Speech in court

Speech at the Moscow City Court, April 22, 2022

Yes, Your Honor, thank you for the opportunity to speak. First, I just want to express my sincere amazement. I have been working as a journalist for 25 years, I have seen many court hearings in different countries of the world, including ours. I have never seen such a biased and biased court administration in my life. I want to say this from the very beginning.

When we were preparing this appeal, we imagined its consideration a little differently. I did not mean to stand here in handcuffs, and that they would bring me from the temporary detention center on Petrovka. And I think that now, when it is obvious to everyone that this administrative arrest was concocted just as a reason to determine a criminal charge against me, in principle, it would be possible to say nothing more at all, because all the “and” are dotted , and it is absolutely clear to everyone what is happening, but out of respect for the institution of the court, I will nevertheless speak out on the merits of this case, the appeal that I sent together with my counsel.

Usually, at the stage of consideration of the appeal, they talk about errors, shortcomings, shortcomings that accompanied the issuance of the initial decision. But in the decision that we are appealing against, there are no errors, shortcomings and shortcomings. It contains only lies, from the first to the last word.

Employees of the 2nd Special Police Regiment of the Main Department of Internal Affairs of Moscow did not “patrol” near my house, as the report says, but specially waited in a minibus parked in advance at the entrance. I could not have “accelerated” when they appeared, with all my desire, since I was driving a car. I also did not change the “trajectory of movement”, since it is possible to enter the courtyard of my house and park the car only along one single trajectory. And it goes without saying that I did not put up any "active resistance": as soon as five policemen ran up to my car and demanded to follow them to the minibus, I did it. I will add that none of them introduced themselves and did not explain the reason for what was happening. Both I and my defender, lawyer Vadim Prokhorov, spoke about all this in detail at a meeting of the Khamovniki District Court. Our words are corroborated by CCTV footage provided by the Moscow Department of Information Technology, as you, Your Honor, could have seen for yourself if we had not denied our motion to investigate these materials.

Today, telling the truth in Russia is illegal

However, all this is a formality, as I think every person in this room understands. But the point is quite different.

George Orwell, whom we, unfortunately, more and more often have to remember in our lives today, wrote that “freedom is, first of all, the ability to say that twice two is four. If it is there, everything else will follow."

Today in our country it is impossible to say that twice two is four. You cannot call a war a war, political prisoners a political prisoner, a usurper a usurper. There are officially accepted euphemisms for everything: “special operation”, “extremists”, “legally elected president”.

Those who do not agree to play by such rules, those who call white white and black black, those who continue to say what they think, are declared "violators" and "criminals" and are under arrest, that's how I am now, in handcuffs, like the people I saw over the past 10 days both in the Khamovniki police department and in the 2nd special detention center, as well as, probably, hundreds of people all over our country.

Today, telling the truth in Russia is illegal. Such a time. Such an era. Such power. Only time will pass, the era will end, and the power will change - for sure, because nothing is eternal in this world.

And also because, no matter what they write in reports, resolutions and protocols, white is still white, and black is still black. War is war. Freedom is freedom. And two times two, no matter what, is still four. And nothing in this world will make me think otherwise.

Vladimir Kara-Murza

Moscow City Court

April 22, 2022