Activists Label Investigative Committee a ‘Tool of Political Oppression’

By Sergey Chernov

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: July 4, 2012 (Issue # 1716)

Activists from The Other Russia opposition party protested the trial of 12 local party members and the arrests of Moscow protesters near the Investigative Committee building on the Moika River embankment Thursday.

The activists chained themselves to the building and unfurled a banner reading “You can’t put everyone in prison.” The leaflets that they threw in the air accused the Investigative Committee of having been transformed into a tool for political oppression.

The trial of the 12 Other Russia activists, who are accused of being members of the banned National Bolshevik Party (NBP), has been adjourned due to the judge going on vacation. Lawyers and rights activists have condemned the proceedings as political persecution of the opposition. The defendants say they acted peacefully and legally as activists of The Other Russia party, launched by former NBP leader Eduard Limonov in 2010.

But despite doubts over the quality of the evidence and clearly false statements in the indictment, the court listened to prosecution witnesses from April 24 through June 22 and watched surveillance videos recorded by a hidden camera in an apartment where the activists held their meetings.

Lawyer Yury Shmidt, best known for representing jailed businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, dismissed the charges as “groundless.”

“This is undoubtedly a political trial, and this is undoubtedly a trial set up against the opposition group that is the most energetic and the most dangerous to the authorities. I don’t think the charges would stand up to any scrutiny.”

From the court materials it became clear that the surveillance-equipped apartment used for the activists’ meetings was provided by an undercover agent for the counter-extremism Center E, which initiated the criminal proceedings against the 12 Other Russia members.

Expert analysis of the surveillance tapes was provided by specialists from the Moscow Institute of Cultural Studies, infamous for previously declaring the slogan “Kill the Slave in You” — written on a Moscow activist’s T-shirt — “extremist” on the grounds that since the first word in the phrase is “kill,” it is therefore stressed and, consequently, encourages violence.

The experts, psychology professor Vitaly Batov and math lecturer Natalya Kryukova, produced a statement reporting that the tapes showed the meetings of the NBP, saying that among other things, the banned red flag with a hammer and sickle depicted inside a circle could be seen on the video.

What was later shown on the video in the courtroom was black and white surveillance footage showing a piece of cloth of an indiscernible color. No symbols could be seen. The defense asked the court to bring Batov and Kryukova to St. Petersburg for questioning.

The investigators claimed that all of the non-partisan Stategy 31 events in defense of the right of assembly were organized by the NBP and used the banned organization flags and paraphernalia. Applications were, however, submitted to City Hall from a group of representatives of several different organizations, ranging from the liberal Russian People’s Democratic Union (RNDS) to the left-wing ROT Front.

Andrei Dmitriyev, the local leader of The Other Russia party, has been charged with organizing activities of a banned organization alongside Andrei Pesotsky and Alexei Marochkin. The rest of the defendants have been charged with participating in such activities and face up to two years in prison.

Lawyer Shmidt is not optimistic about the outcome of the trial.

“The prospects are pretty sad because such cases are under the special control [of the authorities], they don’t just come up for no particular reason,” he said.

“[The criminal proceedings] were obviously preceded by a discussion of the issue at a much higher level than the one of the investigation. Unfortunately we have a large number of examples showing that the authorities took decisive action against the opposition. Because these authorities are authoritarian and deprived of the features that characterize a democracy, the courts are not independent but built in a power vertical instead,” Shmidt said.

“I am not expecting anything good. There might be a minor compromise at best, maybe to do with the length of the sentences, but I am not expecting a ruling guided by principle.”

The court hearings will resume on Aug. 1.