"I wanted to make my country better." Ex-head of the headquarters of Navalny left for the USA

33-year-old Alexander Chernikov, ex-head of the Kaliningrad headquarters of Navalny (the organization was recognized as an extremist court), left Russia to the United States, where he asked for political asylum. Thus, he hopes to avoid probable criminal prosecution. Chernikov led the headquarters for about a year and left the post in winter, refusing to take people to inconsistent rallies in support of Alexei Navalny.

Alexander Chernikov with his wife and three -year -old daughter left Russia in late November. He said that he considers the initiation of a criminal case against him for a connection with an extremist organization only a matter of time.

- On September 28, on the SK website there was a criminal release for all staff participants. And it clearly says that everyone who worked in the FBK and Navalny headquarters from 2014 to 2021 took part in the work of an extremist organization. All people who are involved in this fall under a criminal case. Who will be planted first is incomprehensible. On the day of my departure, Lilia Chanyshev from Ufa was taken to a pre -trial detention center directly from the house. A large network of FSB and IC agents was inflated, who worked for headquarters. Someone needs to be planted, they will be planted, ”says Alexander.

In the summer, Chernikov already gave his explanations to the Investigative Committee. The investigator specially arrived for interrogations from Moscow.

We did not have much secrets - there was maximum transparency, people were given, we lived with these funds

- The first interrogation was in the “sanitary” case, but there were already strange questions, very in -depth: what I did at the headquarters, how we received money, donates, who controlled what, who controlled what, how it was purchased how it was purchased. The second time he already talked with me differently: if you hide, you will deceive me, you are facing a criminal case, so you have to tell everything. I understood that they all knew what it was. And we did not have much secrets-there was maximum transparency, people donated, we lived for these funds, all filmed under contracts, bought it on checks, there were no problems, ”says the ex-coordinator of the headquarters. - At the second interrogation, the investigator said: “What did you all think about? Did you think that everything would get away with it? Won, in America, after the assault, the Capitol was also not arrested, but now they are quietly planted one at a time.”

The move to the United States was fast, and the border crossing was predictably difficult. First, the family reached Mexico, from there to the American border.

“I could not go anywhere from Kaliningrad with my family,” said Chernikov North. Realia. - In Poland, Lithuania, we could not leave Germany, we have no visas. From visa -free countries - Türkiye, but this is a Muslim country, I did not know how it would react to me. We decided to go to the USA through Mexico. I know that there are people who left there from Navalny’s headquarters. And I thought it would be the country as safe as possible for us. And it will be easy to stop there, a visa is not needed in Mexico. We took tickets to Mexico, to Cancun, then to Tijuana, the city on the border with the United States.

When the officers on the border arrested me, they said that we would put you in jail, I immediately told them: it is better to sit down than in Russia for ten years with an incomprehensible outcome

For two days the family spent in the center of detention on the American border along with the same illegal immigrants.

- This is a natural prison with cameras. When you come to the border, you ask for political asylum. America does not know anything about you, they define you as a border violator, check if you are a real person, interview why you are asking for asylum. We spent two days in the cells. Wife with a child in a separate large cell with women and children. I am with men in another cell. There, in the cells, everyone who is asking for political asylum, from different countries - Belarus, Ukraine, Ossetia, Chechnya, Dagestan, says Chernikov. “I knew that it would be so.” When the officers on the border arrested me, they said that we would put you in jail, I immediately told them: "It’s better for you to sit down than in Russia for ten years with an incomprehensible outcome." It’s not as scary here as getting into a Russian prison.

Two days later, the family was released. Chernikov submitted documents for political asylum. You will have to expect an answer for about a year. Temporarily he and his wife were sheltered by friends, now they live in Los Angeles.

"He refused to participate in this lawlessness"

Chernikov became the head of the Kaliningrad headquarters of Navalny in February 2020, replacing Igor Petrov, who left to continue his studies at the university. To Petrov, the headquarters was headed by Yegor Chernyuk, against whom a criminal case was instituted (and then suspended) for evasion in the army. In 2018, Chernyuk left Russia to Europe with plans to move to the United States and is now put on the federal wanted list.

Chernikov came to the Kaliningrad headquarters with large ambitions. Before that, he had a successful construction business, but Alexander wanted to engage in politics. Moreover, he was not a volunteer of the headquarters earlier.

We went to the top 10 from the forty of our headquarters on the growth of the audience

- I have been engaged in opposition activities since 2008, took part in rallies, organized a rally, went to Navalny rallies. Since I had been engaged in business for a long time, occupied leading posts, I wanted to lead, I was not interested in being just a volunteer. And when the vacancy of the head of the headquarters appeared, I went there and they took me, ”Chernikov recalls. - During this year, we did the investigation, canceled the purchase of expensive cars, forced the prosecutor’s office to put things in order on the cattlecock in Bagrationovsk, who spoiled their lives - we went, talked with people, removed the investigation, wrote a complaint, after which it was closed to bring it to the appropriate conditions. We defended the Suzdal forest. I do not want to hang the medals, but including after our investigations, the forest was transferred back to the green zone. We went to the top 10 from the forty of our headquarters on the growth of the audience. People came, supported, left comments, donated, I worked effectively.

Alexander was the coordinator of the headquarters for about a year, until January 2021. During this time, he did not participate in single pickets or rallies, unlike other Supporters of Navalny in Kaliningrad. At the same time, volunteers and employees entered the shares repeatedly, receiving administrative cases, fines, and sometimes arrests.

In my contract, there was no way to go to prison for Alexei Navalny

- When I was only accepted, I immediately said that I did not share all the views of Navalny. I go there to work there because it is a real opposition force that works, which is financed by the people to whom they listen. There are no other opposition forces in Russia. But I also said at the interview that I will have my own opinion that you might not like. Which in the end happened. To which I was told that we have complete democracy, come, work. But in my contract there was no way to go to prison for Alexei Navalny, ”Chernikov says. -If the rallies could somehow be agreed, I would go to them. But to go against the law, to know that you will be sent to jail, I was not ready for this.

After the arrest of Alexei Navalny in January 2021, his supporters said that they intend to conduct a series of mass rallies. But the Kaliningrad coordinator refused to bring people to an inconsistent campaign on January 23. A few days before her, he told the management that he was leaving the post.

- Then they did not write about my departure anywhere, and everywhere I remained a coordinator. Everyone asked me about the rally. When I asked to remove the data about me from the pages of the headquarters, they told me that this would badly hit the rating of the headquarters when the coordinator leaves on the eve of the rally, the activist says. - And on January 21, I was called to the center of "E", handed me a warning, asked for an explanatory. At that time, I have not worked at the headquarters for two days. Then I realized that in fact, for the leadership of the ED center, I look like a headquarters coordinator, then I was forced to make a post and record a video message.

Chernikov recorded a video in which he stated that he was afraid that inconsistent shares would lead to arrests, fines and criminal cases.

“Who will be responsible for people who will receive some administratives may sit down, for the youth who will go to rallies, it was not clear to me, so I refused to participate in this lawlessness,” Chernikov said .

The video spread through social networks and appeared on the pro -Kremlin federal channels.

- Of course, I understood that the supporters of Navalny could be perceived as a betrayal. But I had no choice, because the headquarters deliberately hushed up information about my care and used it. Therefore, I had to record this video, ”explains Alexander.

I personally was not ready to go to jail. Who will feed my wife and child if they put me?

- Why did you refuse to take people to a rally?

- When Alexei Navalny said that he would return to Russia, I immediately said that everything: the days of the headquarters and the FBK were considered (recognized as an extremist organization by the Russian authorities), that there will be criminal cases, they would force to go to rallies. I know that many were against going to rallies, because they understood that this would not lead to anything good, this is utopia, the path to nowhere. Many political scientists also then expressed the opinion that Navalny overestimated his strength, thought that he would lead large masses, but it did not work out, people were not ready. This is an elementary miscalculation in strategy. In 2014, he was so pulled out of prison, there was a calculation for the same. But we had Belarus, and our authorities understood this - at first they applied gross power, then at the second rally they did not use force and the rally for the decline went. Alexey sits there somewhere, writes some posts, and what's the use of? I perfectly understood this and calculated to myself. I personally was not ready to go to jail. Who will feed my wife and child if they put me?

- Some of your former staffing colleagues believe that you decided to leave the headquarters after communicating with the center "E".

- At the time of communication with the center "E" I have not worked at the headquarters for two days. I announced the departure of January 19, and talked in the center of the "e" of the 21st, so they confuse something.

-Someone took it as the fact that you used the Navalny brand and left when there was some danger. Have you been ready for this?

For me, work at the headquarters was precisely working, and not an attempt to make a coup in the country

- Everyone has the right to their own opinion. I will not answer them, I will only say that to leave the other way, to quit everything - well, this is for myself. But I can say that then I intersected with people who drowned hard against me in winter, and people have already changed their minds. The person who worked with me at the headquarters, who seemed to be offended, wrote to me when Lilia Chanyshev was arrested: "Look, should you think about leaving?" But at that time I was already going to the airport in a taxi. For me, work at the headquarters was precisely working, and not an attempt to make a revolution in the country. I always adhered to a peaceful solution to the issue, not to conflict in life and did not believe that it was possible, shedding blood and breaking someone's life, to turn the country's life for the better. If you live in the country, then you adopt its laws. And this was clearly spoken when I got to work. To me personally, Leonid Volkov himself (ex-head of the Navalny headquarters.-SR) spoke at the interview that we will not violate the laws of the Russian Federation under any conditions. If we work at the headquarters, then we work according to the laws of the Russian Federation. At that time, the headquarters did not even think to recognize as some extremist, the investigations were just investigations, open information was used, we did not post information that was unverified, we could not fall under the article about slander. And before the arrest of Alexei, we were told that if the rally was not agreed, we should not go out on it because you will be arrested, and we need you at large to work. I regard that I worked according to our agreement.

"Everyone wants to live calmly"

In Kaliningrad, Chernikov had a business related to cargo transportation. But after leaving the headquarters, political ambitions remained. In the summer, he moved to the deputies of the city council of Kaliningrad from the Yabloko party. The campaign was led by himself, at his own expense and to the donates. Belonging to Yabloko only allowed him not to collect signatures.

See who breaks, let bribe takers, thieves, former leaders of the organized crime group, and they cut off normal people

-From the second period of Putin, I realized that something was wrong, and I realized that I needed to change the country in the right direction. I hoped that we could tell, convey to people simple things that sooner or later would reach the consciousness of people, and they would begin to at least vote. I never called for a violent change of power, but I said that look what is happening around us - one theft and corruption - and this must be changed. I walked an independent candidate for the City Council and said: look who breaks, let bribe takers, thieves, former leaders of the organized crime group, and they cut off normal people. Look where we live, ”says Alexander Chernikov.

The election commander first registered it, but already in August, he withdrew from the elections for contact with an extremist organization - in the lawsuit of the deputy of the regional branch of the Communist Party. Then, from the elections, Kaliningraders Ivan Luzin and Ragnar Rein, ex-employee and ex-volunteer of the headquarters of Navalny were removed.

- The judge said: “I know, you were in the center of“ e ”in winter, the investigator interrogated you, so we have reason to take you away, get ready.” Moreover, in the case file of the case, there is no references to the interrogation of me by an investigator from Moscow at all. Then they found some kind of explanatory note from the ED center, they attached it on the basis of it and removed me. It was clearly not the Communist Party, it was one hundred percent by the orders of the security forces, to remove me in this way, only they had access to this information, ”says Alexander.

I suspect that I spoiled the plans of the security forces with this act, apparently they missed me

Chernikov left as quietly as possible, without literally no one. The business in Kaliningrad had to be closed, his wife threw the paid studies, the property was sold out for nothing.

- I was preparing very quickly to leave, sold everything that was from the property, as quickly and cheap as possible. I had a normal successful business. I had to lose large amounts of money, left some expensive things to a friend, I just gave it. What else should I be? I did not tell anyone about my departure, I did not communicate with anyone, nor personally, or in messages, ”says Chernikov. - When the first article in the media about my departure came out, suspicious activity began, left -wing accounts began to be added, the bots factory earned. We have Kaliningrad public publics who, by order of the security forces, write unpleasant things. So they began to write about me. I suspect that I spoiled the plans of the security forces with this act, apparently, they missed me.

- What are your further plans in the USA?

- We are waiting for obtaining a work permit, we hope for political asylum. While I'm a migrant worker here. When I laid out the posts that I left, no one wrote: and, here, a traitor, he left. But there were questions - how you did it, what to do to leave. Official statistics say that 300 thousand people are leaving a year, these are those who refuse citizenship. I am not going to abandon Russian citizenship, at least before receiving a passport, and this is 10-15 years. And those who unofficially leave are 300 thousand. There is a wild population decline. Everyone wants to live calmly, work and not be afraid of anything.

You perfectly understand that while Putin is alive and well, nothing will change in the country

- Do you plan to return to Russia?

- I remain a patriot of Russia. After all, Patriot is not the one who screams that we are eating all rockets in a nuclear ash. This is the person who observes laws, pays taxes, tries to live honestly and make the country free and prosperous. And not like ours, they shout that the patriots, but they themselves try to evade the laws and feed the same corruption. I hope that the authorities will change in the near future, Russia will become a free, beautiful country and I can return to my relatives. Because I had to quit everyone, and friends, and relatives, to quit business, everything that was acquired, and go into the unknown. I wanted to make my country better, and therefore I began to engage in politics. You perfectly understand that while Putin is alive and healthy, nothing will change in the country. Then just wait for the day of the cherished.