dymovskiy.name

IndustryWatch: Russian website views use of criminal cases against police whistle- blowers

A medicine was quickly found against public attacks on the law enforcement system by its own staffers: The accusers are being turned, one after another, into the accused.

The old Soviet saying "give me the man, and I will find the article [of the criminal code, to use against him]" suggested a simple and effective means of teaching a lesson to everyone who tries to wash the law enforcers' dirty linen in public.

The new procedure for working with whistle-blowing law enforcers can be seen most clearly from the example of the most famous of them - video blogger Major Aleksey Dymovskiy.

The first reaction to Dymovskiy's message to Putin was loud denials by the police chiefs whom the major had accused of corruption. The next stage is to bring a criminal case against Dymovskiy under Article 159 of the Criminal Code (fraud). Then the alleged fraudster (who supposedly kept 24,000 roubles allocated for operational needs) finds himself under arrest. Although the sum is insignificant, it is quickly deemed inappropriate for the man under investigation to be released on bail - he might intimidate witnesses. That is the standard argument of the investigators in show cases, and it is followed by a standard ruling by the court.

As of today half the job has been done: Dymovskiy is imprisoned, his opportunities of making denunciatory speeches have been reduced sharply. Now they can look for another, rather more serious article without haste. It is reported that another charge is being prepared - of drug trafficking. Dymovskiy's relatives have been subjected to searches. A third case may also be in the offing - on a charge of forgery of documents and falsification of evidence.

For less famous people than Dymovskiy the procedure may be simplified and even softened. Former Deputy Prosecutor of Ukhta Grigoriy Chekalin, who spoke in a video message about the alleged falsification of evidence in a case relating to arson at a local trade centre and who was subsequently charged with giving false evidence and held in Moscow, has been released for the time being on bail of half a million.

Other variations are also possible. The other day, at a special press conference, the former Moscow OMON [special-purpose police detachment] members who had apparently signed a complaint to the president about their own bosses denied the authenticity of their signatures on the published letter.

It is hard to judge at the moment which side is right in this dispute. But one similarity with the two above-mentioned cases is evident: There is a criminal case in reserve, a case instituted a few months ago under Article 286 of the Criminal Code (exceeding official powers), and the aforementioned former OMON members currently feature in that case as witnesses. Their interest in not suddenly finding they have turned into the accused is presumably beyond doubt.

All these stories indicate that the confusion caused by the wave of denunciatory video appeals and public statements has been more or less overcome. All would-be denouncers are being sent a plain signal: "Don't get involved - it will kill you!"

Although Dymovskiy and the other internal critics of the law enforcement system are, generally speaking, by no means saints, trying to secure a victory over them in the sphere of public polemics has evidently been deemed futile. The choice of the judicial-punitive method of reaction was influenced, moreover, by the fear that the revelations might begin to snowball at any moment. There is no time to worry about preserving the vestiges of the reputation of the MVD [Ministry of Internal Affairs] leadership or the prestige of our judicial system, especially since it is already almost beyond help.

And why should we be surprised if the practice that is traditionally and quite widely applied to ordinary citizens exhibiting challenging behaviour is also applied to "insider" renegades from the police and the prosecutor's office?

Gazeta.ru has already reported the case of Artem Loskutov, the Novosibirsk organizer of artistic events with a political hue, who was caught in possession of 11 grams of marijuana and arrested last spring.

The investigation is dragging on to this day, but Loskutov has been released from the pretrial detention centre. And the reason is unlikely to be that the circumstances of the discovery and registration of the drugs were, according to the defence, somewhat dubious. More likely, the wide publicity has been taken into account, as well as the numerous support demonstrations held in Russian cities.

And here there is a lesson for the public. As long as it remains silent, as long as it fails to give clear and plain signals, it will have to go on listening to the same monologue: "Don't get involved. Don't speak out of turn. We will always be able to find an article..."

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