"Mom, this is a setup." How the FSB improved the statistics on Victory Day

In Kaliningrad, a campaign is deployed against activists with an anti -war position. The first criminal case in the fakes was opened in the region. Another Kaliningrad is suspected of organizing the “On the eve of May 9”. Close to the accused claim that all these cases are fabricated.

On May 11, the Russian FSB reported that she prevented the attack in Kaliningrad. According to the agency, a citizen of Russia was detained, a supporter of the prohibited extremist organization "Right Sector", who allegedly planned "on the eve of the celebration of the Victory Day, the commission of a terrorist act in relation to military personnel of one of the military units of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation."

The press service reported that after the attack, Kaliningrad was going to go to fight against Ukraine against Russia. He was detained, and a homemade explosive device with damaging elements and attributes with the symbol of the "Right Sector" was seized in his apartment. A criminal case has been instituted under the articles "Terrorist Act" and "Illegal manufacture of explosive devices".

The video detention was distributed by RIA Novosti . The FSB did not name the personal data of the detainee , but, as it turned out, we are talking about 44-year-old Vyacheslav Popov. His personality in the video was confirmed by his mother, Valentina Popova .

Early on the morning of May 6, in the apartment on Victory Avenue in Kaliningrad, where mother and son live, FSB officers broke. They detained Vyacheslav, evacuated the inhabitants of this and neighboring three -story buildings. Sapers with a service dog came for a search. Valentina was put out the door for 20 minutes, and when they were allowed to enter, in her apartment she found unfamiliar things - probably the very attributes of a homemade explosive device.

- When I went in, I see - there are packages. I came up - I did not understand what kind of crap is like that. And in the blue bag there was such a thing - well, a little more than a matchbox. It looks like some kind of spare part either to the car, or to the computer, ”Popova recalls. -There were also a completely new tape, some plastic corners, I did not even understand what it was. Completely new screws ... We have a lot of tools. I myself can do repairs well, I know all of them by heart. And then everything is new, like from a store, ”recalls Popova. - And then, I think so, this performance was not enough for them. They shot all this on the video, and then an employee came, he was called Zhenya, and brought with him a bag. I was in the kitchen, and he closed my review with this bag so that I would not see what was being done in the hallway. And then, as I received a lure: I walked away with my bag, I look-and there is already some kind of glass capsule with liquid, similar to a thermos.

Also in the room appeared symbolism associated with Ukraine and the "right sector". According to Valentina, before this, there was definitely no one in a one -room apartment:

- This is just such a lie ... I perceive it as a special setting. I'm shocked. I live in my apartment, I have a room of 18 squares. But I clean up two times a week, I sort things out. We had none of this! Yes, I'm a pensioner, well, not to the same insanity! Some kind of wildness. The son stood facing the wall. He managed to tell me: "Mom, this is a setup, there should be nothing there."

Until 2015, Popov was a member of the regional organization BARS - "Baltic Vanguard of Russian Resistance". This is the Kaliningrad movement of monarchists-marginals, adherents of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad. Members of Bars positioned themselves as Russian nationalists, held peaceful actions and marches in support of political prisoners, and opposed corruption.

In 2020, four BARS members were convicted of extremism for terms of three to eight years. Popov, as a former member of Bars, went through a witness in the case.

According to the press service of the regional department of the Federal Security Service, Popov was previously prosecuted "for committing crimes of an extremist orientation." Popova’s lawyer Maria Bonzler said that he has not yet owned information, but assumes that we can talk about the 2011 episode, when, together with the leader Bars Alexander Orshulevich, Popov placed “images with anti -Semitic slogans” on his page on his social network.

Recently, Vyacheslav has been working as a finisor, lives with his mother. According to Valentina, before the son on the topic of Ukraine did not talk to her. And he never even stuttered about the "right sector", and even more so about the desire to leave to fight in Ukraine. He did not even have a passport, his mother says.

In the video of the press service of the FSB Popov, he admits in his connection with the "Right Sector".

"In 2008, I got in touch with the commander of the Kaluga branch of the Right Sector Leonid Butusin. With him I discussed my plans for an attack on military units, terrorist acts, an attack on military personnel. I told him that I was going to hold stocks," the suspect says.

“He was not in any“ right sector ”,” Nehaeva is convinced. - And he was not going to go to Ukraine at all. He did not even have a passport. The only organization in which he was consisting was a leopard, but even then - until 2015, ”says Vyacheslav’s friend, activist Anastasia Nechaev . She also had a search at her house in the case of Popova.

She calls this business "sucked out of the mind of an eshnik." She herself has repeatedly become a victim of persecution for an active position and single pickets. After a rally on February 24, it was arrested against a special operation in Ukraine for 25 days.

Both she and the mother of Popov believe that Vyacheslav became a victim of a fabricated accusation.

- The FSB exposes him as a saboteur and a terrorist. All this is a lie. I have a poor idea that the whole patient, a poorly seeing person, commits a terrorist attack. The truth is only that he is incontinent to say and has problems with alcohol. Vyacheslav proud man. When he drank, he began to say a lot of sharp, but this is only bravado. Moreover, he would never have arranged explosions. And the fact that he was put something before the start or during the search is obvious to me. Here they collected all the words as material. Surely some witness was slipped, who called him to such harsh statements and recorded everything,-Nekhaeva is sure. - It is impossible to blame Vyacheslav of Nazi views. I am a Jewish by blood, and he talked with me without problems. He spoke amiably with me with Uzbek in the Arabic market, which he had previously studied for general development.

According to her, Popov was against the war in Ukraine and could speak about it on social networks. The fact that the investigation was interested in his posts, the investigator hinted to Valentine. Now the profile of Vyacheslav in social networks is closed.

- The investigator told me that "you do not know what he writes there." I really don't know, ”says Popova. -I think they attached him a “tail” so that he would tell something there. Because, firstly, he was in Bars. In addition, you do not forget all this policy that by May 9 there should be some results of the work. I think that if it had not been on May 9, probably this would not have happened. I watch the videos, as they say, found some homeless person, some jars were placed plastic, and then bloggers are all spinning. Steam. And for what? For such a beautiful checkmark. Found a victim.

"This is happening all over the country"

On the eve of Victory Day, the Kaliningrad special services began an active campaign against activists configured against the war. On May 5, the first criminal case in discrediting the Russian army was opened in the region. The activist from Sovetsk Igor Baryshnikov became his defendant.

- On May 4, I was on a run, I called the MTS number, they said that they were waiting for me for a preventive conversation. I said that I would come to the police in an hour. But the van was already waiting for me at the house, ”says Igor. - 10-11 people burst out at once, there were Ashniki from Kaliningrad, a capture group. Such an action of intimidation, so that I immediately gives out all the passwords-jackets.

With the outbreak of fighters, on his Facebook page, he condemned the war in Ukraine and published critical posts in relation to power. The decision to initiate criminal proceedings states that Baryshnikov placed on his Facebook page 18 messages "discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation." Baryshnikov wrote about the maternity hospital in Mariupol, about the actions of the Russian army in Buch, and also published links to articles of foreign media. At the same time, in the last month, his profile was opened only for friends.

- It is clear that the guys from the center "E" went into "Friends" under the flags of Ukraine. I wrote because I wanted people to see and know what was happening. I understood that there was a risk. But it is dangerous to walk in our country and along the street, they can be delayed at any moment, ”the activist argues. - So far I will not write posts about the actions of the Russian army, I am at the sight. Each post can now be regarded as "discrediting aircraft" - the word "world", "war" is prohibited.

Baryshnikov is a permanent participant in protest in Kaliningrad. In January 2021, the court appointed him eight days of arrest for participating in the action in support of the politician Alexei Navalny. In April, in a similar case, he was arrested for another 22 days. Now, in a new criminal case, he is under the subscription about the lower room - he cannot leave Sovetsk. His criminal case appeared on the eve of Victory Day, not by chance, he said.

- It seems that it passes throughout the country. The general action, from the general management, is given a decree - so that nothing prevents the great holiday. Even the air parade was canceled so that no provocations. They were afraid that suddenly Kamikadze ... The situation is complicated, and the stagger intensifies, Baryshnikov says.

"Take the 51st article-go to the zone"

On May 7, three young Kaliningraders were detained for the distribution of anti -war stickers in the city center, on Leninsky Prospekt.

The police protocol (the editorial office) stated that 23-year-old Artemy Tikhonov, 21-year-old Yegor Timofeev and his wife Sofia Mashchenko glued stickers “containing inscriptions that discredit the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”, applied inscriptions with paint with the help of stencils, and “insulting the passers-by”.

For two days, the guys were put in the Communist Party for two days, and then on May 9, on Victory Day, the court arrested them for petty hooliganism. Now all three are waiting for a new court - already under Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, for discrediting the Russian army.

As the north. Realiy Yegor and Sofia said, the police distorted the facts somewhat. The guys really put up the stickers with the inscriptions "We do not want a war", "peace - peace" and "no war", but there was no talk of any damage to someone else's property and preferences to passers -by. Stencils and paint did not go in operation.

- We had self -adhesive paper, on which we ourselves made inscriptions. We were going to stick several stickers on the ads of the ads, on stops. But they certainly did not plan to hang them on cars or buildings so that there were no damage to property, ”the guys said.

Egor is a barista, Sofia is an office worker. This was their first detention. They were very worried and “made a bunch of mistakes” during interrogation.

“It was necessary to immediately take the 51st article of the Constitution (allows you to not testify against myself and my loved ones. -SR) , and I spoke a lot against myself,” Sofia is worried.

-But then, we were not allowed to take the 51st article, they said: "Take the 51st article-you will go to the zone." During the interrogation, there was a pressure, ”Yegor notes. - We were not allowed to call a lawyer, they said that this was an administrative case, the lawyer was not laid.

Sofia spent a day in a solitary cell: "She went crazy, baked all the songs I knew." Egor and Artemy sat together. An interesting fact - friends collected for them a transfer with vegan products, but only juice reached the detainees. The rest has disappeared, says Sofia.

“Now we know exactly what we will do next: if possible, we will write letters by political prisoners, because we understand how difficult it is to sit alone, how support is needed,” the guys say.

Invisible poster

A resident of Polessk, activist Anna Boykova received two protocols at once in one repost in the Telegram channel Politfludil Kaliningrad.

- I thought the channel was closed, there people sent the news, talked among themselves. I sent the news from the open channel "Feminist anti -war resistance" there - that on May 9, feminists will hold an action, not even a rally. The admin immediately deleted the post, said that "you post calls," and after that the police came to me on May 6, says Boykova.

Anna was declared the organizer of the inconsistent rally, and was also accused of discrediting the Russian army. In one episode, two protocols were drawn up.

-Now I clearly understood and I want to say to all activists: there is no need to try to explain something to the police, it is dangerous, from these your words they write protocols. You just need to take the 51st article of the Constitution. Then it is better to prove her case in court, ”she believes. A few days later, on May 9, police came to her - in order to control her behavior at the bottom of Victory. - The police came to control me. They wanted to talk to me, but I refused. She asked them: can I really not go to the festive procession? They said that, of course, it is possible. But they will make sure that I do not do something. They probably were afraid that I would bring a "wrong" poster. In the end, I did not go to the holiday, I worked in the garden. However, on the eve of May 8, I was already photographed at the festive installation in the city. Last year, I had a beautiful poster with the text about the country of consuming not to oversleep fascism in my country. And this year I took a picture with an invisible poster.

Anna Boykova two years ago arrived in the Kaliningrad region from Karelia, where she was engaged in social activism. She led the VKontakte group “Nosy Pitkiaranta”, which consisted of half of ten thousand inhabitants of the Karelian village.

- We arranged funny flash mobs there, which do not fall under the law on rallies. We did not use posters, even on clothes we did not write anything. For example, yellow balloons were brought - a symbol of our movement, ”says Anna. - In general, in our group we fought with disorder in the village. We wanted to close the maternity ward, the only college, the House of Culture. And they also canceled the train to St. Petersburg. We defended these objects. The department for emergency birth was left to us, but the college was nevertheless closed. We conducted the action "Pitkiaranta is waiting for the train", wrote appeals to the Ministry of Transport, Russian Railways. And now for more than a year the train has been going to the Lodeyno Field.

In early March, the husband of her friend wrote a denunciation to Anna. She was interviewed in the police, but they did not initiate a matter. And the group on the social network was closed.

- I don’t even know this person personally, with his wife we never conflicts him. In the denunciation there was just a set of claims - "discrediting the army", "scolding power", "posting Navalny." The screenshots were attached, and even my open letter to Navalny when he got into prison. And the one who wrote a denunciation, considered that this is also prohibited. That is, these people are so touched that they think that now a letter to a prisoner cannot be written, ”says Anna. - The author of the denunciation mentioned FBK and extremism. And I won’t be surprised if now after the case they also wrap it for repost.

In the Kaliningrad region, she already wrote several appeals to the authorities - about the quality of roads, sidewalks, the lack of playgrounds in Polesk. And the authorities even promised to react to part of the appeals.

Anna leads the anti -war group in VKontakte "Living Party". This is her third group after February 24.

- How can you mock the tongue like this? We were forbidden to call war war. And if there is a bombing with rockets, tanks go - what, is it not a war? In the early days of the war, when the word "war" was not yet prohibited, we created the group "No Karelia War." She was blocked quite quickly. Then we created the group "The world - the world of Karelia", it was also banned. “Living Side” is still living, ”says Anna.

On the eve of May 9, law enforcement agencies reported several cases of possible "terrorism" in the Russian regions at once. Irina Danilovich from Crimea was accused of storing explosives. It works as a nurse and illuminates topics related to medicine and corruption in the Crimea.

In the Kursk region, a local resident was detained, who, according to the FSB, prepared terrorist attacks. He found two home -made bombs, traumatic weapons and Nazi literature. It was reported that terrorist attacks were prepared in agreement with the special services of Ukraine, their goal was to persuade the authorities to terminate the special military operation in Ukraine.