Recognition is power. How torture finally destroyed the law enforcement system in Russia

In March, a resident of the Voronezh region, Alexander Dimitrenko, was sentenced to 23 years in prison for committing crimes immediately under three articles of the Criminal Code: about the Stateizer (Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), on the preparation for sabotage (Article 281 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and the illegal storage of explosives (Article 222.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Dimitrenko allegedly prepared an explosion on the railway, and at the same time transmitted information about Russian engineers sent to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.

How did the FSB manage to reveal this case? Everything is very simple: back in May 2022, Dimitrenko was detained right at his house. During the interrogation recorded on the interrogation chamber, he confessed that he planned to go to Ukraine to participate in hostilities on the side of the Armed Forces. A search was held at his house, during which they discovered a passport of a citizen of Ukraine, as well as boxes of juice in which the detainee kept explosives. It seems to be extremely clear: a person with a Ukrainian surname is preparing to go to fight to Ukraine, and at home he stores explosives - a traitor and saboteur, obviously.

There is only one small nuance: in order to get the right indications on the camera, Dimitrenko was tortured . At first they strangled them with a plastic bag, then they just beat until he confessed everything that was demanded of him. The “search” was held without witnesses - their role was performed, apparently, employees in civilian clothes - and lasted less than ten minutes: the security forces simply put the passport and explosives in Alexander’s things, and then defiantly “found them”. After the detention, Dimitrenko was beaten several more times. And when he refused to give new testimonies against himself and reported to torture his lawyer, they beat again to abandon his words.

Dimitrenko was first strangled with a plastic bag, then they just beat

When it comes to the suspects of committing serious and especially serious crimes - terrorist attacks, sabotage - some think that torture can be justified. At least to obtain information that would help prevent new victims. And at the maximum - out of a sense of revenge, "because they deserve." In the case of Alexander Dimitrenko, both of these pretexts did not withstand any criticism: he had nothing to inform about the crime, because there was no crime - and the innocent man did not deserve such an appeal.

But what if you take for example people who really have committed a particularly serious crime? What if they are torture those who are with a 99 percent probability is a saboteur or a terrorist? Are torture justified in this case? And what information do they help to get the investigation?

Terrorist attack in Crocus City

Let's analyze a specific example: the terrorist attack in Crocus City. As you know, four detainees on the first day were also tortured : they beat with electric shock, and cut off the ear and forced him to eat. As a result, all four testified and told who and for what money he hired. The fact that they are really involved in the terrorist attack is very few doubts: their appearance and clothes coincide with the terrorists in the video, and the car in which they were stopped really left the Crocus City.

It turns out that the Chekists were well done and opened the matter? No, there are nuances too.

Firstly, I suggest you look at this interrogation record-do not worry, they don’t show any atrocities on it, I checked. But they show something interesting: the detainees seem to read on a piece of paper. Do not speak, but literally read by syllables. Most likely, these "testimonies" did not write themselves, but some kind of operative.

Secondly, the testimonies themselves are delusional. The Ukrainian curator orders them to go to Ukraine, but they should pay ... a million Russian rubles. Why do they need these rubles, in Kyiv? Where will they go to them? Go back to Moscow, change at a favorable rate?

Another question: how did they even have a four of the car to break through the border during the war? Well, that is, it is clear that they supposedly had to meet them from the Ukrainian side. And with Russian? Our border guards also bribed Kyiv agents? Or was the white "Renault" was supposed to be touched by tanks and an armored personnel carrier?

And, of course, I can’t help but laugh at the name of the alleged curator: “Saifullo”. Well, you must admit: a typical Ukrainian name, especially among SBU employees! Here I hear the same right every day in the news: Saifulllo Ibn Bogdani, Saifulllo al-Oleksandry ...

In general, to say that in these “testimony” there is literally no value is to say nothing. Excessively executive, but completely not gifted with logical thinking and writing talents, hearing the version put forward by Putin - “Ukraine is to blame for everything,” came up with the invent of evidence. But they did not succeed in coming up with believable details. And the detainees under torture dictated everything that they demanded of them on the camera. The useful investigation was not obtained. In vain they were tortured, wasted.

To say that there is no value in the “testimony” of the detainees is to say nothing

Moreover, the use of torture in this case undermines confidence not only in these, obviously false testimonies, but also to everyone else. The fear of new torture is a sufficient motivator so that the suspect immediately, without hesitation, confirms all the guesses of the Chekists, including frankly false ones.

That is, even if, according to some, they “deserve” it, it is still impossible to torture them. Not only out of a sense of humanity or desire to observe the Russian law (and he directly prohibits torture), but also from banal practical necessity: a person will say anything under torture, just to stop it. Such testimonies cannot be used to establish the truth in the case and find real criminals. Actually, therefore, the torture that was once appointed by court decision, in all countries with a viable judicial system have long been a thing of the past and were subsequently prohibited.

The case of "Network"

It will be useful to recall the other matter of the terrorist profile: the case of the “network”. In October 2017, the FSB detained the company anarchists and accused them of creating a terrorist community. Several detainees were tortured by the security forces with a stouter shocker and beaten - and they testified against themselves. Here is what one of the defendants in the case Viktor Filinkov said :

“I was asked questions. If I did not know the answer, they beat me with an electric shock, if the answer did not coincide with their expectations, they beat me with shock, if I thought, they beat with electric shock, if I forgot what they said, they beat them with current. There were no breaks, there were no strokes and questions, blows and answers, blows and threats. ”

In defense of the defendants in the case, the “network” was held by a large public campaign, many activists and public figures insisted on their innocence. And indeed: how can you seriously perceive the confessions if the person who gave them was tortured with electric shock?

But shortly before the verdict, new circumstances opened in the case: the fled to Ukraine and in absentia, Alexei Poltavets told Medusa reporters that he and his associates Maxim Ivankin and Dmitry Pchelintsev were involved in the double murder. The murder was definitely not the fiction or the mystification of the security forces: the bodies were really found. The question was only who committed it. Maxim Ivankin pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. But then he told reporters that he was also forced to sign the confession under torture.

And then the question arises before us: how to relate to such statements? If you and I did not doubt the legality of the actions of the security forces, one would think that Ivankin simply invented a story about torture in order to avoid punishment. But the participants of the "network" had really been tortured before.

Torture as a norm

Anarchist Azat Miftakhov, who has just been raisingly in a fictional case, also beat and tortured with a screwdriver. Ruslan Kostylenkova from the “New Greatness”, whom the security forces decided to appoint the main guilty, were beaten and raped with a hammer for picking meat-after which they forced to write down on the camera that he and his friends-studies were preparing a state-proceeding. And thousands of other people tortured with them: prisoners , suspects , and even witnesses .

The torture in the Russian law enforcement system is so ordinary that Ivankin’s statements should at least be taken seriously. And this example very well shows the second half of the problem that we partially touched on in the example with Crocus City: torture not only lead to the punishment of innocent, but also enable these criminals to avoid this punishment. After all, if Ivankin really forced themselves to stipulate, then someone else was the killer. Maybe this is one of the other defendants in the case, or maybe an outsider in general, who now walks freely through the streets. But we no longer have any ways to distinguish innocent from criminals, since confidence in all the actions of the investigation in this matter is undermined.

Torture not only lead to the punishment of innocent, but help to avoid punishment to criminals

We can’t find out who actually stood behind the terrorist attack in Crocus: the false version has already sounded and the security forces will be forced to insist on it to the end, in order to maintain their image and the image of their leadership. That is, there is likely no investigation and search for real customers and organizers of this terrorist attack. And if it takes place, then all the further testimonies of the detainees will go after a comma after the ears cut off - and nothing else.

In other words, the use of torture discredits the work of the security forces in a particular case, and the systematic nature of torture throws a shadow on all their work in principle. Even when it comes to real, not fictional crimes; Even if the investigation has real grounds to suspect someone.

In order for the clock to show the wrong time, enough to break one gears - and the fact that everyone else works correctly does not play any role.

It is no longer possible to believe such a “clock”.