A Russian Diary (49 page)

“But the outer door was not locked? So why did they break it? And where is it now?”

“It was repaired. It was scratched.”

One might well ask who scratched it. The state prosecutors realize this only too well. They are scowling at “their” witness, their lips moving. Can they be cursing? The level of all their witnesses has been so abysmal as to be laughable.

“But nevertheless, did you personally witness any of these people creating a riot?” the defense team asks sternly. This is the crux of the accusation.

“No,” the crestfallen witness murmurs. “There was no riot.”

He hangs his head. After all, how much can they expect you to make up?

This trial is without legal foundation, but there is an ideological imperative to demarcate those who are from those who are not “on our
side.” This is part of a wider national process of demarcation. The National Bolsheviks are to have the shit kicked out of them—pardon my use of the president's French—whether there is a legal basis or not.

Of course, the methods on display in the Nikulin court are ridiculous, but who can see or hear them? Only the handful of people present. The rest of the country gets the message that the authorities are not joking, and that you go to jail for not being on our side. Beat the hell out of people like these. Show them no mercy, and your career will flourish.

Platon Lebedev, Khodorkovsky's friend and codefendant, has meanwhile been transferred to a punishment cell for refusing to go out for exercise. One week ago, Lebedev, who suffers from cirrhosis of the liver, was transferred from the prison hospital to an ordinary communal cell, and his health deteriorated sharply. He refused to go out to exercise because he was not fit enough. They have latched on to this: a punishment cell is an extremely hard place; there is no bed linen, no heating, and the diet is bread and water. The second reason is that the Michurin court has given him until August 25 to read the records of the Yukos court hearings. Lebedev will be in the punishment cell until August 26 and, as you are not allowed to take any papers or books in there, he will be unable to prepare an appeal against the verdict.

Lebedev, of course, still has Khodorkovsky, and Khodorkovsky is evidently writing up his comments at present. The verdict is effectively shared between the two of them and they have excellent lawyers. Nevertheless, such vindictiveness toward someone whose only crime is to have failed to plead guilty is quite monstrous.

There is good reason to worry about this country. Today's world leaders put their tails between their legs and exchange kisses with Putin rather than pull him up short.

August 21

Another anniversary of the 1991 putsch against Gorbachev and our liberation from it. About 800 people went to a celebration organized by the Free Russia Party. I felt no inclination to stop as I drove past the meeting. There is no freedom, so what is there to celebrate? The years since then
have been spent bringing back what we had before, only now in an even more twisted form.

Officially, 58 percent of those surveyed approve of the slogan “Russia for the Russians.” Another 58 percent, when asked what they would do if they earned a decent salary, said they would immediately buy property abroad and emigrate. That is a death sentence for “Free Russia,” and it also explains why we have not had any revolutions of late. We're waiting for someone else to do it for us.

August 23

Some of the mothers of children who died at Beslan have locked themselves in the court building in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, where Nur-pasha Kulaev is being tried. Officially, he is the only surviving terrorist of all those who seized the school.

After the tragedy, the mothers said they trusted only Putin and had every confidence he would ensure an objective inquiry. Putin promised that he would. A year has passed. The inquiry, however, exonerated all the bureaucrats and security agents who planned and carried out the assault that led to the deaths of so many children and adults. The women are now demanding that they themselves be arrested. They consider themselves responsible for the deaths of their own children, because they voted for Putin. Their sit-in is an act of desperation.

Khodorkovsky has gone on a total hunger strike in Matrosskaya Tishina prison, refusing even water, as a mark of solidarity with his severely ill friend Platon Lebedev. Through his lawyer Khodorkovsky stated that moving Lebedev into a punishment cell was evidently in retaliation for the articles that he, Khodorkovsky, published in the newspapers after the verdict.

Bravo, Khodorkovsky! I didn't think he had it in him. I am glad I was wrong. Now he is one of
us.
Oligarchs do not go on hunger strike; it is people like us who do that.

In the past six months hunger striking has become the sole means of asserting the right to free speech, a right supposedly guaranteed by the Constitution. There is much you can no longer say, but you can still go on
hunger strike to show that you have been silenced. Sounding off at protest meetings has become virtually useless, mere preaching to the converted; those who share your views already know the situation, so why keep telling them about it? Standing in picket lines is pointless, unless it is to salve your conscience. At least you'll be able to tell your granddaughter that you did more than vent your spleen in your own kitchen. Even writing books that don't get published in Russia because they are off-message doesn't have much impact. They are read only by people living abroad.

So, in 2005, the hunger strike is one of the few ways of getting your protest noticed. Moreover, it is something any of us can do. We all eat. We can all not eat. What is more, you don't need to apply for a permit from the state before you can do it.

Another important plus: in Russia everybody suspects everybody else of hypocritical PR spin, but what kind of PR is a hunger strike? It is clearly evident that it is being done by someone who is in despair.

So, as we enjoy this Indian summer, what has the new tactic achieved? For three weeks in July the Heroes of Russia, of the Soviet Union, and of Socialist Labor were on hunger strike. Putin in the meantime gave PR support to neofascist thugs by eating shashlik with them in a clearing in Tver, ostentatiously insulting the Heroes. Nevertheless, their hunger strike was very effective.

The prisoners in the Lgov penal colony also went on hunger strike, to draw attention to the torture they were enduring. Although the consequences were grim, they are being tortured less. In any case, there was a big enough rumpus to disturb the smooth working of the European Court of Human Rights. The government was obliged to react, and who knows, perhaps the brutes who run other prisons in Russia will be just a bit more circumspect in future.

Victims of beatings by the militia in Rasskazovo in Tambov Province went on hunger strike, warning that “We will no longer endure humiliation, insults, and physical violence from the law enforcement agencies.” The aggressors laid off. One more hunger strike, and the butchers may even be put behind bars.

Finally, the National Bolsheviks in the December 14 case went on
hunger strike in their Moscow detention cells, demanding the release of all political prisoners. Who now can fail to see that the National Bolsheviks are themselves political prisoners?

The authorities have quietly taken note of this summer of hunger strikes, even if they refer to it only obliquely, as they did today in Sochi when they remarked that officials should remain at arm's length from the people. The state is, however, plainly wising up to the fact that people are not joking. These are people who will not under any circumstances come to terms with them. A hunger strike is not a dialogue with the authorities, but with your fellow citizens.

I catch myself reflecting that you could never imagine Prime Minister Fradkov, Surkov or Putin himself going on hunger strike. It's not their style. To take a ride in a bomber or a beat-up Volga, supposedly without bodyguards, is fine. Protest, however, of the kind Khodorkovsky has now shared with the people, is out of the question.

August 24

The mothers have gone back to Beslan.

“We, the mothers of Beslan,” Marina Park says, “are guilty of having given life to children doomed to live in a country that decided it did not need them. We are guilty of having voted for a president who decided children were expendable. We are guilty of having kept silent for ten years about the war being waged in Chechnya, which has brought forth rebels like Kulaev.”

Ella Kesaeva, another bereaved mother, breaks in: “The main culprit is Putin. He hides behind his presidency. He has chosen not to meet us and apologize. It is a tragedy that we live under such a president, who refuses to take responsibility for anything.”

Shortly after this it became known that Putin was inviting representatives of the Committee of Mothers of Beslan to meet him in Moscow on September 2. At first the women were indignant: September 2 was a day of commemoration of the dead. They could not possibly go. The presidential administration then bluntly informed them that a meeting between Putin and the people of Beslan would go ahead with or without
them; someone would be found to tell Putin in front of the television cameras how much everyone in Beslan loves him. You can always find some of those in Russia.

What should they decide? Immediately after the atrocity Putin promised that the whole truth would be made public. Many believed him, including the “black mothers” who had lost their children. At the president's personal behest, a parliamentary commission was set up to investigate the causes and circumstances of the events in Beslan, chaired by Alexander Torshin, who promised that the commission's detailed and honest report would appear no later than March 2004.

Nothing happened. To this day there is no report, and the investigation has become a mockery. Large numbers of those held hostage in the school were so incensed that they refused to give evidence in the absurd, face-saving trial of Kulaev.

“Obviously nobody was guilty, or they would not all have been given medals,” as Marina Park puts it caustically. The citizens of Beslan are still alone with their grief. People come to photograph them, like animals in the zoo, and depart. They are asked if they need money, and reply that the only thing they want is the truth.

August 27

The chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on Beslan, Alexander Torshin, deputy speaker of the Soviet of the Federation, admits that the report for which Beslan has been waiting so long simply does not exist. “There are only a few odd pages.” Russia shrugs its shoulders.

August 29

In the Nikulin court, in the entire course of the summer, only thirteen of the twenty-six witnesses for the prosecution have been questioned. None of those for the defense have yet been called.

The authorities are deliberately dragging out the National Bolsheviks’ trial while keeping them in prison, because they imagine it will make
others think twice. In fact, it only strengthens their convictions. The parents of the thirty-nine have, while their children have been in prison on plainly trumped-up charges, started following their lead. They are organizing protest meetings, shouting in picket lines, joining opposition movements.

The Communists now let the National Bolsheviks hold their weekly meeting at their premises, and the alliance of those on the left is becoming very solid. This evening, however, as the National Bolsheviks were arriving, they were attacked and brutally beaten by masked individuals in combat fatigues wielding baseball bats.

After the attack the assailants calmly got into a bus that was waiting for them and drove off. The militia were called and pursued and stopped the bus. They entered it, only to come back out stating that it was full of “our people.” What was going on? Quite simply, those “on our side” have a license to beat those who are “not on our side.” The Nashists have been attacking the National Bolsheviks with baseball bats since early January. On January 29 and March 5 there were large-scale attacks by Nashi activists on the National Bolsheviks’ bunker, which they ransacked. Then as now, politically inspired hooligans arrived and left on a small bus, equipped with baseball bats. They even brought a mobile generator with them in order to saw through the door.

The hooligans were told off by the militia and released. On February 12, on the Moscow Metro Circle line, thugs waylaid and beat up not only National Bolsheviks, but also the father of one of the thirty-nine in prison. Again, they were taken to a militia station, then released. Each time the militia made a record, subsequently even began to press criminal charges, but then either dropped them or put them on ice. “You must understand,” the investigators sighed. “It's politics …”

“There is no urgency on the part of the investigators,” Dmitry Agra-novsky, the lawyer representing the father who was assaulted, tells me. “The files have not even been sent to court yet, even though the offenses are far clearer than those of the National Bolsheviks who invaded Putin's reception area, and the violence was far greater. So many people were seriously injured. We are trying to prevent them from closing the case completely, but it is clearly going nowhere.”

Now this new attack. The gladiators of Spartak needed protection from the law. They found it, and now they are using their fists to repay the trust placed in them by the presidential administration.

It is all just the way it is in Chechnya. The regime takes people under its wing who have, preferably, several criminal cases pending against them. These are quashed in return for a guarantee that “While you are with us, nobody can raise a finger against you. You beat up those we point out.” (In Chechnya, “You kill on our say-so.”)

Are we really going to see the day when the president decrees that Roma the Stickler, following in the footsteps of Ramzan the Nutter, should receive honors from the Russian state?

It is also very obvious that the regime is eager to pit one youth group against another so that, when the chips are down, there will be a balance between the two sides, so that the hatred should not just leach away out of society. Fear and confrontation are far more useful; the pursuit of social harmony is not their agenda. They are hoping that having different social groupings at loggerheads will be the magic carpet on which they fly to their goal of another four years in power and in control of the country's revenues, while the rest of us carry on beating each other up. This is what I see behind the attacks on the National Bolsheviks by well-organized teams wielding baseball bats.