“Mom, why are you crying? This is just a circus. I'm laughing "

21-year-old Saveliy Frolov is the first in Russia accused of Gosizman for "the transition to the side of the enemy." Paper Kartuli told his story

Savely Frolov-a 21-year-old Muscovite who, from the very beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, actively opposed the war. A month after the declaration of mobilization, Savely, like thousands of other Russians, tried to go to Georgia through the Upper Lars - and disappeared. After another month, he became the first in Russia the accused of Gosizman for the “transition to the side of the enemy” - such a wording appeared in Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in July. Savely threatens up to 10 years in prison - supposedly for preparations for the entry into the Legion of Freedom of Russia (the formation within the Armed Forces of Ukraine; there are very few confirmed information about its activity). The chief editor of Paper Kartuli Valery Kirsanova spoke with her mother, friend and lawyer Savely Frolov and tells his story. With the permission of the Medusa publication, this text is completely published.

"Wildly fall from Russia"

In the photo on Instagram, a curly young man in a purple cap and headphones sits on a concrete chipper against the background of the Caucasian ridge and a multi -kilometer traffic jam. “We wildly pour from Russia 5 km to the border,” Savely Frolov signed his publication . This picture of September 29 is the last on his page. A week after the mobilization announcement, Frolov tried to leave for the first time. According to relatives, he went through the Russian border, but he was not allowed further.

“The Georgian border guards relatively randomly filtered all this crowd,” says Savelya Malika Bakhtiarov. By that time, she was already waiting for Frolov in Tbilisi and was in touch with him all the time: - He went to the window, he was asked where he was going and how much money was with him. He honestly said that 20 thousand rubles, and he was given a refusal. They wrote that it is not enough ( the photograph of the document is at the disposal of the editorial office - approx. Paper Kartuli ). "

A month later, Frolov decided to try again: on October 30, he got on the bus Vladikavkaz - Tbilisi. But already at about 11 in the morning he wrote to Malik that at the Upper Lars checkpoint, FSB officers will inspect him, and disappeared.

At 17 o’clock a new message came from his phone - with a request to send geolocation to call a taxi. This seemed strange to Bakhtiarova: she had to meet Savely by car. The girl tried to get through, but a friend stopped in touch.

The police of the Badkavkaz, the detainees on the “Upper Lars” - the mother of Savely Ekaterina Frolova replied that he wrote a refusal to cross the border of Russia and Georgia and withdrew from the bus. Frolov managed to find only a day later. He called his parents, quickly said that he was arrested for 15 days under an article on petty hooliganism, that he was sitting alone in the chamber of temporary detention isolator in Vladikavkaz and that he would not give him any more.

While Savely was serving a sentence, six FSB officers from North Ossetia arrived at the place of its registration-in Naro-Fominsk.

“There was only a daughter of 14 years old at home,” says Paper Kartuli mother Savely Ekaterina Frolova. - She calls in tears and snot: "I'm afraid, I'm scared." They did not even let the apartment close the apartment. They just said: “Call your parents.” We have a grandfather’s neighbor 85 years old, we are looking after him, so he stood to the door and did not let them in. ”

According to Catherine, the investigators were especially interested in the camping equipment of his son: shoes for snowboarding, tent, sleeping bags.

"The account of such cases can go to dozens"

On November 14, when Savely was supposed to leave the insulator, Catherine flew to Vladikavkaz without a return ticket - she hoped to buy two as soon as she picks up her son. Without documents and even laces, Frolov went out of the IVS gate, and a few minutes later he was detained again, he did not have time to see his mother at large. According to lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov from the First Department human rights organization - he represents the interests of the young man - the police directly said that they were not going to let Savely let go.

Another 15 days of arrest were appointed to him under an article on disobedience to the requirements of border guards, and on November 30 - under an article on petty hooliganism . The police claimed that Frolov was swearing on the street, in court he denied this.

On December 2, the case of treason was initiated against Savely. He is suspected of "preparing for the transition to the side of the enemy." This is the first thing known in Russia under the article with such a wording.

Vladimir Putin equalized the transition to the side of the “enemy” to the Stateise in July this year. The crime threatens from 12 to 20 years of colony. According to investigators, Savely planned through Georgia to get to Turkey, from there to Poland, and then to Ukraine, to join the Legion of Freedom of Russia. At the same time, Frolov had neither a ticket to Istanbul, nor the Schengen visa, according to the lawyer.

“This is a new trend,” says Evgeny Smirnov. - The FSB border service revealed this crime by reading correspondence. And given how many phones they watched, especially during the first wave of mobilization, and how little is needed to initiate a criminal case, I think that the account of such cases can go to dozens. We do not know the real amount yet, because there are no things about the Stateizer not to advertise a lot of things. ”

"Principal Gin"

Saveliy has not experienced sympathy for the regime in the country for a long time.

“Judging by what we see here, this is a rag of riot police and the police,” Malika Bakhtiarov jokes on a video from an action in support of Alexei Navalny in February 2021. - There are several times more. I don’t know, however, what they protest against, they do not present any requirements. ” “They occupy administrative buildings, do not let us in the subway. Vova, do something, ”adds Savely Frolov.

After a school in Naro-Fominsk, Savely graduated from a physical education college in Moscow. He worked as an actor in quests, conducted training in children's fencing, and in the summer he traveled to Altai - he was an instructor in parasing and parakakyking in a charity camp for children with cerebral palsy.

“He is such an older brother who will not wipe the snot, but he will teach a fire to breed, fishing,“ they met Malika in Altai. - The kids are completely delighted with him. He knows how to somehow support without regret. The film is “1+1” , there this nurse is 100%. ”

In Moscow, Bakhtiarova was professionally engaged in wall painting, Frolov helped. Since February 24, they distributed leaflets together near the metro with advice to write about their position to the deputies and went into anti -war pickets. At first they received a fine and an administrative protocol, then Savely was detained for 10 days.

Closer to autumn, young people decided that everything was useless, the girl recalls. Malika left for Georgia, Savely stayed to earn a little.

Bakhtiarova organized a small fencing-role club for children in Tbilisi, together with Frolov they wanted to try to make it a business. Therefore, in the luggage he is a foam sword, a projector, a wooden shield, camouflage pants and tactical boots - this investigated the investigator on preparations for participation in hostilities.

Malika was sure that Saveliy would erase the inscription “Glory to Ukraine” from the backpack. But when she found out that he did not do this, she was not surprised: "The fundamental baldbes."

"He said that he applied to the Legion"

In Vladikavkaz, Ekaterina Frolova Dali saw her son twice. Savely said that on the border he was “beaten, promised to rape with a mop and threatened his relatives”, so he gave the phone and password.

In the cell without communication and communication, Saveliy, according to his mother, lost the score of the days and began to cure his hands with cigarettes in order to "feel at least something." But after meeting with Catherine, he again became fun: "He made sure that he was not abandoned."

“Even at school, he was always some kind of fighter: his hair grew up, the teacher wrote complaints about him, offered a thousand rubles with the whole class,“ Once your parents cannot pay a hairdresser. ” And he: “Well, no, if you give five, then I’ll go cut it off,” Catherine smiles.

She says that since childhood she taught her son to fight for her point of view, but "she did not think that she would be so - political." At home, they often and seriously cursed because of the differences in the views. The son said that the parents were "already old and do not understand anything, and he, his sister and brother, still live in this Russia." And then together they decided that this topic would be banned.

Several times a month, Savely visited the family in Naro-Fominsk.

“Speaking, from all sides, not to hide anything, by the fall, he arrived somewhere and said in between, that in June he applied to the Legion. Some legion exists, supposedly to fight against the Russian authorities, but from Ukraine, ”recalls Catherine. “But no one accepted him there.” He wrote like: “Two months have passed now, why is there no answer?” They said: “Oh, we have some kind of malfunctions, spam.” And that’s all, the correspondence ended on that. ”

Catherine thinks that the son did not delete this correspondence, but the woman did not see the reports. At the same time, Malika Bakhtiarov says that they talked with Frolov about the Legion only in the format “Interesting whether it exists or not”.

In a conversation with The Insider , a friend of Savely claims that at the end of November the FSB officers came to work, forced to admit that he was preparing activists to fight for Ukraine for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and read out loud correspondence with Frolov.

“There were messages with his discussion, and mainly they caught on his half -heard message with the intention of going there, that I also approved a joke in context,” says the interlocutor The Insider.

A friend is sure that Savely definitely was not going to join the Legion.

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What is the Legion "Freedom of Russia"

The first mention of the Legion appeared in March. In the telegram channel-now there are about 120 thousand people there-they published an appeal . It stated that Russian soldiers, sergeants, warrant officers and officers are going to the side of the Armed Forces to fight “for new Russia” and against the “dictatorial regime of Vladimir Putin”.

In April, the representatives of the Legion-supposedly former captured Russian soldiers-anonymously in Balaklavas gave a press conference in Ukraine. They announced a large number of people who wanted to join the association. To do this, they first offer to write in a bot, fill out a questionnaire and send it to the mail. At the same time, the military did not comment on the connection with the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the General Staff of Ukraine.

The number of the alleged unit was voiced only once. In November, the ex-deputy of the State Duma Ilya Ponomarev, who publicly represents the Legion “Freedom of Russia”, said in an interview with DW about 500 people. Earlier, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Alexei Armorovich, argued that the recruits of the Legion is "Russians who get through third countries."

In the telegram channel of the movement regularly publishes reports about the participation of legionnaires in hostilities. However, in July, Kholod wrote that there is no reliable information about this. As Media notes, “there is a version that the Legion of Freedom of Russia is a Ukrainian information project and that there really is no such combat formation.”

At the same time, in Russia for the alleged connection with the representatives of the Legion, FSB officers have already pursued several people: residents of Yakutsk, Kazan, St. Petersburg, Belgorod, Tyumen and the Sverdlovsk region, writes Mediazona . Either they pass through other articles, or at the time of the prosecution, amendments have not yet entered into force that would allow them to be charged with the Stateismman.

"This is just a circus"

Savely Frolov was left in custody until February 11, 2023 in the SIZO-6 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia . It will not be transferred from Vladikavkaz to the place of registration, they will not be allowed to call relatives. Evgeny Smirnov’s lawyer calls it illegal, but ordinary practice in order to completely suppress the will of the suspect. And he says that FSB officers without a lawyer regularly interviewed the IVS Frolov.

Smirnov says that, according to the Moscow Canes, about two years from the detention to the sentence, so the relatives are advised to “prepare”.

Saveliy passes Malika Bakhtiarova through a lawyer that he learned to stand in his arms, read the Witcher and is indignant that the books on physics of Professor Richard Feynman, which she sends, is too complicated.

“Once his paper ended and he wrote to me on the toilet:“ Take a leaflet for yourself, subside and remember me. ” The lawyer in the form of Skrina sent. Savely loves such jokes, ”Malika says that it is surprising to receive moral support from the person who is in prison.

Ekaterina Frolova does not understand why her son is accused of Gosizman if he gave the phone and did not hide anything: “Is this considered voluntarily? As such, there is no betrayal fact. Maybe he just wanted to check this site [Legion of Freedom of Russia]. ”

The lawyer notes that Savely is not charged with a finished crime, but preparations for its commission. For this threatens up to 10 years in prison. The defender emphasizes that the young man discussed the “Legion” with a friend before the State Duma equated the “transition to the side of the enemy” to the state treason.

“He constantly has a prayer:“ I'm fine, don’t worry. Mom, why are you crying? It's just a circus. I'm laughing, ”says Ekaterina Frolova. “And I'm not laughing,” she adds. - I say: “Even if this is a circus, who are you in this circus: spectator, clown, entertainer, acrobat or animal that is sitting there in the cage?” Well, in response, of course, nothing. ”

Valeria Kirsanova, Paper Kartuli (Georgia)