"It is unacceptable to judge for the art." Speeches of the participants of Mayakovsky readings after they were requested up to 7 years in colony

Today, in the Tver District Court of Moscow, poets and participants of last year’s “Mayakovsky readings” requested the deadlines for participating in the event: Artem Kamardin - 7 years of a colony of general regime, Yegor Shtvbe - 6 years. “Mayakovsky readings” have been regularly held near the monument to Mayakovsky in Moscow, they revived the tradition of the same readings from whose permanent participants were dissidents. Last year, the participants declared them "anti -mobilization". September 26, 2022 came to the readings with searches.

The defendant in the case of Mayakovsky Readings, Nikolai Daineko, has already been convicted of 4 years in colony. He concluded a pre -trial agreement with the investigation, testified against other defendants - Artem Kamardin and Yegor Shtvbe, after which his case was allocated in a separate production and examined in two days in closed mode. When the prosecutor's office forced him to testify at the court of his comrades, Daineko could not answer the questions as the state prosecutor wanted, and admitted that he was afraid to contradict the testimony she needed.

Yegor Shtvb and Artem Kamardin are accused of calls to activities directed against the security of the state, and of arousing hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity. The accusation believes that on September 25, 2022, a “organized group” of poets gathered at the Monument to Mayakovsky who humiliated the participants in the attack on Ukraine.

After they were requested, the poets made speeches in court. Egor Stvba performed in more detail in the debate, and Artem Kamardin in the last word. The Mediazone publishes a literal decoding of their appeals to Judge Panova.

Egor Shtvba

Your honor has ended the consideration of the criminal case against me and Kamardin Artem. From the very beginning of the criminal case, I declared my position in court: I was not to blame, I did not commit what they were charged with. I talked about this at the stage of preliminary investigation. I have not violated any laws. I really hope that you were convinced that the evidence was not presented by the prosecution to approve the opposite.

On September 25, 2022, for the first time in my life, I came somewhere in general in principle, where I could honor my works, my poems and show myself as a poet. The same day has become the starting point for my restriction of freedom.

The investigation did not even try to figure it out: they started a criminal case against those who were caught that day, but caught those who were able to, who were caught up. On the principle of "who ran, he did something." And now, by someone’s mistake, I am now sitting on the bench of the defendants. For what? The investigator could not answer this question. For the investigator, I’m just a name on a piece of paper, which must be transferred further to the prosecutor’s office, and then let the court figure it out.

This is called shifting responsibility, a negligent attitude to work that can cost a person of life. In this case, my life. Here the fate of a person is decided. But the investigation does not give a damn about it, they just do their work. Someone’s mistake or indifference, unwillingness to figure out-that's why I'm here.

What did I do illegal? Read poems? No examinations were even conducted with my verses. We are looking for an answer in the text of the indictment: "The excitement of hatred or enmity is equal to the humiliation of human dignity by a group of people on the basis of belonging to any social group, committed by a publicly organized group."

According to investigators, Kamardin found him previously acquainted with me and Nikolai Daineko and proposed to take part in a “crime aimed at initiating hatred and humiliation of human dignity” - in this case, militias who took part in armed actions in the Lugansk and Donetsk people's republics, “publicly organized group”. And also in “committing calls for obstruction by the executive authorities of their powers to ensure the security of the Russian Federation - by promoting persons to be drafted for military service, to refuse to receive summons and put signatures in them”. Also an organized group.

It sounds serious and hard. But this is only a version of the investigation. But you have to understand and establish the facts. It is easy to write a text on paper, it is difficult to prove it. Ask yourself questions in the deliberate room: did the crime event take place? Did the rod committed those illegal actions? Did he have intent? What was his motive? Is the charged confirmed by the evidence? What evidence is confirmed that an organized group was created between me and Kamardin and Daineko?

You will make a decision on which my future life depends. You could observe at a meeting of my parents and make sure that my lawyer and I do not exaggerate when we say that they need my support - both financial and domestic matters.

I want to contact my mother. Mom, I know that you, like no one else, is convinced of my innocence and non -involvement. And you know that I was not my efforts here. Nevertheless, I am sorry that everything turned out so that you stayed with dad alone with your difficulties. (At that moment, the mother of Yegor Shtvbe, sitting in the hall, answers him: “I know.”) Thank you for supporting me.

Someone from the leadership simply decided to detain me and bring me to the charge without understanding-after all, the court will figure it out. Further extension - well, since they planted, then there are reasons. Over and over again. No one wants to understand, and a person is sitting. And everyone does not care, everyone is just doing their job. So what, what am I too?

Now, your honor, it finally came to you. And you are the first person who really tries to delve into everything that happens here. Of all the people who are authorized to make decisions, you are the first.

We can now clearly consider that the investigation has not presented a single evidence of my acquaintance with Kamardin or Daineko before my detention on September 25. I tried to help the investigation, because I believed that the investigation would figure it out and understand that we were detained by mistake. But the car has already begun to work, and inertia is so strong that it does not see any obstacles.

All hope is now on you. I really hope that you will do your job, but better, according to the law, guided by irrefutable facts, and not the speculation of the investigator and not a lie [of secret witnesses] Arnold and Jackie, guided by their internal beliefs, namely experience and intuition.

There is such a principle of innocence, he suggests that all doubts are interpreted in favor of the defendant and he is not obliged to prove his innocence. This is just about the testimony of secret witnesses: their word is against mine, but there is no evidence. Only doubts remain.

Let us return to the indictment. What is my so -called criminal role? “The creation of false visibility of the mass and relevance of the event by actively support the speakers, joint recitation of verses, the joint announcement of statements and calls for refusing to obtain summons, active gestures and other actions that are aimed at humiliation of the dignity of the group.”

I will comment a little each of these points. The first item: my actual presence at the event and applause is the creation of false visibility of the mass. This is not true. This is not a crime, what kind of nonsense? There were about 20 people and everything clapped, when reading it is the norm.

The second point: how could I recite if I heard all these verses for the first time? I was not even familiar with the authors of these works. I did not know anything about these authors and their verses.

The third point: I did not announce anything, no calls, no words that can be perceived as an insult or humiliation of human dignity.

The following point: Active gesture. As usual, no evidence that I somehow actively gestured, raised my hands up-there is no.

Fifth point: "Other actions." Which? What are you talking about? What did I do? I did nothing at all. What am I sitting here, for what? The phrase about the stability of the created organized group was determined by the duration of criminal activity, the constancy of the main composition of the participants, the immutability of the crime, criminal goals, a clear distribution of roles and strict subordination. This phrase itself, as I understand it, is not subject to proof at all. The investigation is enough to just say.

To prove the presence of certain circumstances is the obligation of the prosecution. But there is no evidence. And I'm sitting. Since I am accused of such heavy articles, where is Billing, in the end, where where operational-search measures, record of telephone conversations? Where is the observation of me, Daineko, Kamardin? All this is not. And why does the investigation indicate precisely for the period from September 21 to 25, when they allegedly searched for me? As a result, it proved that Kamardin explained to me a plan for committing a crime and a proposal to take part in this crime? How did it prove that I agreed to this?

Your honor, the puzzle does not add up. I’m thinking that the investigation is lying and, having no evidence, it fabricates the case on the false testimony of the witnesses of Arnold and Jackie. Because when I was already closed, it was too late to take it back. Thus, the investigator created false visibility of the relevance of the prosecution. Such a puzzle is much better. And I am sitting.

I ask you, your honor, given all of the above, to make the only legal and reasonable decision: to remove all the accusations from me and justify.

Artem Kamardin

It is unacceptable to judge the art. An art statement can be interpreted, interpreted in different ways, even if it is expressed as simple and intelligibly as possible. Those who perceive it can always be always found. And if someone is inclined to be offended, then he may be offended, well, out of the blue.

I did not set the goals of someone with my poem. Perhaps someone had a goal to be offended so that a person with a different opinion from their opinion and that is different from their views is undeservedly punished.

But just like for art, it is unacceptable to judge for an opinion, even if it is expressed publicly. Although in modern Russia this, alas, is practiced, so I am afraid, with all due respect to you that the sentence will be accusatory, although I am completely innocent.

I will immediately draw your attention to the fact that it follows from the presented video evidence that I did not call not to take the summons, not to put signatures, and so on. I also note that everything said and read during the readings lies exclusively in the area of ​​responsibility of the said or read, because there are no general line on Mayakovsky readings, the readings have no organizers - the city tradition that goes through the roots in the middle of the last century, they simply do not need them. Anyone can go out and say anything, everything that comes to his mind. It was always like that in my memory.

In addition, with regard to Article 280 approx. 4, I ask you to draw your attention that the article is completely new: at the time of our detention, it existed for no more than three months and there was no practice on it.

As the articles prohibiting certain statements appear, I have always corrected my rhetoric. An article appeared for “discrediting” [army] and the first convicted for the words “no war”, and I stopped saying “no to war”. Although I still do not understand what discrediting has to do with it. The 207th article appeared, an article about “fakes” [about the army], and I ceased to share any information not confirmed by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

If I knew that some things, even if the spoken for me, expressed publicly, could lead to jail, I was silent ... that is, he was not silent. Knowing, moreover, as the accusation is scattered by the definitions of the “Organized Group” type, I might have moved away from the speaker like that. I would be tormented by remorse, I would suffer from anxiety attacks, but I would say nothing.

I am not a hero, and I was never entered in prison for beliefs in my plans. I am a poet and not quite an emotionally balanced person, I have a diagnosis - “generalized anxious disorder” or, as it was called at the Serbian Institute, “mixed personality disorder”, which, however, does not prevent me from judging.

I want to ask you if you cannot for any reason to bear the acquittal - although I emphasize, I am absolutely innocent - limit myself to a conditional term.

I am afraid that my health - neither physical nor mental - will withstand a long imprisonment. And the opportunity again to please the bars, the possibility of again forced parting with relatives and friends will be a sufficiently restraining factor from any statements on any acute topics.

My beliefs will not change at the same time, how they did not change under torture, how they would not have changed in the event of a real term, they would not have changed even under the pain of death - this is simply impossible. So does not work. But I guarantee you that I will not express them more publicly.

Your honor, let me go home.

Editor: Dmitry Treshchin