Translated material
"Sorry, brother, we give you out"
Activist Lev Skoryakin sat in a pre -trial detention center first in Russia, then in Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek illegally extradited him in the Russian Federation. All because of the promotion near the FSB building
The 24-year-old activist of the Socialist movement “Left Bloc” Lev Skoryakin met the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia to Ukraine in the pre-trial detention center-he was sent there for organizing the “Happy Chkista Day”, in which he denies the participation of. In the fall of 2022, Skoryakin left for Kyrgyzstan, where he again ended up in a pre-trial detention center: the country's authorities first wanted to give it to Russia, but later changed their minds. Despite this, Skoryakin stole the local special services - and transferred the FSB. After the trial in Moscow, the activist managed to leave for Germany, where he received political asylum. Skoryakin told Medusa about the conclusion in two different countries, violence from the security forces and extradition, which could end for him by a criminal term.
Skoryakin became an activist at the age of 17. Soon the authorities paid attention to him
Since 2018 [since the age of 18] I have been in the now non -existent organization “Left Bloc” . It was a street organization, the participants of which mainly distributed information on the streets, laying leaflets and stickers, and also held various promotions. We tried in this way to attract people's attention to various social problems . I decided that enough to sit aside, we must defend our rights to social justice.
For the first time, law enforcement agencies paid attention to me when we tried to hold an action near the US Embassy in support of the American anti -fascists , who [at that time President Donald] Trump [May 31, 2020] threatened to declare terrorists. We were then detained, and the employees of the ED center came into the department. They became very interested in us, offered to knock [on other participants in the “left block”].
After that, I began to notice that they were watching me periodically: at some point you just understand that one person cannot follow you for so long that it is impossible to constantly intersect in a big city with the same people. At the beginning of 2021, after the action in support of Alexei Navalny, I decided to suspend activities temporarily: at that time I had an administrative violation , and any next protocol would mean a criminal case.
When closer to the fall of 2021 I thought it was time to return to political activity, street events were no longer held-because of Covid. All shares went online, activists (including me) did not know where to move on, because the old forms of protest no longer worked.
The only noticeable event for us was the elections to the State Duma [in September 2021]. Other activists and I went as observers to one of the Moscow Region sites. And there, one of the days [voting] to us [to the house where we stopped] came police officers and a search-for some reason searched for weapons and drugs. They didn’t find anything, but they didn’t throw anything. As a result, we worked well in the elections, and there were almost no violations on our site.
In the pre -trial detention center, Skoryakin was imprisoned by the action near the FSB building. He says he had nothing to do with her
After the elections [to the State Duma], my friend and I decided to open the institution in order to take events there and promote left -wing ideas. The result was an ambush, which we dutered under a dugout of the Great Patriotic War.
True, we managed to work out only until the winter of 2021 and did not hold a single event, because troubles began. In December, just before the announcement of the first event, security officials came to my ambush and my house. I was accused of organizing a protest of the FSB building - my comrades and my comrades had nothing to do with it, and I still do not know who participated in it. I don’t know why the police drew attention to me, because then I had not been engaged in anything active for a long time - apparently, I just had to fulfill the plan.
About what happened during the detention, I am still inconvenient to talk. I can only say that the employees of the EE Center and the FSB beat me with batons and demanded that I confess to the organization of that action. I did not recognize this, but I admitted participation - I just wanted to stop the flow of pain. Soon, the neighbors heard the noise, began to knock on me, and they [the security forces] already “inconveniently” beat me.
I and my partner in the “ambush” of Ruslan Abasovwere arrested in part 2 of Article 213 - “hooliganism”, and the Gagarinsky court of Moscow sent us to the pre -trial detention center, where I spent about seven months. First, for two weeks I was sent to the Kapotnya pre-trial detention center for quarantine-in order to check if there were other sinners for me to institute some other criminal case. They did not find anything and sent me and Ruslan already in a bottle pre -trial detention center. There, employees treated me as an ordinary arrested.
The prison system in Russia is arranged in such a way that it suppresses any positive emotions. Rather, it is tuned to suppress them. The time in itself, which I spent there [in jail], is darkness. But, of course, the positive points and Ruslan and I were, for example, when we watched TV and found out that not everything is as bad in our Russia as it could be. Or when the series went, sports. I don’t know how other prisoners, but I was most pleased with letters. At first, Ruslan had some hopelessness, then he changed his mood to fight, there was a desire to free himself. My thoughts were more calm, shortly before the liberation, we already understood that everything would most likely be normal and we would come out.
Seven months later [in the summer of 2022] we were released. Firstly, Ruslan had previously had another episode that was not related to this matter. We and Ruslan decided to unite the common cause with the previous case of Ruslan (he was accused of vandalism for a broken sanitizer in the subway), so the investigation was counted from the day when the first case of Ruslan was excited. Secondly, we simply did not have the right to keep [in jail] longer : at that time the investigation in the case of Ruslan was already a year, and they could not extend it-our case was not considered particularly difficult. Thirdly, the main witness of the prosecution, Umar Balurov, never appeared in court. He claimed that allegedly, together with Ruslan, he participated in that action, and I handed them everything necessary and said where, when and in which composition it was necessary to come. Where he is now, I don’t know and I don’t want to know: he was searched for by both the investigation and comrades to persuade him to come at least one interrogation. There were suspicions that he was pressed by parents who work in the prosecutor’s office so that he would give false testimonies, but he would not be touched.
When I left, it was already the summer of 2022. In the pre -trial detention center, I did not have any means of communication, and that the war had begun, I learned from my lawyer before the next meeting. When he found out, he could not believe that in the XXI century people who seem to consider themselves serious, solve problems as stupid and obsolete methods, and fascization is now not one -mile, but seven -miMI steps. The fact that further activists would be worse, I understood for a long time - at first it seemed that there was nowhere to go, but I was mistaken. Ruslan and I sat in the same country, and went out into a completely different one: the comrades advised us to go into the regime of silence and simply quietly help political prisoners.
In Kyrgyzstan, Skoryakin was again in a pre -trial detention center. He was threatened with extradition, but the authorities changed their minds
Before the fall, everything was fine, and then our case with Ruslan was again referred to court. Ruslan left Russia, he was put on the federal wanted list, because we were still under investigation. I myself went to these hearings, but at some point I realized that it would not end in anything good and there is a risk of getting a real term-before my eyes was an example of Pavel Chrishevich , who was then imprisoned for five years, according to a similar article [about hooliganism]. It was necessary to leave, and since I did not have a passport, I chose between Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. I consulted with the guys from Rapid Unit and chose the last option. I had about a day before I got into the search base and problems could arise [with a departure from Russia].
In Kyrgyzstan, I asked for help with documents for political asylum in Europe in the organization of Intransit and calmly lived until the summer [2023], waiting for a response to the application for a humanitarian visa to Germany. Although I was put on an international wanted list in the CSTO countries back in March.
In June, a person recognition system earned in Bishkek. Just in those days, the Russians began to detain: first [May 31] Alexei Rozhkov , then [June 12] detained Alena Krylov . I was detained on June 9 - apparently, I got on the camera. They said that under the cooperation law they would give me out, and before that I would be under extradition arrest.
The fact is that in Kyrgyzstan there is no deportation prisons, so I sat in an ordinary pre -trial detention center, in a cell for foreigners, 102 days. At first, there was a feeling that you need to stop fighting and just accept the inevitable, but then some kind of insight happened: I began to write through a lawyer to different international authorities with a request for help. There was a mood such that I really wanted to jump out of there as soon as possible. They treated me, in general, as with everyone who was sitting there for domestic crimes. It was necessary to just behave normally and not to bend the stick. The National Kyrgyz Committee against torture came to me, which tried to help in a petition about political refuge. I was also actively helped by the “ Excellent ” and Intransit .
As a result, the Kyrgyz prosecutor’s office went to meet me and refused to give out to Russia. This was going on bypassing the agreements on extradition: apparently, Kyrgyzstan did not want to quarrel with its Western partners. I was given a certificate that I officially ask for political asylum [in Kyrgyzstan]-it was already impossible to give me to anyone.
In October, I planned to notify the border service of Kyrgyzstan that I was going to leave [to Germany]: they did not remove me from the Russian base, so I had to be careful. And it was also necessary to pick up documents from the Prosecutor General of Kyrgyzstan, confirming the refusal to issue [extradition in the Russian Federation]: it so happened that at the time of my release [from a pre -trial detention center in Kyrgyzstan] they were not yet ready. But on the day when I took my German travel document [German Erzatz Passport with a humanitarian visa], I was abducted.
The point was that in those days Putin came to Kyrgyzstan for some CSTO summit . In this regard, the FSO officers, apparently, learned from the employees of the GKNB whether they have dangerous personalities who could interfere with the summit. And the Kyrgyz security forces [must be] decided that such characters are me and my neighbor in hostel , where I then lived. A neighbor is just a random person who was in the wrong place at that time. On October 12, we were detained right at the exit of the hostel and taken to the GKNB office. They asked there if we plan to disrupt the summit that Putin came to.
It all ended in the fact that even GKNB officers became ridiculous from such an absurd situation - we were released, but at the same time they took away all our documents under the pretext that they “may be fake”.
Skoryakina was still extradited to Russia, despite the decision of the prosecutor's office
We were promised to return the documents when the summit will end and Putin flies away. By October 16, German documents were in my hands, but the Russian ones were not in a hurry to return. On the same evening, two or three cars drove up to the hostel, introduced themselves to the GKNB officers and urgently asked me to drive with them. They said that earlier Russian documents were not seized from the GKNB services, but some obscure people “for the purpose of fraudulent actions”, which I should identify.
It was immediately clear that at 10 pm they did not hold such events. I realized that this is all, goodbye - now there will be either a issuance or a second arrest. Moreover, the issuance is illegal, because I have any Russian documents in my hands, they also did not show me their certificates. He got into their car and asked: "Are we going to the airport right away or first look at your office?"
We silently drove up to some office, where one of the employees handed over the fact that in the car, my documents. And then they told me: “Sorry, brother, we give you. Just do not cry here, we don’t have to hysterical here. Just humble yourself. ” I was brought to the airport, my things, documents and equipment were handed over to employees of the Russian special services, and then they simply put them on a regular plane before Moscow. At the same time, I was not carried out through passport control, and there is no mark on my departure in the database. The worst scenarios, which were possible, scrolled through my head. I tuned in the fact that the next day would be very difficult - both physically and morally.
As soon as I landed, I was handed over to three FSB officers, who took me to the interrogation. At first they beat me there - apparently for prevention, so that I will continue to give the necessary answers. And then they began to ask questions, they asked for a password from the phone. And my phone, while I had special services at the employees of the special services, managed to discharge almost completely - only one percent remained on it. I really hoped that the phone would sit right away, and therefore said the password. And there was a miracle of miracles - the phone really sat down, and no one at the airport found a charger for him. So the FSB officers were a little unlucky.
They demanded from me to hand over all the activists of the “left block”. They asked how I left, who helped me - not only the names of organizations, but also the names and nicknames of those who helped. I replied that I left myself. They did not like it, and they continued to beat me. I said: “Well, what can I do? It would be very difficult for me now to lie while you beat me. ”
As a result, no new criminal cases were brought against me, new charges were not brought against me - they only threatened that all this would be. When I was put on the wanted list [in March 2023], my measure of restraint was absentee arrest, that is, I could not leave the country. At the time when I was repeatedly detained, the investigation was already completed - there was a trial that fired in three meetings.
At the first, my lawyer tried to find out exactly how I ended up in Russia if I left it in early 2023. To this, the judge said: "We can, of course, make a request, but we do not see much sense in this." At the second meeting, they studied the case file itself. The court finished getting acquainted with the materials and moved to the interrogation of witnesses, but the main witness [accusations by Umar Balurov] again (expected) did not appear in court, so the meeting was postponed. And at the third meeting [December 13, 2023] there were a debate, and I was preparing for them, but when I was brought into the hall, the lawyer said that if I “sit quietly”, they would let me go with a fine. “Sitting quietly” meant guilty, but without repentance. I agreed, the judge pronounced a sentence - a fine of 500 thousand rubles - but exempted it from his payment, because I already managed to “sit out” in a pre -trial detention center.
Now Skoryakin is safe and does not plan to throw political activism. He does not hope for returning to Russia
Despite the fact that I was so lucky, it was clear that it was unsafe to stay in Russia. In addition, there was a feeling that I was in a foreign country. I decided to try good luck a second time, but already through another country [not Kyrgyzstan]. There I contacted the German consulate and repeatedly received my travel document [Erzats-Passport]-the old one remained in Kyrgyzstan, and its validity expired.
As soon as he moved, he immediately realized that everything was finally over, finally I feel safe-what I was going to for a year, was realized. It immediately became calmer in the soul. Now I plan to legalize in this country, because at the moment I am here, as they say, on bird rights . Given that [Germany] is a country that loves papers and bureaucracy, it is better to immediately make all the documents. And then I plan to return to political activity in the form in which it is possible abroad.
My whole family remained in Russia. We do not quite coincide the views, but they treat me with understanding. They do not condemn once again and always help, if necessary. I doubt very much that we will be able to see them in the near future - I understand it and I hope that they also understood it for a long time. I have no illusions that I will be able to return soon, although many emigrants have such hopes - they say, we will return home the first flight as it will become possible. No matter how I like Russia, no matter how I love it, there are doubts that we will find ourselves there in the near future. For rather objective reasons.
"Rasting" and Intransit are jointly gathering for the evacuation of Russians, whom the authorities pursue for political reasons
Activists urge everyone who oppose war and political repression in Russia, to solidarity and mutual assistance.
All the money received from the fee “Display” and Intransit will be directed to pay for the evacuation - these are the costs of transport, temporary shelter, the work of the export coordinator.
Thank you for your support! You save the lives of those who are in serious danger.
Cryptocurrency:
BTC
BC1QX0TGAJ0M3XF5NJ0288UVE4ZA922QLDJPQYTDW
ETH
0 × 05aa2323b4ead7a5c2ed6FB7D3AB65D195F0411
USDT TRC20
Tvwws2bzrgrpdnpo9oqjxv9nk8hayxug
Tron
Tvwws2bzrgrpdnpo9oqjxv9nk8hayxug
Donates from European banking cards are accepted by a partner organization:
In the purpose of the translation, indicate "Donation".
PayPal
Recorded Alexander Amelin