Translated material
“Our organs are working at full capacity.” The case of pediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova, in terms of the level of cynicism and falsifications, stands out even from the established practice in Russia
On Tuesday, November 12, in the Tushinsky District Court of Moscow, Judge Olga Fedina read out the verdict in the case of “public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation” (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). At that moment there were about 70 people in the courtroom. Almost all of them came to support the convict, 68-year-old Nadezhda Buyanova, a pediatrician from the children's district clinic on Jan Rainis Boulevard. This modest, quiet woman with short-cropped gray hair, dressed in a black turtleneck, listened to her verdict in a glass cage located at the very end of the hall, behind everyone. When the judge said “five and a half years in prison,” some of those present shouted “Shame!” and everyone immediately began to be taken out of the courtroom. In the corridor, Buyanova’s lawyer Oscar Cherdzhiev told reporters: “The sentence is monstrously cruel. We didn't expect this. This is unexpectedly harsh even for me.”
Article 207.3 on “fakes” about the army appeared in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation at the beginning of 2022, almost immediately after the announcement of the SVO. It implies up to 15 years in prison. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation considers any statements that do not coincide with the official point of view of the Ministry of Defense to be false information. Over the course of two and a half years , more than 270 criminal cases were initiated under this clearly repressive, unjust article that violates constitutional rights. How many sentences the courts passed on them in total - there is no open information about this, it is only known that in 2023 65 sentences were handed down, and in the first half of 2024 - already 40. But even against this overall difficult background, the sentence on Nadezhda Buyanova looks emphatically inhuman and symbolic. It reflected, like a mirror, the repressive machine of the state of the Russian Federation during the Northern Military District era - cruel, merciless and completely senseless. Working like a running flywheel, under the influence of its own inertia, and breaking everyone who gets in its way.
Version of the victim and investigations
On January 31, 2024, 34-year-old Muscovite Anastasia Akinshina came to the district clinic for an appointment with the on-duty pediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova with her seven-year-old son, who had a stye on his eye. After the appointment, Akinshina went with a complaint against the pediatrician to the head doctor of the clinic. Having failed to achieve what she wanted, she posted a video message in the Telegram chat “Lera and the Bun,” which includes SVO supporters, in which she stated the following. Allegedly, the doctor asked: “What’s wrong with his [son’s] behavior? I say - our dad is gone. Dad died in the Northern Military District. And this scum, in our Moscow clinic in DKP 140 on Yana Rainisa, building 4, told me that killing our guys in the Northern Military District is a legal action of Ukraine. She sits at Jan Rainisa, house 4, and treats our children. Does anyone have any ideas on where I can complain now so that this creature is simply kicked out of here. Or better yet, they jailed you.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Any5Tjhr-M0&t=75s
Later that same day, Akinshina posted a voice message : “Guys, both the district police officer and the police department called me. Everyone at the police department takes their children to that clinic. They said, come on, get free and come with the guys to us, write a statement where necessary - under dictation, and pass it all on to the prosecutor's office and the Investigative Committee. Here's the fucking difference: there's some kind of scum who is throwing mud at our boys, and these guys - they don't know me, I don't owe them, I'm the next one who will write a statement now. Thanks to them for their normal attitude."
The “guys” are employees of the Severnoe Tushino Department of Internal Affairs, where Akinshina eventually wrote a statement under their “dictation”; she also posted it in the “Lera and Bun” chat. Akinshina’s statement to the police indicated that Nadezhda Buyanova graduated from a medical university in Lvov, Ukraine. Akinshina asks that Buyanova be held criminally liable for the statements “Any military member of the Russian Army is a legitimate target for Ukraine”, “Russia is an aggressor that attacked Ukraine” under Art. 280.3 (public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the RF Armed Forces), 284.2 (calls for the introduction of sanctions against the Russian Federation) and 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public dissemination of false information about the use of the RF Armed Forces) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and check “for sponsorship of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
On February 1, Akinshina’s statement and her video message appeared on the Mash telegram channel associated with the security forces, with an audience of more than 2 million subscribers. In this post they call her “the widow of a Russian military man.”
On the same day, police officers who arrived at the clinic detained pediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova and took her to the department, and the administration of the clinic hastened to fire her under clause 6 of Art. 86 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation “Single gross violation of labor duties by an employee” (Buyanova later challenged this dismissal in court and was reinstated).
On the morning of February 2, the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, demanded that a criminal case be opened against the elderly woman doctor, which he took under personal control . Akinshina in her VK thanked the Mash Telegram channel, the NTV television company and “our bodies that are working at full capacity.”
On the evening of February 2, Nadezhda Buyanova’s home was searched. It was carried out demonstratively rudely, causing an almost pogrom in the apartment: all things were mixed and scattered around the apartment, carpets and wallpaper were torn off the walls, furniture was broken, curtains were torn from the windows. At the same time, Buyanova’s lawyer was not allowed to participate in the search. At the same time, the woman’s passport was taken away “for authentication,” which she could not get back for almost a month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jXpbQr4jdU
Immediately after the search, Buyanova was taken for a night interrogation to the Tushinsky interdistrict investigative department of the Investigative Committee, and then she was confronted with Akinshina. At about 5 a.m., the “victim” posted on her VK a photo of a pediatrician in handcuffs with the comment “The confrontation has just ended. The doctor was left in handcuffs in a temporary detention facility.”
Before the court hearing to select a preventive measure, Nadezhda Buyanova was in a temporary detention center. On February 3, 2024, the judge of the Tushinsky District Court, Nadezhda Tkacheva, refused the investigation’s request to take the doctor into custody and chose a preventive measure in the form of a ban on certain actions. Buyanova was prohibited from using communications, including mail, telegraph and the Internet, as well as communicating with witnesses in the case and other participants in criminal proceedings, with the exception of investigators, defense lawyers and the prosecutor.
On April 19, 2024, the charges were toughened by adding the motive of national and political hatred (clause “d”, part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). And on April 26, 2024, at the request of the investigator, senior lieutenant Artem Sharov, the Tushinsky District Court of Moscow changed the preventive measure for Nadezhda Buyanova. Judge Andrei Kostyrev sent the 68-year-old woman to a pre-trial detention center. The investigator justified the need to tighten the preventive measure by the fact that Buyanova, without notifying the investigation authorities, changed her place of residence and left for another region. According to lawyer Oscar Cherdzhiev, the ban on certain actions allowed one to travel outside of Moscow without the permission of the investigator, and Buyanova’s trip to see friends was short-term. The defense tried to appeal the change in the preventive measure, but to no avail. The elderly woman remained in the pre-trial detention center until the end of the investigation and trial.
On May 15, the criminal case against pediatrician Buyanova began to be considered in court. According to the investigation, “Buyanova N.F., acting deliberately, motivated by political and national hatred, created a real threat of forming among citizens a false opinion about the goals and objectives of the special military operation and a message for action to further disseminate untrue information about the use of the Armed Forces Forces of the Russian Federation, capable of leading to an unreasonable increase in social tension, thereby causing harm to the interests of the Russian Federation.” For this, the assistant prosecutor of the North-Western Administrative District of Moscow, Evgeny Dudin, representing the prosecution, requested six years in prison for her.
Accused's version
From beginning to end, the doctor denied that she had uttered the words for which she was convicted, and claims that she was slandered.
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