"And I'm still walking ahead, a fool." The former coordinator of the headquarters of Navalny was given 2.5 years for the repost of the Rammstein clip

The former coordinator of the headquarters of Alexei Navalny in Arkhangelsk Andrei Borovikov became a celebrity because of the absurd criminal case of the “pornographic” video Rammstein . Not hoping for an acquittal, the correspondent of the Mediazone went to Arkhangelsk to spend his last days with the opposition at the freedom. Today, the Lomonosov court of Arkhangelsk sentenced Borovikov to 2.5 years in a general regime colony.

About culture

In 2019, a resident of Arkhangelsk Andrei Borovikov, who joined the protests around the construction of a garbage training ground at Shiies, became accused under the article on repeated violations at rallies, and then - the coordinator of the local headquarters of the opposition Alexei Navalny.

The court in September 2019 appointed Borovikov 400 hours of compulsory work, a few weeks before that the metropolitan activist Konstantin Kotov, who has nothing to do with Navalny, received four years of a general regime in the same article - this happened in the midst.

Borovikov says that he needed money for a lawyer, and he decided to write to Navalny, and he answered. The activist recalled : he agreed to work at the headquarters, including because he hoped for publicity and support from Navalny, and so he would be safer.

“If I faced that Andrei then, I would say:“ Oh, my friend, you are wrong. Time has changed, in 2019 publicity gave some protection, now I am not sure, everything is connected with Alexei Navalny, he is at the world level [known], and they are still closed, ”he admits now that the prosecutor's office demands to recognize the headquarters of Navalny, Navalny himself. He is sick in a colony, and Borovikova the prosecutor's office asks to send for three years to the colony.

Two weeks after the verdict on the "Dadin" article on Andrei, a new business was brought up: the opposition was accused of the Internet for publishing a video for the Pussy song Rammstein in VKontakte. The key witness, acting under the control of the operatives, was a local resident Alexander Durynin, who for some time helped the headquarters of Navalny.

In 2014-even before the start of any political activity-Borovikov published a clip, and in 2019, Durynin noted the record “without name”. In the interrogation protocol, the witness said that he helped with materials for the social networks of the headquarters, but his texts were rarely published. He was disappointed in Navalny, and then he remembered the video and in November-December turned to the police.

The Pussy song is written on behalf of the sex of a German man who “cannot have sex” in his homeland and is forced to go abroad for the sake of sexual conquests without obligation. In the video, the group members play several stereotypical male roles from pornographic films, and at the end they have sex. In the usual version of the clip, the frame is blurred.

“After listening to me, the police officer said that he is not interested in the political activity of Andrei Borovikov and the headquarters of Navalny, because there is nothing illegal in it, and the fact that Andrei Borovikov posts a video with porn on the Internet can be a criminal offense,” the document says.

In February 2020, Durynin, equipped with operatives with a video camera, came to the headquarters of the opposition, started a conversation about the video of the German rock band, warning that Borovikov could have problems due to the old publication-he thanked the former volunteer and would be cool if they excited the case for pornography ”and“ Eh, Rammstein , I betrayed you ”, deleted you clip.

About the former volunteer of Borovikov, he says that he became aware of the acquaintances of the security forces - but there is no other evidence of this - that Durynin "grabbed the nationalist views and for what." In a conversation with the Mediazone correspondent, Durynin only asked where the journalist got his phone from, said that “the distribution of contact details is a punishable act” and refused to communicate.

In any case, when Durynin came with a hidden camera to the headquarters of Navalny, the criminal case was already instituted and was ready for a sexological and cultural examination, which recognized that the clip contains pornographic materials and does not represent cultural value.

But the initiation of the case became known only in the fall of 2020, and Borovikov soon left the post of coordinator of the headquarters: “So it coincided, and I got off, and I went away - I had the claims certain to the federal headquarters, I couldn’t run due to amendments to the Constitution, and wanted to give the way to others to the elections ... but, and so, we fly so, and so we fly.”

The Rammstein group, known for provocative performances, has not yet reacted to the clip. Borovikov is sure that the Germans know about him, but they do not want to comment on. To journalists - at least “Mediazons”, “Novaya Gazeta” and Spiegel - the musicians did not answer.

The leader of the group Til Lindemann was in Moscow in the spring, on April 23, on the Utub-Canal of Russia-1, a clip was published for its performance of the song “Favorite City”-he was released as part of the promotional campaign of the nine-tree military film about the escape of the Soviet pilot from German captivity. The opinions of critics about the film were divided (three positive reviews on KinoPoisk against four negative), on the wide rental of Ninths, is released on the day of the sentence Borovikov, April 29.

“[In Rammstein ] was disappointed as in people, and music and show are cool. Now I look a little differently at their rebellious shows. Like, "we are such outside the system", I am like that. The rebels are rebellious, and money is money, ”he shares, but with gratitude recalls what Dmitry Spirin, the leader of the punk group“ Cockroaches! ”Wrote to him, publicly supported Borovikov.

In their statement, the Moscow punks laconly expressed a position, which, inter alia, adheres to Andrei himself: “To understand the wild absurdity of the prosecution, try to independently find the video Pussy in VK. More than 20,000 users added a clip to their videos, more than 200 - its version of 18+. ”

Borovikov is not the first to encounter the authorities for the repost of the PUSSY clip: in 2019, a resident of the Belarusian Grodno Andrei Golvenko became a defendant in a similar criminal case of the distribution of pornography, but because of the expiration of the statute of limitations, the young man was fined for 1275 Belarusian rubles (about 37 thousand Russian rubles).

At a meeting in the Lomonosovsky District Court of Arkhangelsk, students were not allowed due to an epidemic of coronavirus. Borovikov says that the process was boring, although there were funny episodes. For example, in court they interrogated a witness who said that he found a clip on Borovikov’s page, was outraged by his content, and soon the security forces contacted him and offered to act as a witness.

“I asked you watched porn? The witness says he will not answer. I say, the judge did not remove the question, and the judge, yes, answer! And the witness says, yes, he looked, although he could say no. ”

Borovikov’s lawyer Alexei Kychin says that “non -state experts, whose expert specialty is not indicated,” and there are no documents confirming their qualifications in the clip. Suspicions are also summoned by the defender who “arose from nowhere”, but for some reason they decided to visit Borovikov’s page on VKontakte, to be indignant, and immediately after that they contacted them from the police.

About loved ones

Shortly before the 33rd anniversary, Borovikov was a criminal record, the threat of getting into a maximum security colony due to the support of Navalny. The activist predicts that the chances of this are great, and if this happens, then in recent days at large he observes unprecedented pressure on the structure of the opposition.

“If I had never been there, I would not worry about how I worry now - I know where I will go. Therefore, a second time - yes, what is necessary. Three years two months, the Murmansk region near Kandalaksha, on the shores of the White Sea, ”says the former headquarters coordinator.

In 2008-2011, he was serving a sentence for a fight and assigning someone else's property in IK-20, which was then a general regime colony, and now became a colony-settlement. According to Borovikov, he observed how IK “was repainted from black to red”, that is, control passed from authoritative prisoners to the official administration.

“I saw how the prisoners lost their freedoms for the sake of comfort, and now I see how our citizens are losing their freedoms for the sake of comfort. As if he looked into the microscope, and then tore his eyes, such an experience of youth, ”the activist argues.

He does not really like to remember this experience, but with pleasure says how, after the liberation of his “Perelo is about a week” and the feeling of all-consuming happiness did not leave-the strongest that Borovikov had ever experienced, and only the birth of a child could kill him, and his wife Daria was now in the sixth month of pregnancy.

In anticipation of the Borovikov’s sentence, he works as an advertising service manager in the 2GIS service, because his wife will need money, removes the foliage by the court decision for an administrative case about due to recording a video in support of Navalny with other people on Lenin Square. In January, he was detained before the rally and eight days were placed in a special -reception under an article on the promotion of Nazism - he published a joke video, where Adolf Hitler flashed in a dressing with a swastika for a couple of seconds.

“Perhaps someone is lighting, having fun-and for a long time I am under investigation in anticipation of the sentence, according to the“ Dadin ”article, it took 10 months <...> there is no such that something needs to be realized, because then this may not be,” Borovikov describes the end of April. -Of course, I saw with some friends, with relatives, now our meeting was, as if secretly on the eve of the sentence, but no one said "let's see you before the sentence." I had a series of meetings with friends, relatives, mom, my grandmother saw - grandmother 84 years old, I understand that we may no longer see her at that age. ”

Remembering how he was waiting for a sentence under the “Dadin” article, Borovikov admits: then about 50 people came to the meeting, he started himself - “break off, break off” - and the journalists later told him how he kept holding on.

“I am like that, well, yes, yes, I think to myself - I didn’t put it in my pants, damn it! Brave, you know a lot, inside yourself, the little Andrei stood and said: “No, no, please don’t.” And now there are even more bets, I am a recidivist - a strict regime. ”

Daria’s wife is also an activist, she was repeatedly detained on promotions. She used to work at school as a primary school teacher. According to Borovikov, one day Daria was kept in the department for two days, which was due to which the classes had to be canceled.

“The kids came to school, and the teacher is in prison. So. They say: "Where is Daria Vasilievna?" - "Daria Vasilievna fell ill." And then - well, anyway there are rumors, they write about us - then one student approaches her and says: “Daria Vasilievna, and my mother told me that you were in prison!”, Borovikov laughs.

The security forces conducted two searches for his younger brother: in the Dadinsky case, the court later recognized the search illegal and the brother sued 10 thousand rubles - and in the case of laundering money by the corruption fund, in which Borovikov was a witness, a search was carried out from the mother of the activist. Andrei Borovikov himself, according to him, had three searches for a year and a half, in the FBK case - "flew by the Sobr detachment, the face to the floor."

He counted fines for his political career for 29 thousand rubles, one of them, four thousand - also for a video in VKontakte. In September 2020, the activist was found guilty of drug propaganda for the clip "Ligalaysis" of dezl. The rapper was already dead by this moment.

About politics

In general, Borovikov notes that the period of his leadership by the Arkhangelsk headquarters fell at the height of protests from due to the garbage training ground at Shiies and he managed to “swing the reputation of Navalny in the region.

In the second half of 2018, protests began in the Arkhangelsk Region due to plans to place a garbage training ground from the Shies station, where they were going to bring garbage from Moscow. In the not very protest before the region, mass shares began to be held, and at the very place of construction of the landfill, the defenders of Shies defeated the camp, where representatives of various movements were located. There were also clashes of protesters and workers, fires occurred , construction equipment was involved . The most common slogan of the protesters was "Pomerania is not a trash."

At the beginning of 2020, the region’s arbitration court admitted that the infrastructure for the garbage training ground was built illegally, shortly after that, the regional governor Igor Orlov left their position. Speaking about the protesters, in 2019 he used the word "sheepon." The protests against the construction of the landfill ended in fulfilling the requirements of activists, the process of reclamation began.

After him, Elizaveta Bychkova became the coordinator of the headquarters, which the pro -government media criticized for the support of LGBT, she left the position a few months later and now, from the words of Borovikov, "was scared and does not communicate with journalists." The next coordinator, Yegor Butakov, at the time of writing, was serving 15 days of administrative arrest for the action on April 21. Physically, the headquarters is closed due to the claim for recognition of an extremist organization.

“I try to concentrate on the tasks of today. Follow the agenda, by virtue of their capabilities to help the detainees, to illuminate the events of our region in social networks, ”Olga School, volunteer of the headquarters. The headquarters operator Ruslan Akhmetshin also says that the backbone of volunteers is “ready to continue working in some new format and waits for wolves with his associates,” but notes that “many activists began to delete their photos with the symbols of the headquarters.” The volunteers talked with the journalist of the Mediazones before the decision of Leonid Volkov on the closure of Navalny's headquarters.

Borovikov is frank that he does not really agree with the actions of the FBC and the Federal Staff of Navalny after the conclusion of Alexei, for example, considers cruel to open the headquarters in Makhachkala or hold a rally on April 21, because such shares “squeeze the regional headquarters”.

“Alexey Navalny did not open the headquarters of Navalny in Makhachkala - why? Couldn't he find impudent guys? One could definitely, but did not open, because when they cut off his head to this person, what can I say? " He argues.

But Andrei warmly supports Alexei and says that he became an example of the stamina for him, which the former coordinator himself wants to demonstrate to other local activists. He calls his somewhat spontaneous career of an opposition policy a series of illogical acts, but he brazen and says that he could not do otherwise, he was happy to recall the mandrazh, which was in the coupling at rallies in anticipation of clashes with police officers and Shiesa.

“How we overlapped the roads there, fought with the guards, how inadvertently we burned the bridge , along which fuel was transported, inadvertently - inadvertently! - As the two -story new house of the builder of the landfill on Shies burned out, he only managed to throw his family with the children out the window, and the house burned to the ground. Well, it happened there - not on Shies, in the sense, but in the Urdom. How we were breaking through the police cordons, in an era, when they write statements from plastic cups there, but we did not know how it would be-we were just a Police, and I’m still going ahead, a fool, I wouldn’t go back somewhere, ”he retells the bright events of the last years in the region.

“Hearing not from those who are your supporter, that“ you are a fool, that you are dumbfounded, you need to work, Vova Putin well done, you don’t like the loans! Here we live, we buy cars ... what we live there, someone even lives well, someone even steals well. What do you do some kind of nonsense? ” We are listening and continuing all this. And as a result of these two ... two -day conversation, he sat, thought, and I think: "Well, in general! So it is!" It will be fun, in short: I will disappear after this court, if they don’t put it down for six months, and then some journalist will meet me and say: let me take an interview! "Listen, Andrei, there is such a bright protesting in Arkhangelsk, and then disappeared, in short, and now it is not visible nowhere, calmed down, and what happened, what encouraged you?" And I will say: “The journalist came from the mediazone, we talked with him, I shortly realized that I was engaged in garbage!”, - Borovikov jokes.

Editor: Dmitry Treshchin

With the participation of Maria Razdolskaya and Alexander Borodikhin