We live in a fairy tale about Chipollino

The police come to people who were registered on sites in support of Navalny. And asks to write a statement "On the leak of personal data"

In the evening of August 17, the Moscow police began to come massively to the supporters of the politician Alexei Navalny, whose addresses fell into a merged database related to the opposition projects. According to the OVD-Info, the police already came to at least 127 people who were registered on the Smart Voting website on the April rally page “Freedom Navalny!” Or sent donations to the Corruption Fund ( FBK ). Kristina Safonova spoke to Medusa spoke with some of these people.

They called the apartment of Muscovite Vladislav (the name changed at his request) at about eleven in the evening on August 17. In the doorway, he saw two men in civilian clothes. To the question "Who is there?" Those answered: "Police." And they said next: "Open the door, we need to fill out the questionnaire."

Vladislav was refused to discover, although the men showed some certificates into the eye (they could not consider them the “Medusa” interlocutor) and inaudibly called their names. Then the arrivals asked who he was, with whom he lives and what he had to do with Alexei Navalny.

Vladislav replied that he was not connected with the politician and does not understand why they came to him. Then the police asked if he wanted to write a statement about the leak of his personal data. What kind of given is it in question and how the police became known about the leak, the men, according to Vladislav, were not said. And after his next refusal, they left.

“Medusa” Vladislav said that he read Navalny back in the “Live magazine” and voted for him in the elections in 2013. “This is important to me because I wanted to live in a country with the law, with honest power, courts and the police. And we live in a fairy tale about Chipollino, ”he says. - But now the word “support” is already terribly scary to use. Suddenly, Comrade Major interprets this into an article by the Criminal Code. ”

The reason for the visit of the police, suggests Vladislav, was that he left his e -mail on one of the sites related to the Navalny team. In April, the base with Imil Adeps of people who registered on the website “Freedom Navalny!”, Which appeared before rallies for the release of a politician from a colony , fell into open access. Then Vladislav received an anonymous letter that his data flowed, and at his work they will soon find out that he supports an opposition policy.

“This is exclusively a database of email addresses, without surnames, names or any clarifying data. The biggest meanness that the attackers can do is send you an unpleasant letter, which will probably get into spam. <...> We apologize for the troubles. This happened for the first time. We will do everything so that such a situation does not happen again, ”the policy supporters commented .

They later said that the Petersburg activist Fedor Gorozhanko, who worked in the FBK in 2016-2019, was involved in the leak. Gorozhanko denied this.

In April, letters with threats were received not only by people who registered on the site in support of Navalny, but also by their employers. As a result, some lost their jobs, law enforcement agencies came to dozens of others. And in June, on the Internet, they began to sell the database of Smart Voting subscribers - a project of Navalny's supporters. Among other things, it contained the addresses of the constant registration of participants from Moscow and the Moscow region. On August 16, already expanded bases appeared - with the address of residence of the Smart Voting subscribers and their place of work.

Until August 17, says Vladislav, he did not face the consequences of the leak. But at the same time he felt a “little insult”. “There were questions about why it was necessary to collect mail at all,” he says. - But in general, it is clear that this is a mistake. And it is not surprising that at some point it happened with such pressure from the “state”. ”

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“I was very angry at Navalny, to be honest. And to herself, which indicated the real living [electronic] address. From now on I will be more careful. I did not expect that such a drain could happen, ”says Olga Medusa (the name changed at her request).

Like Vladislav, Olga was recorded on the site in support of Navalny. “What he is judged for does not have a crime. But we all know about our courts. Therefore, I wanted to support my voice. Show that we are, we don’t care, ”she adds.

A few days after the leak, the employer Olga received a letter stating that she was a supporter of Navalny. There were no sanctions, Olga says, she was only asked to change passwords and “observe the law”.

But a few months later, late in the evening of August 17, three people called her apartment - they were in medical masks and weapons. Olga herself was not at home, she learned about what had happened from her neighbor. The men were introduced to him by police officers.

“The police (one of them showed the certificate) said that they were interviewed by neighbors. That this is due to the merged base of the contacts of Navalny's supporters. They asked, if suddenly a neighbor sees me, to tell me to come to the district police department, ”says Olga. And he adds that he does not understand what they want from her and why "again intimidation."

“They go to those who did not even go to stocks, did not write posts calling, that is, it is clean everywhere, except for the presence of addresses in the database. The feeling that the stick system is at all, ”says Olga. - The neighbor said that the police comrades spoke sluggishly, how they scored porridge in their mouths. It seems that they themselves are already tired of it. So spending the strength of three brave men is a sign of weakness and fear. ”

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Vladislav and Olga are far from the only ones to whom the police came to write a statement about the theft of personal data. The Medusa OVD-Info said that over the night of August 17 to 18 they received more than 40 similar appeals from the inhabitants of Moscow. Visits for the supporters of the politician did not stop even in the morning. At the time of publication, 127 people turned to the OVD-Info for help. “But the figure changes every hour,” the human rights project emphasized.

The OVD-Info also noted that many of those who turned to them for help were recorded on the sites "Freedom Navalny!" or "smart vote." But there are those who insist that they did not leave their data there. At the same time, they fell into the database of supporters of a politician who appeared on the Internet on August 16.

Stepan (the name changed at his request) says that he does not remember whether he was registered on the sites of Navalny's supporters. But he notes that he was precisely signed for their newsletter, and also found his mail in one of the merged bases. In the evening of August 17, two men also came to him who introduced themselves as employees of the criminal investigation department. One of them had a service weapon with him, Stepan notes.

“As I invited to the apartment, they asked if I know something about my data on Navalny’s website, mentioning that this is an extremist organization. Whether it was recorded whether he made advertising or distributed materials, ”says Stepan. “I said I know nothing.”

After that, he recalls, the police invited him to write a statement about the theft of personal data and their use. Stepan refused. The police did not insist, rewrote Stepan’s passport data and compiled a report in which they noted how he perceived the information they told.

“There were three options in printed letters:“ aggressively ”,“ surprise ”,“ Rivne ”. What does “smoothly” mean - a riddle, ”says Stepan. And he adds that in his case, police officers stopped on the first two versions: "aggressive with surprise."

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Anna was not registered on the sites of the Navalny team (the name was changed at her request), which also came to the place of registration yesterday. Anna says that now she does not live in Russia and learned about what happened from older relatives. “Two men named my last name, name and patronymic, asked where I am. They also said a phrase like: “Do you know that she is a member of the FBK ?” ”She says. And adds that it was signed for donations to the fund.

“This is an unpleasant situation for anyone,” Anna continues. - I consider the actions of these persons illegal, aimed at intimidation of both me and relatives. This is partly valid. The atmosphere in the family is intense from yesterday evening. ”

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“We did not collect or store any personal data; FBK is a victim of the criminal actions of the former employee of the city dweller, and the relevant statements were sent to law enforcement agencies, ”Leonid Volkov commented on his Facebook by Facebook.

He also noted that on the site "Freedom Navalny!" In Moscow there were about 100 thousand registrations, and at least 10 thousand people got into the “enriched” base of supporters, merged into the Internet. At the same time, Volkov insists that this “enriched” base appeared thanks to the comparison of e -mails with accounts from the “public services” and “other state bases”.

“With all the power and stupidity of the power mechanism of the resource, to come to 10 thousand people, of course, they do not have 10 thousand people. Then what is it and why? - added Volkov. - I gave the answer in the headline [post]: a terrorist act. We will come to 20 random people, but we will do it as frighteningly and as loudly as possible - at night, at the same time, with threats and hollowing in the door - so that all hundreds of thousands of our supporters in Moscow feel uncomfortable, afraid, trembled from steps on the stairwell at night. Ordinary terror, nothing more. ”

Kristina Safonova