Translated material
"The day will come when you have to apologize to us"
In the Basmanny court, the lawsuit of Svetlana Gannushkina* to the Ministry of Justice was considered to be illegal to include her in the register of "foreign agents"
Svetlana Gannushkina. Photo: Christina Kormilitsyna / Kommersant
The lawsuit itself was filed last year (Gannushkina* fell into the register of "foreign agents" in January 2023). But then the judge of the Basmanny court Lipkin refused to accept him. Lawyer Ivan Novikov suggests that Lipkina did not want to consider this case, possibly due to his absurdity. The judge recommended that Gannushkina apply to the court, to which the Ministry of Justice territorially belongs. There, the lawsuit was not predictably accepted, so the judge Lipkina had to take it into production. Nevertheless, with consideration, she dragged it out as much as possible, although she could do it very quickly. Actually, this is how it turned out in the end: the court session took a little more than an hour, writing the operative part of the decision - another half an hour.
Malaria as a foreign influence
The plaintiff, lawyer, defendant (representative of the Ministry of Justice Ekaterina Vetrova) and the support group of Svetlana Gannushkina were more difficult to fit into the courtroom, more reminiscent of the closet. Half of them are people of very advanced age. But they were not offered to sit down: the bench for the listeners was occupied by the piles of lawsuit, and there was simply no place for the chairs in this tiny court, in which the judge Lipkin was barely placed.
The representative of the Ministry of Justice behaved nervously. First of all, she turned to the judge with a request to prohibit photography (colleague Gannushkina, head of the reception network “Migration and Right” by Leila Rogozin, took several photographs before the trial). The nervousness of the Ministry of Justice was transferred to the judge. At first she called the bailiff so that under his supervision, Leila Rogozin deleted the photos from her phone. Then, looking around a small, middle -aged and seemingly not particularly dangerous support group Gannushkina, the Lipkin judge called another bailiff - already to “protect public order in the courtroom”.
Judge Lipkina began with a brief presentation of the case by Gannushkina on the merits. I must say that the “business of Gannushkina” is not a turn of speech, but a real fact. The representative of the Ministry of Justice of Vetrova came to the court with a large white folder, on which it was written "Case No. 509. Gannushkina S.A.". Most of this folder was occupied by the biography of Gannushkina, thoroughly documented by the employees of the Ministry of Justice. It was all in it: the fact that Father Gannushkina was an employee of the design bureau of Tupolev and the laureate of Gospremia, and that at the two years of Gannushkina, Malyaria was ill (this is the only “foreign influence” that Svetlana Alekseevna recognizes, she forever remained from the malaria), and even the fact of bullying at school. The data on the social activities of Gannushkina, which began in 1990 of the last century with the help of victims during military conflict in Nagorno -Karabakh, were equally carefully collected. Then Svetlana Alekseevna became a member of the Memorial Society*, which even in the Dossier of the Ministry of Justice is called "legendary."
The result of the biography of one of the most famous Russian human rights activists in the world (even employees of the Ministry of Justice “consider the conscience of Russia” to Gannushkin, was the introduction of foreign agents into the register.
For what?
Who affects whom?
Actually, this is exactly what the lawyer Ivan Novikov tried to find out from the representative of the Ministry of Justice. Throughout the court hearing, he asked in different forms and in different words the same question: what legal grounds were guided by the Ministry of Justice in his decision?
At first, the representative of the Ministry of Justice tried to shift the responsibility for this decision to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rosfinmonitoring and Roskomnadzor.
- The basis for the inclusion of Svetlana Gannushkina in the register of foreign agents was the information received from the authorized bodies from the Main Directorate for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of the Interior, Roskomnadzor, as well as Rosfinmonitoring, the defendant said.
But she categorically refused to voice this information in an open trial, supposedly citing her secrecy. Moreover, the representative of the Ministry of Justice even refused to familiarize themselves with this information Gannushkin and her lawyer. And only the judge was allowed to look at these "top secret", as the representative of the Ministry of Justice expressed, information.
But the lawyer Novikov was not satisfied with such an explanation and continued to ask his question: for what?
Then the representative of the Ministry of Justice referred to Federal Law No. 255 "On the control of the activities of persons under foreign influence." This law was adopted on June 14, 2022 and is part of a large package of punitive measures, which the Russian state took to suppress civil freedoms (primarily freedom of speech) in order to suppress a critical discussion of the goals, methods and consequences of SV.
“According to Law No. 255, the analysis of the materials distributed by the plaintiff allows us to conclude about her political activity,” said the representative of the Ministry of Justice. - Examples of publications are given in our written objections ... The facts of the participation of <Gannushkina> in the creation of messages and materials of foreign agents are established. Thus, the facts of participation in the creation of messages of the foreign agent Ekaterina Gordeeva*, [foreign agents] “Voice of America”, “Caucasus” were revealed. Realities ”*, TV channel“ Present ”**, Radio Free Europe **, Rain TV channel ** and others. In addition, the facts of the distribution of messages and materials of foreign agents on his Facebook page *** were revealed. Also, according to Rosfinmonitoring, the plaintiff is the recipient of indirect foreign financing through the Civil Promotion Committee* and the Interregional Public Organization Human Rights The Center Memorial*, which was liquidated in 2022. In connection with the foregoing, the plaintiff meets the criteria presented by the legislation of the Russian Federation to enter it in the register of a foreign agent.
But the lawyer Novikov was not satisfied with the general words and a link to law No. 255 and tried to get from the representative of the Ministry of Justice of the explanation of what exactly the “political activity” is and how the foreign financing of its applicant was carried out.
- What do you mean by “mediated” financing? - the lawyer Novikov asked the defendant.
- Gannushkina is the recipient of indirectly cash through the regional public charitable organization of assistance to refugees and migrants Committee “Civil Assistance”. She is his chairman.
- Do you know the synonym for the words "indirectly"? - said the lawyer.
“Well ...” the representative of the Ministry of Justice hesitated.
- Indirectly - the synonym is indirectly. So? - the lawyer served.
“Well, yes,” the defendant agreed.
- That is, you suggest that the court rely in his decision on indirect evidence? - the lawyer Novikov was surprised. - Direct ones that indicate that Svetlana Gannushkina receives funding from a foreign source for her activities of a foreign agent, right?
If it is quite simple, do you have evidence that for an interview to Ekaterina Gordeeva or “rain” Svetlana Alekseevna, foreign sources paid her in the form of her salary in a charity organization engaged in migrants? Or is it still nothing to do with each other?
“The legislation of the Russian Federation does not provide for the need to have a connection between the receipt of foreign financing and the distribution of messages and materials,” the Ministry of Justice went back to the backward representative of the Ministry of Justice. - Neither the temporary nor quantitative characteristics of foreign sources received by individuals or other property have legal significance. Therefore, the availability of financing in order for an individual to be included in the register of foreign agents is not necessary at all ... I believe that influence can be expressed not only in monetary form, but also in the form, including the provision of information sites.
“So, they found out that you did not find foreign financing by Gannushkina,” the lawyer Novikov summed up. - We move on. Tell me how and to whom, according to Law No. 255, to which you refer, Svetlana Gannushkina had, in your opinion, foreign influence?
“I believe that its foreign influence is expressed in the submission by foreign sources, foreign agents of information sites,” the representative of the Ministry of Justice answered.
- Explain to the court, please, what kind of influence is this: “providing information sites”? Who exactly provided them? Gannushkina?
“I want to say,” the representative of the Ministry of Justice explained, “that the presentation by foreign agents, including Ekaterina Gordeeva as a foreign agent of sites for the spread of opinions, is already a foreign influence.
-That is, the sites were still not provided by me, but to me? - clarified Gannushkina. - Tell me, please, if not me, but they ask me an opinion, it turns out logically that I have an influence, and not affect me. For example, if the Commissioner for Human Rights under the President of Russia Tatyana Nikolaevna Moskalkova is asking me, he is advised with me, who is influenced by whom?
“This is a rhetorical question,” the representative of the Ministry of Justice left the answer.
- Tell me, please, how did the dialogue between Gordeeva with Gannushkina go? - asked the lawyer Novikov.
- On the site, that is, on the channel of Ekaterina Gordeeva, recognized by a foreign agent.
- The “TV channel” Gordeeva, about which you are talking about all the time, is actually a channel on YouTube, which does not belong to Gordeeva. This is such a social network where people make accounts and place their content there. What does this have to do with my applicant?
Who exactly provided her, in your words, “foreign site”? Gordeeva or YouTube? And since for this reason you made my applicant a “foreign agent”, why don’t you consider agents of everyone who places your content on YouTube?
- Because your applicant, <in an interview with Ekaterina Gordeeva>, carried out the types of activities established by article by the fourth Federal Law No. 255, - the representative of the Ministry of Justice finally very clearly articulates the real reason for the persecution by the state of Gannushkina. - Namely: she carried out political activities in the form of the spread of opinions about the decisions made by the public authority during a special military operation ...
"Gas chamber is not the worst way to die"
Hearing the terrible abbreviation of Svo at the present time, the judge Lipkina decided that she should intervene. She interrogated the interrogation of the defendant, quickly ran through the case file and announced the beginning of the debate.
The lawyer Novikov in the debate repeated the main points of his claim and said that during the trial, the representative of the Ministry of Justice was unable to give explanations about the legal (I emphasize, legal!) The grounds for the inclusion of Svetlana Gannushkina in the register of “foreign agents”. The representative of the Ministry of Justice used the debate to categorically object to the lawyer, she once again tried to read out Articles 4 and 10 of Federal Law No. 255 again, but then the patience of Judge Lipkina burst. She moved her head so nervously that the representative of the Ministry of Justice interrupted herself: “I have everything, dear court!”
Svetlana Alekseevna Gannushkina in the debate performed a little longer. She thanked with a smile for her biography on 80 pages: “I even thought about whether I would publish it with a separate book for the authorship of the respected employees of the Ministry of Justice, of course ...”
“But something,” Gannushkina added sadly, “you still missed.” I am a person who is not inclined to be exposed to any influence. What I say, I say from myself and based on the principles that I adhere to and which my ancestors adhered to, which I would allow myself to say a few words. In particular, about my grandmother for my father and about her brother. Both of them - grandmother and her brother - were half Germans. Grandma’s brother graduated from a medical institute, then studied in Germany, received a scientific degree there and returned to Russia. Before the war, he went to Belarus, in the wilderness, because it was there that they most needed qualified medical care. During the war, Belarus was occupied. And he, like a German, remained in the German occupation to lead a state -picolity, just as he led him in Soviet times. When Belarus was released, they began to search and did not find it. They decided that he, in all likelihood, left with the Germans. And then the Soviet government declared him an enemy of the people. And then the study of the partisan movement in Belarus began. And it turned out that Evgeny Vladimirovich Klumov, the brother of my grandmother, was an active participant in the partisan movement. Then this shameful stigma of the “enemy of the people” was removed from him and even awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously. And then they told me how he and his wife died.
The Germans, when they left Belarus, invited them to leave with them. Or as an alternative - a gas chamber. And they chose the camera. The grandmother’s brother then told his wife Galina Nikolaevna: “You know, a gas chamber is not the worst way to die.”
And here's what I think about this.
If his grandmother’s brother had gone with the Germans, he would have survived, but he did not consider this option in principle. If the Germans left him alive, and he would have waited for the return of Soviet power, he would most likely be shot. And then there would not be what happened further as a result of this study of the Belarusian partisan movement. When the stigma of the “enemy of the people” was removed from him - and he received posthumously the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Evgeny Vladimirovich Klumov, my cousin, was not an enemy of the people. And I am also not any “foreign agent”. It is not a “foreign agent” and the organization that I am supervised. We help migrants and refugees. Only from the moment of the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine, 30,000 refugees have passed through our organization, and each of them received help. With the help of crowdfunding, we collected 3 million rubles for these people. And this suggests that people trust us and want to be on the side of good, they want to help those who need help. This has nothing to do with political activity. We help people who have lost their former life. And we will help. That is why I have not left Russia anywhere, I can’t leave and I do not want to.
And all this together does not at all fit into the idea of what such in Russian means the stigma of a “foreign agent”. Because if you google the “foreign agent” and ask for synonyms, Google will answer you that this is a spy and enemy of the people. I am not an enemy of the people. My cousin was also not an enemy of the people. In relation to him, the state recognized its monstrous mistake. And in relation to me, he also admits. That is why I ask this decision to cancel.
The very existence of this registry and the introduction of the socio-active part of our society is a terrible state mistake. The day will come when everyone who did it will have to apologize to us. And those who contributed to this will be ashamed to their children.