomor does not give up and appeal the verdict in the ECHR, and also publicly declares at all corners a fabricated case. And a year later, in the summer of 2018, the criminal is excited against his wife.

Remembering July 13, 2018, Zhenya says that the border guards on the island were looking for her husband, she heard their remarks: they say, Popikhina is not. There was no husband - he went to the city on business. And he also says (this is in the case file), the border guards were frank: "They themselves were to blame, they would not fight them in the courts, there would be nothing."

The tiny island of Sergey is on rent. There is Tonya "Moseyevskaya" (Tonya - a fishing area for catching nets). Previously, there were fifty of them on the Teresky shore of the White Sea, now there are a dozen: hard work, unprofitable business. Popikhin is stubborn. He has been catching on Moseevskaya for 19 years.

There, to the island, Zhenya brought a 9-year-old son-to ride a boat, see how they choose a net-just as his ancestors did this 400 years ago. The watchman Volodya sat on the oars. Let's go check the net. A herot was dumped into the boat, among which there were several large fish. “Gorbusha,” Volodya nodded. You can take pink salmon in the bar, they will not be fined for this. And the season was just, the fish entered these places. The net was empty, Volodya directed the boat to the shore. Having moored, he put large fish in the boxes and took him to the house. Zhenya chose herring for dinner and went to the house to cook food to the dog. After some time, the border guards landed on the shore-the same that they once “took” Sergei.

The Gorbusha turned out to be a salmon, whose fishing is prohibited without a license.

Here you need to pause. The White Sea, as you know, is internal. Umba is not a border zone. Gosgranda - 300 km, in the neighboring area. What does the border guards have to do with it?

In the protocol of examination of the island drawn up by Captain Zhuk (at the disposal of “New”, ed. ), There is no link to the order, on the basis of which the operational event was so far from the location of this very beetle and the colleague of Klimov - the village of Alakurtti in the Kandalaksha district. In the column, where it is supposed to indicate the date and number of the order on the conduct of the “Voice Operational Event” Examination of premises, buildings, structures, sections of the terrain and vehicles ”, there is a dash.

The personnel of the Karelian border control in these places are frequent guests. Sometimes it seems even the owners. Almost every village of village has a criminal criminal off.

And there is a special sophistication in this: Pomori - Fishermen of Iskoni, they live by the sea, sew their carbas and catch fish, which are ready to feed the entire Murmansk region. Only no one takes. Only this year, Sergei Popikhin, among the active Pomorov, achieved a decision to open fish processing in the UMbe. So far, only solutions.

A poor subsidiary area, where unemployment and poverty are completely on gold - and remains the poor.

It is impossible to catch without a license by right of living at sea (as is done in neighboring Norway). And around the fishing camps, where the wealthy visitors catch the salmon-stop. A week in such a camp costs from 10 thousand dollars.

During the war years, Pomors saved the front from hunger: they sent hundreds of tons of fish to the front line. Pomeranian junks caught her - this is the name of women here. Men left to fight. Popikhin now seriously says that he considered everything: 10 fishermen can catch 300-400 tons of herring per year, and there are also potatoes - and now the region will not be hungry.

Here are always ready for difficult times. And there were no lungs.

To declare poachers of people who call the sea to their field, try to protect from strangers and treat it carefully and gentle - special cynicism. Moreover, just strangers hang the label on them.

According to the Order of the FSB of Russia No. 455 of August 7, 2017, a part of the Murmansk region is really included in the zone of liability of the border administration in the Republic of Karelia. Only the other - the Kola and Pechengsky districts, the north.

Umba - in the south. She is not a border zone at all, as for the neighboring Kandalaksha district, from where the Karelian opera came from to catch Pomorov, according to the same order signed by Bortnikov, it is controlled by a completely different unit: a border control in the Western Arctic District. And in this case, the question arises about the powers of the operatives of the Zhuk and Klimov, who were engaged in Popikhin affairs. And, accordingly, the admissibility of the evidence they have obtained.

In fact, well, in those, not at all borderline, but such “fat” lands made these opera, which is ordered to be on a completely different edge of the region?

From the sentence of the Kandalaksha district court

(constant judicial presence in the town of Umba of the Tersky district):

“The arguments of the defender that the PU FSB of Russia in the Republic of Karelia is not included in the Tersky district of the Murmansk region, and therefore the employees, conducting ORM, went beyond their territorial liability and their actions are illegal, the court considers the court to carry out the ORM in accordance with the order of the head of the service in the village. Alakurtti PU FSB of Russia in the Republic of Karelia. ”

(Original punctuation. - Ed. )

Speaking of evidence. As such in the case, Evgenia Popikhina forms mainly words. The border guards say that on the shore they were not accidental on the shore, but during the “Observation” operational-search event, and the salmon that the group of attackers caught it from a distance of 300 meters.

There is also a protocol of interrogation of the watchman Volodya, drawn up only a year ago. He was not interviewed, and then they could not find him: Volodya was weak in terms of alcohol, and sometimes sleeps where the night will find. In this state, he was discovered on June 26, 2019 - and, without hesitation, interrogated. Volodya “signed something, but what-he doesn’t remember”, and did not see without points. So he spoke in court, denying the recognition given to Hops that they went to fish and the minor son of the owner, having agreed on a future crime.

Apparently, they also agreed with the fish in advance: otherwise how can the future Hall be guessed?

At the trial, Volodya Lepikhin repented: they say, dumping the contents of the net into the boat, I realized that in the Seal Frequent - Atlantic salmon, and not pink salmon, Pacific, in this case, the fish needed, according to the rules, to throw it on board, but I realized that the owner’s wife did not recognize the deception, and wanted to take the salmon and then change to vodka. But the court did not believe in Volodya, all the more so, the opera Zhuk claimed that the citizen Lepikhin was delivered sober for the interrogation like glass - and not at all glazed from drunkenness. He understood everything, saw everything, realized everything. And the word opera of the beetle for the court is more significant than the word of the watchman Volodya. The status is different.

Sergey Popikhin and his mother -in -law did not believe the court: after the call of the frightened Zhenya, they arrived at the island and saw how the bug and Klimov pack their fish in two bags. A specialist-isoologist, on the investigation, was shown the contents of one. But the beetle and Klimov unanimously told the court that they packed material evidence in one bag and sealed in place - and they know nothing more about any fish.

True, the seal on the package at the time of the inspection was not the Karelian administration, where the opera, but the Western Arctic District, serve.

The court was not embarrassed by the fact that the investigative actions on the island went without witnesses, as well as the examination of the fish by an ichthyologist, and the fact that eight fish are captured at the photo table, and 19 is mentioned in the protocol.

From the sentence:
“The arguments of the defendant and the defender that Zhuk and Klimov acted from his personal interest using his official position, because ... the husband wrote complaints about the Zhuk and Klimov, the court considers unconvincing, since these arguments were not confirmed by anything, witnesses Zhuk and Klimov in court confirmed that hostile relations to the defendants and their relatives have no relatives.”

And of course, the episodes with attempts to interrogate nine -year -old Seryozha Popikhin, the threat of a child’s forced leding to the investigator, who stopped only after a complaint of the group of capture to his wife to work, her forced (without a agenda) delivery of the interrogation to the Murmansk, and 400 km, did not affect the result of the trial.

It remains unclear how exactly the court established that the defendants entered into a preliminary conspiracy - and this allows you to qualify the crime under the third part of the criminal article. Eugene says, she did not see Volodya for a while, she does not understand the types of salmon, he does not fish. He also swears that he was not going to devote the owner of the owner to his affairs, on the contrary, he did not want Popikhin to find out about his tricks. An exotic structure appeared in the verdict, they say, the defendants distinguished the salmon still “among the habitat”, that is, in the water, and then “distributed the roles, reached an agreement on how the individuals would extract and how they would be raised.”

On what this conclusion is based is unknown. Unless that possessed falcon vision (saw salmon in 300 meters), they also know how to read the lips from the same distance - or immediately recognize thoughts. The defendants, obviously, also have inhuman vision: in the net thirty meters in length and six in the depths, which 50-kilogram anchors are attached to the bottom, to discern something through the water column and determine the appearance of the fish that caught a person is unlikely to be within the power.

Let me suggest that the judge understood all this. And he practically justified the defendants - after all, in our time the punishment is below the lower limit - this is an almost acquittal, right? Volodya was appointed 25 thousand fine, his wife - 10. And even the “tool of crime” - a boat, net, net, boots - the court decided not to destroy, but to return Popikhin.

Merciful: both the opera is full and the pomor are intact. Only the stubborn Popikhins do not suit this. For some reason, they do not want to be considered criminals. Eugene filed an appeal. It requires a complete excuse. In case of refusal, like the husband, he is going to reach the ECHR.