Anna Ochkina
In the wonderful Eldar Ryazanov film Garage, one of the characters, a veteran of the Second World War, says: “You can follow the legal path!” To this remark, another character, a professor’s daughter, replies: “You can follow the legal path, but it’s very difficult.” I read somewhere that in the original script, this line was: “You can follow the legal path, but you can’t reach it.” But the corrosive and, perhaps, compassionate censor decided to leave us a little bit of hope.
Today’s Russia leaves no such hope. The legal path leads to a dead end or to prison. Those institutions that were built allegedly for the implementation of the law, consistently and steadily violate both its letter and spirit. Arbitrariness is the real law today.
Irkutsk communist Andrei Levchenko was sentenced to 9 years on charges of fraud, which could not be proven. This is practically the maximum sentence for the crime imputed to him. The investigation and the court somehow quite openly and cynically ignored both all the objective data on the case and the procedural rules. Andrei Sergeyevich was not even allowed to see a lawyer hired by his friends, but was left at the mercies of the one appointed by the court. The court assessed the amount of damage supposedly caused by the actions of Levchenko and his colleagues, but did not really bother to clarify to whom exactly this damage was inflicted. The defendants were accused of supplying low-quality elevators at an inflated price. But the elevators which the business built are still working, at a price tat turned out to be below the average for the region. As for the quality, hundreds of exactly the same elevators have been installed throughout Russia with no complaints.
But everyone familiar with politics in the Irkutsk region knows that Andrei Levchenko was not only a deputy of the regional Legislative Assembly and was responsible for many of the most unpleasant minutes of governor Igor Kobzev’s life, but is also the son of Sergei Levchenko. That case is scandalous, even in Russia. In 2015, Sergei Levchenko was elected governor of the Irkutsk region, bypassing the "recommendations" of the authorities and without their approval. He was removed from power in 2019 and is now a member of the State Duma. As a governor, he did not play by the rules, and after his forced resignation, did not want to deviate from his principles. Many pin their hopes on Sergei Levchenko for a revival of the Communist Party and more radical politics. It is not surprising that Sergei Levchenko himself directly insists that his son was taken hostage.
At the same time, the court gives Vadim Belousov, a member of the State Duma, a member of the Just Russia – For Truth faction, ten years for a bribe of 3.25 billion rubles. True, Belousov did not appear at the trial, skipping out to attend to “an important business meeting” (for some reason they did not even bother to detain him). The recipient of the bribe, which the media has already dubbed the largest in Russia, lived quietly for himself under a written order not to leave the country. Now he has been put on the wanted list, and it is absolutely impossible to find him.
By the way, in this case, the damage is obvious: Belousov has been working on roads in Chelyabinsk for a long time and, together with his mother-in-law, an accountant, received bribes from a road construction concern. Investigations into his machinations have been going on for a long time, but still Belousov managed to be elected to the State Duma, even after the court deprived him of his parliamentary immunity. Well, of course, the court fined Belousov much more than Andrey Levchenko, as much as 500 million rubles, but I think the cunning deputy can afford it.
Oh, yes, justice is present here in a sort of perverted form, and not only in the size of the fine. Belousov was sentenced to maximum security prison, and Levchenko was sentenced to general detention. But Andrei Levchenko has already spent almost two years in prison.
Of course, deputies of the State Duma have already begun to stand up for Vadim Belousov, including the head of the faction of the Just Russia – For Truth party, Sergei Mironov. How could it be, they wonder, that they condemned the deputy without the knowledge of the culture of the lower house! And anyway, so what? He may have taken bribes for himself, but at least he did not utter any subversive speeches.
Most recently, the court gave seven years in prison to the deputy of the Krasnoselsky district, Alexei Gorinov, for calling the special operation in Ukraine a war, which cannot be allowed. He also opposed holding a children’s holiday at such a tragic time. The court decided that Goryunov caused obvious damage to the Russian army, even using his official position as a deputy to magnify the injury. I suppose that Belousov, naturally, did not utilize his deputy position in his crime, and, judging by the verdict, the damage from him is not much compared to Andrey Levchenko or from Gorinov.
Another deputy of the Krasnoyelsky district, Ilya Yashin, who has already been arrested, is facing almost ten years in prison, also for his words. Yashin allowed himself to say that accusations of war crimes against the Russian army should not be denied out of the blue, but should be refuted by investigations.
The leader of the Kurier trade union, Kirill Ukraintsev, is still in prison for "violating the rules for holding mass events." Most recently, the owner of the Listvyazhnaya mine, Mikhail Fedyaev, whose negligence resulted in the death of 51 miners, was released from house arrest. The Russian court is the most humane court in the world, didn't you know? It's just that elevators are more important than people, and organizers of protest events and talkative deputies are more dangerous than negligent mine owners.
But not everything is so bad: Sergei Zuev, rector of the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences, the famous Shaninka (named after its founder, the outstanding British historian Theodor Shanin), was finally released from prison and into house arrest, and the rector of the Russian Academy of People's Household and State Service Vladimir Mau was released from house arrest in exchange for a written order not to leave the country. Yes, Fedyaev spent only seven months in prison, and Zuev eight. Well, Sergei Zuev has been accused of fraud, for paying employees a salary for work that respected experts (appointed by the prosecutor's office) have deemed invalid and not commensurate with the payments. According to their own investigation, he did not take anything for himself, but he still caused damage. Got it? The fate of public money is more important than that of people. In addition, Mikhail Fedyaev did not disregard the rules for holding mass events - he did not hold them at all. He simply disregarded the safety of workers at his mine, according to both the mine's own rules as well as the state's. Besides, Fedyaev paid more than 100 million to the victims, which ought to count for something!
Penza teacher Irina Gen received a five-year suspended sentence for a single conversation with students in which she allowed herself to criticize Russia's domestic policy and even - horrors! - the Special Operation. The students recorded the conversation, carefully preserving it for themselves, for history and for the officials. Again, the workings of our bizarre justice system demanded we rejoice that, for words that did not bring real harm to anyone, a person was given a suspended sentence! At least she wasn't put in jail, so we rejoice!
But a year ago, the Bessonovsky District Court of the Penza Region sentenced the chairman of the precinct election commission to one and a half years in prison, followed by probation. Svetlana Sverchkova, director of the regional House of Children's Creativity, in the elections for the governor of the Penza region held on September 11, 2020, threw extra ballots into the ballot box (in a ratio of 3 to 1 in favor of the current governor, of course). Note that no one canceled the election results, although the results for the polling station where Sverchkova worked her magic were quite close to the portion of the vote received by elected governor Ivan Belozertsev throughout the region on average, and even more modest than in some other areas. True, by the time Sverchkova was sentenced, Belozertsev himself was already in the Matrosskaya Tishina penitentiary for a bribe. That's probably why the sentence was lenient. Again: Svetlana Sverchkova did not discredit the Russian army, did not gather rallies, did not indulge in liberal statements. In general, she allowed herself only one thing - to stuff the ballot box. And what of it, they say - did any harm come to the state?
The list of such legal incidents is so long that it is can no longer be mistaken for an accident, nor the result of individual shortcomings, but are undoubtedly a trend. The law has not even been repealed, but privatized by the elite, turned into an instrument of warning, intimidation, reprisals.
Such a “law” may keep some in check, but it cannot provide order based on the respect of the citizens. As was always said of Soviet-era city buses, “The real ticket-taker is the conscience of the passenger.” If conscience has been officially canceled, passengers can act in surprising ways to both the driver and even to the bus.
Why even bother to have a court system or a Duma?
It is oddly comforting to see that the re-born Russian Justice system (Just Us) is as rife with chronyism as we have here in the U.S. There is a universal truth at play here "Might makes Right"...Political appointees hold the party line and raid ex-President's homes. Party members may sequester privileged e-mails in their homes. Riots destroy entire sections of the Party's cities, with few arrests. Still, they decry opposition protests and throw the accused in jail without their day in court for over a year. We do not hear about shop lifting and carjacking in Moscow. Would you want to share a little with us? It would seem that there is no universal rule of law....just rulers and the laws they choose to enforce. Thank you for your important information.