“I told him: “Azat, be careful.”

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— Did you manage to see Azat today?

- No. I really wanted to see him, but I didn't have to. The announcement of the verdict was about to begin, but the assistant judge came in and said that "there will be no verdict, the judge is at the verdict." Today I arrived from Nizhnekamsk - first I traveled to Kazan for 4 hours, and then from Kazan by train to Moscow.

— With what expectations did you go?

- The main thing - I wanted to see that he was alive and well, and the rest ... I wanted to come and take him away.

- You hoped for an acquittal?

— I hoped. Every time I come here, I believe in a miracle that Azat will be released and I will take him home.

- When did you last see him?

- I came on a date to the pre-trial detention center, I don’t remember the date. I haven't been to the last two courts. I always try to take sedative pills before a date, I don’t want to show in front of him that it’s hard for me, I don’t cry. On the contrary, I try to inspire him.

- Will you come to the meeting on January 18?

- I'll come again. I work as a gas station operator. We have many operators who are sick, so it was very difficult to find a person [who would replace me], but one agreed to work both for my shift and for hers. She will work three times a day in a day, and then I will come and work. I'll come with nothing. Very embarrassing. Now I will again talk with the director to let me go from work. You need to change with someone, and everyone has their own plans, families, grandchildren.

— What do you think about the accusations against Azat?

Everything is so amazing. Six people are accused, why him? It is very interesting. I do not know what it is connected with. It seems to me that he interferes with a very large person. Someone is taking revenge. ( According to investigators, three people were directly involved in the attack on the office of United Russia, including the defendants Elena Gorban and Andrey Eikin. Miftakhov is accused of standing guard along with two other people whom the investigators did not find. - Note "Cold" ).

Azat Miftakhov, a 27-year-old graduate student of the Mechanics and Mathematics Department of Moscow State University, was detained in February 2019 on charges of illegal manufacture of explosives (Article 223.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to investigators, he made a homemade bomb in a Moscow State University dormitory, which was later found at a bus stop in Balashikha. However, the prosecution was unable to provide evidence of Miftakhov's involvement in this, and he was released from arrest.

At the exit from the police, Miftakhov was detained on a new charge. In January 2018, activists broke the window of the office of United Russia in the Moscow district of Khovrino and threw a smoke bomb inside the building. After the incident, the police opened a case of vandalism, soon after which the defendants appeared in the case - anarchists Alexei Kobaidze, Elena Gorban, Andrey Eikin and Svyatoslav Rechkalov. Kobaidze and Rechkalov left Russia, while Gorban and Eikin pleaded guilty and were released on bail. Azat Miftakhov became a defendant in this case only a year later, in February 2019. At the same time, the charge in this case was toughened from vandalism to hooliganism (part 2 of article 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the detainees were threatened with up to 7 years in prison. On December 23, the prosecutor's office requested six years in a general regime colony for Miftakhov. According to Azat Miftakhov's lawyer, Svetlana Sidorkina, the whole prosecution is based on the testimony of two secret witnesses, since the prosecution "does not and did not have any evidence regarding his guilt." Miftakhov claims that he did not participate in the attack on the office of United Russia, he does not admit his guilt.

- What kind of person could this be? And why take revenge on Azat?

“I don't even know who. Hinders someone. He spoke at the trial about apartment raiders, I think so. They might have thought that such a quiet math boy would admit his guilt and be shoved. Probably, they thought that it would be easy to break it and announce to the whole world that the mathematician is a terrorist.

Azat calls himself an anarchist. Did he talk to you about his political views?

- He spoke, discussed. It was hard, of course, I treated this, I was very worried. I told him: “Azat, be careful, let’s better finish your postgraduate studies, and then you will get on your feet and be…”. For me, the topic of anarchism was scary, but now the guys are explaining it to me, and it turns out that this is all normal. I imagined it differently. Before, we studied history that anarchists go against the authorities, but under Brezhnev - how is it, to go against the authorities?

So you didn't share his views?

- Didn't share. I listened to what actions he held. So they came out , as he told me, in support of people who were looking for work, and then they were deceived. Employers took bail from people and disappeared. He was very worried about raising the retirement age. He was very worried about me, saying: “Mom, now you have to work until you are 60 years old.” He said that he went to the action with this.

— Did he explain why anarchism in particular?

- No. I do not understand this. He said that he adheres to such views, but he did not explain it that way.

When did he get involved in politics?

- About a year before entering graduate school, three or four years ago.

Are you interested in politics yourself?

- Not at all. I never listened to the news. I don't understand. It happens when you start asking your husband or one of your relatives about politics, for some reason they get angry and cannot explain this policy to me in any way.

— Azat said that in 2019 he was tortured. Did he tell you about it?

No, we didn't discuss it. I read that with a screwdriver ... I was very worried, because at a young age he received a burn, his entire chest was scarred. When I imagined that a screwdriver was stuck there, it was very insulting and hard.

- Other defendants in the criminal case pleaded guilty and were released on bail. Did you try to convince Azat to do the same?

- No. Let him decide. Why should he take the blame if he didn't do it?

— In 2018, Azat was sentenced to a fine of 45,000 rubles for using violence against a police officer. Do you know about this case? What did Azat say about him?

- He said that some people ran after him, they were in civilian clothes. He sprayed with a spray can and did not think it was the police.

So he didn't know it was the police?

- Did not know.

— What was he doing there? Did he explain?

- He said that they were just walking. The lawyer now says that if there had not been that case, Azat would have been free. He says that this accusation is too dirty for him.

- And what kind of person is Azat? What is his character?

- He is not a quiet boy, he will stand up for himself. He worries too much about injustice.

When did he decide that he wanted to go into science?

- From the fourth or fifth grade. I saw when he was a child that he was sitting with mathematics, then he began to travel to the Olympiads, began to bring good results.

- Do you have any other children?

- Yes daughter. 17 years old, she finished the eleventh grade.

What does she think about the criminal case?

- He is very worried. She does not communicate with anyone, she became closed. She sees how I feel, I see how she does.

- How has your life changed while Azat is in jail?

- It is felt that all this is not true, as if it is happening on another planet, as if not with me. Very hard.

What helps you keep going?

- Society. Moscow Society. People.

- Do you think that the fact that many people came to the court building today expressing support for Azat could affect the outcome of the case?

- Sure.

Do you write letters to him in jail?

My daughter writes mostly. We write general letters.

What did he write about his condition?

- I was sick. I was in a lot of pain, coughing.

Did he receive medical attention?

- Yes. He was glad that there [in the Butyrka pre-trial detention center] the nurse was very compassionate. He said that she was worried about him. Every day he comes.

- What is his attitude?

- Go free. He is very grateful that everyone is fighting for him like that. He wants to go free and do mathematics, he cannot live without it. Even when they went to dig potatoes, he had several A4 sheets and a pen with him. Between the beds sits and decides. It's hard for him.