Mission "Under the Blide"

The publishing house Freedom Letters is published by Anna Karetnikova's book* "I am an employee of the FSIN"

18+. This material (information) was produced, distributed and (or) sent by foreign agent Karetnikova Anna Georgievna or concerns the activities of the foreign agent Karetnikova Anna Georgievna

The famous researcher of the Russian penitentiary system records her unique experience in the Moscow pre -trial detention center as an “analyst”, and in fact, a “human rights activist under the cover” for six years.

I met Anna Karetnikova at the end of 2008, when we both ended up as part of the Moscow PMC, a public observation commission, part of a once powerful public institution created in 2008 and almost completely destroyed after 2016.

Then in our commission, which visited the Moscow pre -trial detention center, Anna Karenikova turned out to be the most active “prison visitor”. По образованию юрист, несколько лет работавшая в правозащитных организациях, в частности в Правозащитном центре «Мемориал»*, который и рекомендовал ее в ОНК Москвы, Каретникова посещала московские изоляторы каждый день, и слух о ней, как об арестантской «матери Терезе», которая помогает всем нуждающимся, передавался, как говорится, «по цепочке», ее мобильный телефон был известен многим, и жалобы, The visits by her, from her e -mail, “flew” at all instances, literally every day.

In 2016, the eight -year -old Mandate of the Prisoner of Karetnikova ended, and it became clear that the PMCs near Moscow, which wanted to get, would not take it: the installations changed, and the Presidential Administration together with the FSB then took up the lists of the PMC, then the Presidential Administration took up.

And human rights activists did not fit into their “picture of the world”, giving way to entrepreneurs and former employees of security structures, who, as part of the PMC, were supposed to serve security forces, and not their victims.

As I recall, Karetnikova on this occasion was in great longing, the prison already became her mission, without which she simply had no idea.

However, in those years, people who, for some pragmatic or other, were not completely clear to me, decided to create a position in the management of the Federal Penitentiary Service in Moscow, thus “humanizing” the metropolitan penitentiary system, in a surprising way in the FSIN system. This amazing appointment coincided with a scandal in the Karelian colony, where they tortured and tormented by the political prisoner Ildar Dadin, which became known from his letter. And, as it seems to me, just at that moment the unusual appointment to the prison department of the human rights activist was designed to attach a scandal with the next torture of the convicted person in the colony.

Karetnikova’s book just begins with her story about appointing to a new position:

“In December 2016, I went to work in the Federal Penitentiary Service in Moscow in a specially created position of leading management analyst, in fact, the assistant to the head of the department - the position was one of the guidelines. The fact that I brought the work book directly from the “foreign” organization did not embarrass the UFSIN personnel: the decision was made at the very top, which means that it had no sense to doubt it, it should be fulfilled. Sometimes it seemed to me that if the director of the FSIN decided to introduce the position of a speaking horse in the regional department, then his deputy’s call was enough for a speaking horse to be immediately taken into a separate office and arranged for a bet. However, I was not a horse, but quite a patient, albeit vindictive observer. In addition, I already owned the regulatory framework very well, which, of course, was important for the system. I was respected and appreciated, including prisoners.

Of course, before accepting the proposal of the FSIN, I discussed the ethics of this decision with colleagues and comrades on the Memorial. There were no objections, the essence of my work was known to everyone, and one of the leaders of the center Oleg Petrovich Orlov* considered the proposal simply excellent: you can not only continue to help the prisoners, but also get the abyss of new information! This inspired me. Work in the FSIN was a continuation of the mission. I was very lucky: I did not lie to anyone and did not deceive anyone. "

Returning to the prison corridors in the new quality and at the request of the leadership, changing from civilian clothes to camouflage, Anna Karetnikova was happy to be met by prisoners, and employees who did not really complain her as a human rights activist were forced to reckon with her as an assistant to the head of the Moscow department.

Karetnikova understood well that her work in prison in a new quality could not last too long. Therefore, she was in a hurry to change the situation as she considered necessary.

In the book, she raises the most painful questions for the Russian prison and tries to answer them:

“Why don't employees do good deeds, even if they can? Why do not help patients, confused, need for helping prisoners? Why did I do this, but they - no? Why is the quality of medical care in Moscow pre -trial detention centers in ten years does not change? Why did prison medicine remained monstrous: weak, formal and inhuman? Why do obvious killings in the cells turn into suicides? Why, after beating in cameras, even with serious injuries, checks do not lead to anything? Why did the elderly person, a former police officer, were beaten so that we had to remove the spleen, we even handed the cloth of the video, and ... did they refuse to institute criminal proceedings? Is it true to a prince: “Third sits for anything, a third - not for that, but a third for his own?”

Karetnikova asks all these questions to those with whom she had to work: ordinary employees of the Moscow prisons, as well as generals of the federal system for execution of punishment, who, temporarily counting her for “their own”, allow themselves to be frank.

The book, compiled as a chronicle, at the same time reads as a kind of novel of extraordinary, previously unknown stories: the author leads us along the prison corridors of Moscow prisons. We learn how the prisoners and employees experienced the covid years, how in the women's SIZO-6 they first allowed yoga classes, and then forbade how the football match in Butyrka took place with the participation of famous football players Pavel Kokorin and Alexander Mamaev, who found themselves because of the fight, like Alexander Kravchenko, the head physician of the hospital, and the subsequently deprived of the “sailor” and convicted Exceeding officials, ”but in fact, for the assets of seriously ill prisoners and excessive independence, he bred catfish in the medical unit in the aquarium. Karetnikova also tells us the dramatic stories of various prisoners: not political and political, some of whom were her friends.

In parallel with the prison chronicle, Anna also leads the chronicle of Russian life: she tells how every year, every month, life outside the walls of the prison changes, the number of repression is gradually growing, and her stay in the prison becomes unsafe: the top in the FSIN system is taken by the performers and those who came up with the position and are hired by themselves, they themselves find themselves in the work. Loose or behind bars, as a former deputy chief of the FSIN Valery Maksimenko, is the main initiator of her employment.

He was imprisoned in November 2020, accusing a bribe. But Karetnikova lasted a little more than two years in her post and during this time, judging by the chronicle of events she had drawn up, she continued to do what she considered properly:

She saved the prisoners who complained to her by extortion from her cellmates, helped to transfer them to another pre -trial detention center, escorted them, who was released with her participation, a seriously ill prisoner to the train that took him home, demanded the hospitalization of the sick Alexei Gorinov to the hospital of “sailor silence”,

I bought him in a pharmacy several packs of “shoots of the swamp luggage”, the only drug that, according to Gorinov, could save him from severe bronchitis ... and much more.

In the spring of 2022, the first book of Karetnikova “Route”, which she wrote according to the results of her work in the PMC, was removed from the libraries of the Moscow pre -trial detention center and from the prison cameras. The book was removed at the direction of the main operational management of the FSIN, a document sent according to the pre-trial detention center, it was said that the book "discredit the penal system and its employees."

In September 2022, partial mobilization was announced in the country, and Karetnikova sent her youngest son abroad. The time to continue her human rights mission in prison, as she expected, she herself did not have so many.

“I am an employee of the FSIN” - a book about a completely unique experience, about an incredible situation, when the human rights activist tried to change the prison from the inside, becoming “its own among strangers”, knowingly knowing that the prison would reject her, and only thanks to her ability to create friendly relations in the system that seemed inhuman, she will be able to escape from the inevitable arrest.

With the permission of the author and publisher Freedom letters, we publish the last, most dramatic and piercing head of the book by Anna Karetnikova.

***

On January 10, 2023, on the route in the sixth pre -trial detention center, on the commission of the chambers, which we spent with his boss, the phone in the corridor finally rang in my opinion. “Anna Georgievna, you need to urgently arrive in the OSB ( your own security department. - “ New ” ). Curious views. The earth did not leave under the feet. I smiled, handed out the instructions for the staff of what to do for my return, said goodbye to the head of the pre -trial detention center.

At the entrance to the premises of the security guards, I ran into a teacher who tried in vain to get inside. I think it was one of those who followed me and reported. Is it worth clarifying that he was, of course, from the "sailor"? I was interviewed by two employees. Of course, there was no word about any speech convicted of speech, this time a word was not said about politics, participation in rallies and anti -war conversations. My guess turned out to be true: too many officers in high titles themselves turned a blind eye to the fact that in the leadership of the Federal Penitentiary Service in Moscow, an “implemented” foreign agent has been working for six years, too many could answer for this, not all of them were still imprisoned for something else. Judging by the issues that I was asked, my case should have been about the excess of official powers.

This is an interesting article of the Criminal Code: for it, employees are usually held accountable, for example, for torture. But in my case, it was about something else.

- Remember that you brought and distributed in investigative insulators? How many books, pieces of paper, pens, glasses have you handed over and who exactly? Which camera in what jail? Is this provided for your job description? And where is your job description in general?

A hitch came out with the job description. As often happens, it was simply lost. Perhaps this is what allowed me to leave the OSB that day. In order to say with confidence that I exceeded the authority, it should first understand what my powers I had, and for some reason the job instructions had no job descriptions for the survey. By the way, I had - but why on earth did I have to meet them?

Despite the offensive lack of instructions, a conversation with two young people performed by some self -love lasted almost four hours.

I perfectly understood that I did nothing bad, and I remembered perfectly well that this did not have any significance in this situation, like all the verbal diving that arose between us.

I reasoned that the survey time could also be regulated, and when I was treated to coffee, I did not refuse the operas in their desire to chat a little about high matters.

- You understand, Anna Georgievna, that it is impossible to violate laws and orders? - young people told me reproachfully. - So you brought the investigatorly arrested needle, and he will swallow it! Or will someone prick?

- And what? - I was interested. - Swallowed?

- No ... but could! Or here you have been led ... It is only the press service that has the right. Has someone allowed you?

“Well, yes,” I nodded and referred to the generals in the headquarters. It would not hurt to interview them, they will tell. It was a dead end: many of them quit, others sat. But a win -win move: even such generals of the OSB officers did not have authority to interrogate.

- But you shot a video recorder! Why did you have it? And then the photos on the Internet were posted! These ones! Did you shoot this in the regime territory?

- It was because it was registered in the official task. This, I think, you need to interview the head of the department. He signs the task. And what you show is not a regime territory. This is the room where I lived on the barracks. This is photographed by the phone.

They demanded a DVR. Having a little advanced for the Promise, I gave it. There was nothing important on it - I expected such a development of events for a long time.

- You knew that nothing can be transferred to the prisoners! -The conversation was in a circle, and I thought that, it happened, I conveyed something to my relatives. The most exotic object was the broken insert of the prisoner who lost the opportunity to chew. I really took the jaw and met with the wife of the poor fellow, then met with her again and took the renovated prosthesis back. Most of all, the woman was shocked by the fact that I did all this for free. I did not injure young men with this story and weight my article. - Why did you give?

- Because in our units there is no what is provided for by law. There is nothing at all. And you should know this, since you are working here.

I suppressed the yawn. It was evening.

- For this, laws are written, and departmental, of course, orders ... They are unshakable! They are above all, Anna Georgievna! There are eternal truths, immutable, applicable to all times and circumstances!

“No,” I objected.

- How not? - the young people were surprised.

“No,” I looked at my watch and got angry. How much could you maintain a meaningless and no need for anyone? - Everything is wrong. The simplest example: for ten years I have been engaged in this matter, and everyone praised me, reported for my successful initiatives as for my own and gave me letters. In my activity, nothing has changed, and you have been interrogating me for the fourth hour.

And once with a high degree of probability of you, someone else will interrogate you, the law has nothing to do with it.

Let me sign somewhere, and you will bring me to the car: it is beyond the territory. Dark, ice, no one removes the yard. It is necessary to write a memorandum to the general. I will be bad in prison with a broken leg.

One of the Oesbashnikov rushed me to a car with a monstrous growl of a forced engine, as if participating in extreme races.

Around midnight, I was called the Diamond and ordered me the next day, in the early morning of January 11, to be in management again. Now, instead of the lost job description, I had to sign a new one retroactively-to reinforce my article of the Criminal Code with something significant. The forgery did not bother anyone. While the instructions were prepared, I drank coffee in the office of the assistant to the head of the human rights, the main enemy of Otabek. There was no face on her.

“You imagine, they call me, it’s good if it will cost a reprimand!” And for what? She spent a filmmaker in Butyrka, he makes a historical film about an ancient castle, he collaborated with us all his life! Nothing about politics, with a special contingent, no communication - God forbid! I just took a museum, tower, corridors, everything is as usual. And most importantly ... the main thing! - She nodded at the door of the reception, - because he allowed! And today, here ... they say: who allowed you? I am self -willed! Explanations are required. Here are the times ... just imagine! How many years of incentive, and now! ..

I represented and comforted it as best I could.

The signed instructions were carried away for further work to hold me accountable, and I went to the Sailor. Having hardly parked in the yard a car - everything was brought by snow - I got to the checkpoint. They didn’t let me go to jail.

- Anna Georgievna, order of the boss: do not let it go! Nothing personal! I would be happy ... - I was upset from such a thing, a familiar sentry. “You will decide there somehow!” Come, please! Will wait!

I returned to the car. Familiar walls rose over me. The time of choice came, and I understood that if I do not make it now, I would never do it. I sent SMS to General Frost: whether I was removed from work and what should I do next. He replied: I will be in the evening. There was no direct order to arrive, and I nodded twice with gratitude. Once - because I was not allowed in the first pre -trial detention center, without this, the choice would be almost impossible. Now that the path to what has been my life for fourteen years was cut off, I could choose. Either remain free and try at least like that, but to help someone, or to be in captivity and wait for help from those who are already not easy to help such a large number of people. I called my son Mita and asked to buy a suitcase: I did not have any suitcase. Я позвонила подруге и попросила приехать и положить в этот чемодан что-нибудь: я не умею собирать чемодан. Вечером подруга и сын проводили меня на вокзал. Я с интересом наблюдала, как проносится за окном нашего такси ярко украшенный город, который я, передвигаясь лишь привычными маршрутами, видела редко. Сын сказал: я знал, что когда-нибудь этот день настанет. Мы обнялись. Они, маша руками, пробежали немножко за тронувшимся вагоном.

Я думала о Курбанове, бедном парне, которому я не успела помочь, и еще о десятках других, но особенно — о нем. Он будет ждать меня, а я не приду. Через несколько месяцев я напишу ответственному секретарю ОНК Алексею Мельникову единственную за все это время просьбу — узнать, что с Курбановым. Мельников пообещает — и никогда не ответит на этот вопрос.

Как не ответит ОНК новых времен и на десятки других вопросов — от родственников, осужденных и следственно арестованных, которые обращаются с надеждой в эту убитую государством структуру.

Вечером следующего дня, 12 января 2023 года, я перейду границу между Беларусью и Литвой. Впереди меня будет ждать встреча с Сережей, который через Катар добрался до Франции, девятимесячное вынужденное заточение в Доме Бездомных на горе, интервью с иммиграционным офицером по делам беженцев, которое по стечению обстоятельств тоже займет почти четыре часа (и я опять промолчу про вставную челюсть в сигаретной пачке), помощь десятков добрых и не забывших меня людей, схватка с французским языком без шансов на победу, работа в проекте поддержки политзаключенных. Но все это случится позже.

Первая моя книга называлась «Маршрут». Но если считать, что она лишь открывает цикл, то больше подошло бы «Наблюдатель». Тогда вторая моя книга, эта, могла бы называться «Сотрудник». Или, например, «Легионер». Непременно нужна была бы третья часть, для завершения трилогии, вполне возможно — «Арестантка». Но я выбрала — «Беженка».

Это был тяжелый и вынужденный выбор, я не могу с ним смириться до сих пор. И то, что поддерживает меня сейчас, что дает надежду, — ничем не подтвержденное, быть может, внушенное, но твердое знание, что маршрут до конца еще не пройден.

* Признаны властями РФ «иностранными агентами».