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Justice and war
- How the prisoners of Russian colonies are fighting in Ukraine, recruited by private military companies.
- The first criminal case of confidential cooperation with foreigners has been instituted in Russia.
- The lawyer’s speech in court was recognized as discrediting the armed forces.
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Freedom in exchange for murders
For almost eight months, Russia has been fighting with Ukraine . And now this can not be called a “special military operation”: the front has long been not only professional military and contracting volunteers, but also civilians who have fallen under mobilization and criminals. The first reports that private military companies recruit prisoners of Russian colonies appeared in early summer. Now the authorities do not deny this. Robbers, killers and even cannibals - the private military company Wagner returns to the front of prisoners of all stripes. They promise a pardon for the right service, for desertion - execution. But some still manage to flee and surrender to Ukrainian captivity.
With us, the founder of the human rights project Gulagu.net Vladimir Osechkin .
Vladimir Osechkin: Unfortunately, the geography of mercenaries and the involvement of tens of thousands of convicts in the war expands. Both in the Perm Territory, and in the Chelyabinsk region, and in other adjacent regions, we recorded the arrivals of representatives of the so -called PMC "Wagner", illegal armed formation working under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense. Just yesterday, at the same time, a string of Avtosakov drove to a military airfield in Perm, and several sides of the IL-76 Ministry of Defense sent prisoners to this massacre.
Robbers, killers and even cannibals - PMC "Wagner" returns to the front of prisoners of all stripes
Their number has already exceeded 20 thousand people. This is a giant figure! This recruitment is attended not only by Evgeny Prigozhin and a branch of the GRU called the PMC Wagner, but also by the Special Secretary of the Ministry of Defense entitled "Storm", the so-called PMC Redut, which is based in the Tambov region, is also involved in this, next to the 16th GRU special forces brigade. All this is monstrous! This suggests that Russia has turned into a real Failed state, a destroyed state. The justice system, the justice system does not work at all. All preliminary investigations and court sentences are meaningless when there are a number of recruiters who come to the killers at any moment, take them six months later after the sentence entered into force, release, issue weapons and forced to participate in the murder of Ukrainians.
Maryana Torocheshnikova: Journalist Sergei Parkhomenko on his Facebook suggested that in the story of the recruitment of prisoners there is at least the second bottom, representatives of the mercenary structures authorized by the Kremlin offer several types of "service" to criminals. There is an economy class service, when the criminal signs the contract, it is sent to the front, and if he survives, then six months later he receives a pardon, and his family - a certain amount. The second is the business class service: the criminal signs the contract, according to which it is allegedly sent to the front, but in reality they are allowed to hide somewhere for six months, and then he can receive a pardon. In this case, of course, he already pays. And there is a VIP class service, when the criminal signs the contract, according to which it is supposedly sent to the front, where they are immediately “killed”-so that he after that is “resurrected” under a new name and with new documents. How justified are these assumptions?
Vladimir Osechkin: Of course, all this is. Corruption flourishes in war. A number of law enforcement officials who oversee the joints of the convicts to the war also warm their hands on this. And the most large -scale, most common scheme is that a person was really killed on the front line (after all, they are mainly thrown into advanced, like mine meat), and those who are over him in the hierarchy continue to receive cash for him in cash. According to the documents, it means that in this brigade, for example, 200 or 250 people, and really 100. And for most of the next month, someone will receive money and leave it in his pocket, without reporting to the General Staff about the real scale of losses. The same applies to the Redut PMC and the Wagner PMC. This is a "black hole" through which a huge amount of money flows.
Maryana Torocheshnikova: And who pays?
Representatives of mercenary structures authorized by the Kremlin offer criminals several types of "service"
Vladimir Osechkin: These are budgetary funds that are excreted through a number of frauds to finance illegal armed groups. Already everyone knows that the Wagner PMC is located on the territory of the military unit that is directly related to the 10th brigade of the GRU special forces in Molkino. There are several more similar bases. For example, in the Tambov region, on the territory of the military base of the 16th brigade of the GRU special forces, the so-called PMC "Redut" is located. And a few more units, such as the "storm", are also located on the lands of the Ministry of Defense. It is transmitted to them equipment, weapons, arsenals, ammunition, and so on. Cash is brought there with bags, which they are paid to some kind of sheet in order to maintain at least the appearance of legitimacy.
We have been investigating Grand corruption in the Russian army for more than six months. Sergei Shoigu with his inner circle, with the closest large companies, conclude state contracts for contracts and subcontrols. The cost of state contracts is very overstated. Monthly from the country's budget, more than ten billion rubles are withdrawn at an inflated value, some of these funds are cashed out and transferred to the fighters of illegal armed groups, and the lion's share is abducted by those who stand at the helm.
Formally, this scheme was, of course, agreed with Vladimir Putin, because without his direct indication in the territory of not a single military unit it would be impossible to place certain "private traders". Only Putin could block the work of the FSB and the Investigative Committee, which do not initiate and do not investigate criminal cases of a hundred facts of mercenaryism. The state is hiddenly finances Prigozhin, a lot of money is also falling on a group of companies "Concord" .
Maryana Torocheshnikova: Now the number of people who are ready to participate in this war should increase at the expense of the FSIN employees: information appeared that some kind of some kind of sort of volunteering was received in the FSIN.
Vladimir Osechkin: First of all, the authorities want to save their warm places, and they are going to send those boys who worked there for six months or a year by younger inspectors. And those who were involved in the trading of UDU, preferential conditions of detention and extortions are not going to anywhere. The revolution inside the power block will occur when Putin decides to send half of the personnel of the FSIN, the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the war - then they will turn around against the Kremlin.
Maryana Torocheshnikova: And how do FSIN relate to the fact that some civilian people come to them, recruit prisoners, and should they helpfully bow and give a green light?
Vladimir Osechkin: In general, they are demoralized. Since the Gulag times, the chiefs of pre -trial detention centers were called the "master." And now the "owner" is a waiter who brings coffee to the recruiters to his office, and they throw bulls to the floor there. They are humiliated, as if they were dipped in the toilet. Of course, they understand that they commit a number of violations: illegally carry out recruiters to the territory of institutions, in their presence a particularly serious crime under Article 359 of the Criminal Code is committed-"mercenary". All this is seen by both prisoners and personnel. And when then hundreds of convicts are transferred from institutions without a decision of the head of the colony and the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, of course, they understand that they are just pawns. The system put them in such conditions when they themselves stopped working by law.
Power officials who oversee the stage of convicts to war, warm the hands on this
Many regional management of the FSIN stopped working according to the law long before the recruitment of prisoners, back in March, when military concentration camps made military concentration camps from a number of institutions, when the FSIN officers forced the citizens of Ukraine who did not make anything bad on the territory of Russia, who were transferred according to the documents (and this is more than a thousand people) with the formulation of "persons who prevented the special military operation in such and such regions of Ukraine". And now it’s just, as they say, “finish me with a dance”: Prigozhin with a “storm” and from the Ministry of Defense made the FSIN of the criminal system.
Maryana Torocheshnikova: Did reports of torture in Russian colonies cease to appear? Has the degree of violence decreased due to the fact that the prisoners need to be sent to war?
Vladimir Osechkin: Judging by our "hot line", torture continues. Just yesterday, a mass hunger strike in the Ulyanovsk prison began, where the staff beat several convicts. It’s just that now such protests do not cause any resonance, because the level of sympathy for the prisoners in society and the world community has sharply decreased. They see how hundreds of those people whom we sincerely tried to protect, now we agree to go to kill the innocent Ukrainians.
The FSB appoints spies
The other day in Russia , the first criminal case was opened under an article on confidential cooperation with a foreign state or organization. And this is not a gosman, this is a new article by the Criminal Code, which provides for punishment - from three to eight years in prison. The first suspect is a resident of the Penza region Pavel Pishchulin.
Here is a comment by lawyer Ivan Pavlov .
Ivan Pavlov: Now, in our wartime, any foreign organization can potentially recognize the leading activity directed against the security of Russia. It is for confidential cooperation with such organizations that responsibility was established under this new article. But not any cooperation is confidential.
Now any foreign organization can be recognized as the leading activity directed against the security of Russia
In practice, only one thing has appeared, we do not know the details, but we can assume that, for example, communication on any messenger who provides for some type of encryption (and now almost all normal messengers provide for this) is considered as confidential cooperation. It is also clear that under this article they are held accountable if there are no signs of the crime provided for by the 275th article of the Criminal Code-“State treason”. We know that state treason can be carried out in the form of assistance to a foreign organization in conducting activities directed against the security of Russia. And if the citizen not only established and maintained any confidential contacts, but also provided some kind of help, then this act will already qualify under the 275th article, where the punishment is from 12 to 20 years in prison.
Maryana Torocheshnikova: But what is the Russian special services mean by the "threat of state security"?
Ivan Pavlov: This is an even more blurry formulation. Most likely, experts from among the FSB officers will be appointed here. The relevant secrecy stamps will be put on such documents, that is, they will not be announced to the public, they will simply lie in the criminal case, employees, the accused and his defender, constrained by subscriptions of non -disclosure of state secrets will have access to them. Here is a whole field for arbitrariness!
Maryana Torocheshnikova: Should the employees be wary of those few foreign companies that still work in Russia?
Ivan Pavlov: It was necessary to be wary for a long time. The wording of the 275th article: assistance, and any-financial, informational, advisory-a foreign organization under the conduct of activities aimed against security, is enough "rubber", it can be adjusted to any action of a Russian citizen if he somehow contacts a foreign organization. I do not see much difference between the new article and the previous edition of "State treason". They simply invented a new horror story so that people were even more afraid to interact with any foreign element. It is clear that all this is dictated by the character of our wartime.
Justice and war
Here is a whole field for arbitrariness!
More than four and a half thousand protocols under the article on the discrediting of the Russian army were received by the courts after the start of Russian invasion of Ukraine, said Russian Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev. The article, according to which thousands of people were fined for quite impressive amounts, appeared in the Code of Administrative Offenses on March 4, shortly after the start of the war, and the discrediting of the Russian Armed Forces recognized their clothes in “wrong” blue-yellow colors, and the inscription “No War”, and empty sheets of paper. Discrediting the court even considered the lawyer’s speech in defense of the accused of discredit. This happened twice in Kaliningrad with lawyer Maria Bonzler.
Here's what the lawyer, partner of the Pen & Paper Bar, Vadim Kluvgan , think about this.
There are more references to the constitution from the rule of law than in everyday practice
Vadim Kluvgant: It would be nice to look into laws to those who apply them. For example, the article of the 18th law on advocacy and advocacy says that a lawyer cannot be brought to any responsibility for the statements made in the implementation of professional activities (except in cases where the court verdict has established the criminal nature of the lawyer’s actions). You just need to click, pretend that no laws are valid, and make the decision that has been made.
Maryana Torocheshnikova: Why don't judges want to see laws that do not fit into the conjuncture?
Vadim Kluvgan: Judges do not exist in isolation from all others. They are in the public service and in everything depend on people in government agencies who made them judges and can “make back”. This is one of the regrettable manifestations of the fact that there are more references to the constitution from the rule of law that simply cannot be removed from there than in everyday practice. There are probably things in which everything happens more or less decent. But this is like metastases, because the same judges consider the resonant cases and all the others. The standard drops, a habit is produced - and it is already very difficult to move away from this.
I am directly related to disciplinary practice in the Russian Law Chamber of the city of Moscow, and we are not at all deprived of attention from the judges who put all the basts on the line: he didn’t say so, not so objected, busted, dared to dispute some decision of the chairman. As if the defender by law does not have all these rights, and all that is required of him is so that he simply is present on the bench! And if he allows himself to do something like this, then he is a priori to blame, violates the law and the code of professional ethics. Such appeals from the judges have now become much more than a few years ago.
Ordinary routine work turns for a lawyer into some feat
Maryana Torocheshnikova: Why then endure lawyers in criminal processes? Isn't it easier to cancel them?
Vadim Kluvgant: You can’t cancel everything because there should be a “correct” picture. “We have a court, we are a legal state,” says the Russian authorities. And the defender is an important element of the overall picture. And the degree of tolerance depends on the totality of circumstances associated with the political conjuncture, on the state of civil society, on the degree of aggression in society. Now the degree of tolerance to the so -called "evil" represented by the advocacy is at a very low mark. If the lawyer works, as it should - fundamentally, persistently, professionally, conscientiously and actively, then this is difficult to do. The usual routine work turns for a lawyer into some feat, accompanied by high risks, here it reaches criminal liability.