Matvey Zen. Lawyer Matvey Tsen on the case of the Occupy-Gerontophiliai activist and projects of “direct action. Have you been to china

"Defense goes on the attack"

A lawyer with Chinese roots, Matvey Tsen, told the National Accent about how he became a Russian nationalist, as well as about the trial of the Avar Rasul Mirzaev, where he represented the family of the deceased Russian student Ivan Agafonov.

- Matvey, why did you decide to defend specifically Russian nationalists, and not Russians?

The issue of choice between Russians and Russians has never been raised, because Russians, in my opinion, do not exist. In my entire life, I have met only one person who seriously called himself a Russian - that was Rasul Mirzaev. From an ethnic point of view, for me the concept of “Russian” has no meaning. In my opinion, the only meaning of the word "Russian" is Russian, who does not know that he is Russian.

- How do your relatives relate to your support for the nationalists?

Zeng's last name is Chinese, my maternal grandfather was Chinese. Unfortunately, he died when I was still a child. If we talk about parents and relatives, they support me as a person, and Political Views either share or treat them with neutral respect.

- How did you find yourself among the Russian nationalists?

In 2005, I went public for the first time. It was a rally in support of Alexandra Ivannikova, who was accused of killing an Armenian: she accidentally stabbed a Caucasian who was trying to rape her. At the rally he met Konstantin Krylov. Then he got involved in the activities of "Russian social movement”. He started going to actions, attended a discussion club at the Stanislav Belkovsky Institute for National Strategy.

- According to some information, you were also a member of the DPNI.

I have never been a member of the DPNI, since I originally joined the "ROD". Perhaps these rumors are connected with the fact that at some point there was talk that the entire ROD would join the DPNI and we would have cross-membership.

- You represented the family deceased Ivan Agafonov in the case of the world champion in combat sambo Rasul Mirzaev. How do you assess its outcome?

I consider the Mirzaev case to be very important. I hoped that it would be possible to change the vicious judicial practice when death from one blow is often viewed as causing death by negligence. Unfortunately, my hopes were not justified, and the charge against Mirzaev was softened by Article 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and this article provides for a very small punishment- up to two years in prison. Moreover, if the offender has not been previously convicted, he is usually given a suspended year. That is, it turns out that the person is dead, and his killer simply does not visit nightclubs for a year.

- The father of the deceased Ivan Agafonov complained during the trial about threats from the supporters of Rasul Mirzaev. Were pressured on the lawyers of the victims?

Such rumors circulated on social networks. The pressure against me did not go beyond the legal framework. But the second lawyer, Oksana Mikhalkina, was sent quite specific threats from an anonymous account on the Internet. That was all.

- What other business do you do?

My advocacy is divided into two parts: advocacy and general advocate practice, which is carried out on a fee basis. I am engaged in human rights work within the framework of "ROD". We provide legal assistance to both political activists and ordinary citizens who have come to us, who have suffered in ethnic conflicts or from the actions of the authorities. For example, now I am dealing with the case of the Muscovite Daria Egorova. Dagestani neighbors with traumatic weapons attacked her and her husband near the house. Unfortunately, the victims contacted us late, when the case had already been brought to court. It turned out that the materials of the criminal case did not contain the pistols used to shoot at the Yegorov family. Accordingly, since there is no weapon, the article "hooliganism" was removed from the prosecution. The case was in fact ruined at the stage of the investigation, and if the victims continued to let the case go, the attackers might not be punished at all. I hope that we will be able to rectify the situation. A big role in such stories is played by drawing public attention to the case. While everything is quiet, neither the investigation nor the court will do anything.

- You also defend nationalists who are being tried under "extremist" articles for taking part in political actions. What problems do the defendants in these criminal cases face?

The main problem is that people often seek legal assistance too late. It is necessary to think about protection ahead of time, before initiating a criminal case. After all, as a rule, it is clear that this is about to happen if the activist is engaged in a certain activity. Before the persecution begins, it is quite possible to find yourself a lawyer whom you trust. But usually right-wing activists think about protection only after the call from law enforcement agencies at the door. They usually look for a lawyer in a hurry and choose the first one they come across. Although this case must be approached wisely and understand that there are conscientious lawyers, and there are not.

- V recent times the non-systemic opposition is louder and louder about political repression. Which part of her do you think suffers the most from this kind of persecution?

Until recently, nationalists have been subject to more serious repression than leftists or liberals. The National Bolsheviks are a different story. Only now, when a criminal case was initiated against the leader of the Left Front, Sergei Udaltsov, did the left find themselves in approximately the same situation in which nationalists have existed for years. Virtually all leaders of nationalist opposition organizations are persecuted and criminal cases are brought up against them. At the same time, illiteracy in the issue of legal self-defense, as the Udaltsov case shows, is enough everywhere. The same Leonid Razvozzhaev, who, under pressure, confessed to organizing the riots. They didn’t beat him, but they created such a hysterical situation around that the man imagined that he would be killed. As a result, he gave the testimony they wanted from him. True, then, as soon as the opportunity presented itself, he retracted his testimonies, stating that they were "knocked out". A similar situation was with the witness in the Tikhonov-Khasis case, Ilya Goryachev. However, he did not refuse to testify, what is their fundamental difference with Razvozzhaev.

In general, of the entire opposition, liberals are subject to less repression, but they react more competently thanks to the delivered legal assistance and powerful human rights and information resources... We must learn from them!

On December 7, Moscow lawyer Matvey Tsen, who cooperates with the Russian Public Movement, achieved a complete acquittal of his client Philip Razinsky in the Dragomilovsky District Court.

A young man, an activist of the “anti-pedophile” project “Occupy-Gerontofiliai”, was accused of a robbery, which he allegedly committed in the spring of 2013. Philip was charged with taking a gas canister from a young man who went to a meeting with an adult client, and as a result met teenagers who were identifying peers engaged in homosexual prostitution.

We talked with Matvey both about the reality and about the “Occupy-Gerontofiliai” and “Occupy-Pedophiliai” projects. We also touched on a topic that has been of concern to society lately: how to evaluate such projects of direct action, whether to consider them arbitrariness, lawlessness, crime, or beneficial civic activity?

-On what basis did the court acquit Philip?

The court decided that there was no selfish intent in his actions. Philip took the can, but not for mercenary purposes, as the wording of the article requires, but so that the owner of the can, the victim of Occupy Gerontophilia, would not use it against the project participants. This case is similar to the case of animal rights activist Pavlenko, who stole a dog from a blind singer. At first she was accused of theft, and even the court of first instance agreed with the opinion of the investigation. But the Moscow City Court overturned the guilty verdict, indicating that selfish intent had not been proven. That is, Pavlenko took the dog not with selfish intent to take possession of the animal, but on the basis of her conviction that she thereby does good to this dog, protects it from cruelty. Our Criminal Code is structured in such a way that intent is an obligatory part of a crime, and intent, if we are talking about crimes such as robbery or theft, should be aimed precisely at embezzlement, selfish seizure of property.

As for Philip, the event itself took place on March 31, 2013, over 3.5 years ago, when he was a 15-year-old teenager (he is now 18 years old). The case was initiated in the summer of 2013. Philip was accused under the second part of Article 161 “robbery” - the investigation claimed that he used violence that was not dangerous to life and health. They saw violence in the fact that my client, withdrawing the victim's hand, put his hand in his pocket and took out this spray can. At the same time, he allegedly acted in collusion with other persons that allegedly other participants in the Occupy Gerontophilia project actually gathered to cover up Philip for the abduction of this spray can. This is an absurd accusation, but it was nonetheless. However, although all the faces were clearly visible in the video, and the main central office of the Investigative Committee was in charge of the case, for three years the investigators could not establish what kind of teenagers they were in the video.

Well, since Philip was acquitted, since there is no corpus delicti, then, naturally, there is no group either.

When Martsinkevich began to make his project "Occupy Pedophilia", the project was initially positively received by the society. Then pressure began from certain strata related to the topic of pedophilia. As a result, the unsuccessful Occupy Gerontophilia also fell under the distribution, where some teenagers caught other teenagers, those who had sex for money, and tried to shame them. When it comes about adults (for example, caught by Martsinkevich Kaminov), then these adults, firstly, really committed a criminal offense, and secondly, they were still adults and understood what they were doing. That is, this project had a positive effect.

And the adolescents caught by “Occupy-gerontophiliai” themselves did not really understand what they were doing, so all this was unnecessarily cruel and senseless (and now my client has reconsidered his views). But in any case, cruelty and senselessness do not constitute a crime. Of course, it was necessary not to initiate a criminal case and to investigate it for three years, but it was just necessary to talk to them and humanly explain what they are wrong about.

Apparently, it was such a street situation when some teenagers "run over" other teenagers who they don't like?

No, not at all. They were teenagers in age, but organizationally, they had everything in an adult way. Activists did indeed identify children who were, in fact, engaged in homosexual prostitution with adults. I also draw your attention to such a moment. When this project was active, in Russian Federation the use of sexual services by minors who reached the age of consent, that is, 16 years, was not punished. A 16-year-old girl or boy could sell their sexual services for money, only teenagers themselves were punished under an administrative article for engaging in prostitution. And the “Occupy-Gerontophiliai” project drew attention to this gap in the legislation. Article 240.1 was introduced into the Criminal Code on December 28, 2013 - obtaining sexual services from a minor. And the project began operating in early 2013.

- So this project influenced the appearance of the article?

I studied this issue and found out that the bill appeared quite a long time ago, long before the creation of Occupy Gerontophilia. But one must understand that there are dozens, if not hundreds of useful bills in the State Duma, they gather dust for years, nothing happens to them, and then at some point they fire. They are fired when they acquire public importance. Unambiguously, the events of 2013 influenced the appearance of the article, influenced the fact that this bill was brought to law.

You need to understand that we do not judge people for good or bad deeds, and not every moral behavior is a crime. And sometimes there is the opposite case, when moral behavior is criminal. Naturally, the law tends to coincide with morality, but there is always a gap, and in in this case it is obvious. It was a stupid project, but it wasn't criminal. Its participants did not beat anyone, did not rob anyone, they surrounded the teenager and took a so-called “interview” from him, filmed a video about him. They forced him to tell about the circumstances of his arrival at the meeting, and without slandering himself. The teenager had to confirm what he wrote in the correspondence ( note: activists lured to a meeting of prostitute children, posing on social networks as adults, ready to pay for sex services). After all, he went to a meeting with an adult man in order to have sex for material reward.

You can treat these projects as badly as you like, but do not forget what they were doing. People came to Martsinkevich who wanted to sleep with a little boy for money, and little boys came to Philip who wanted to sleep with a man and get money for it. This must be taken into account when assessing their performance, and not appoint Tesak bad and pedophiles good. And at the same time, Martsinkevich showed that the police are acting completely inadequate to the situation. The department for the fight against pedophiles is proud when they do one or two criminal cases in a year. And Martsinkevich identified several such people in a week. That is, there is just an unplowed field. All this is extremely unhealthy and sooner or later will make itself felt.

-Now many are dissatisfied with the arbitrariness of civil activists and not only activists. They are outraged, for example, by the raids on exhibitions, and by the visits of the team of the "Revizorro" program to the "hipster" cafes ...

On the one hand, yes, people do not like arbitrariness. On the other hand, everyone agrees that the passivity of citizens is a problem. For our state, the image of an ideal citizen is a complainer. Is there something you don't like? Write complaints. What kind civil projects as a result turned out to be the most demanded? This, for example, is the “Civil Patrol” by Rostislav Antonov. This is a project that deals with the systematic writing of complaints. Such activities are interesting for people of a certain psychological make-up. In "Civil Patrol" they make the most convenient interface, on their website you can complain - where to write, how to write, they take it upon themselves. But what do we say to a healthy athletic 18 year old young man who discovers little boys having sex with older men for iPhones? "Write a complaint?" In this case, it doesn't work that way.

In fact, I see that our state is suspicious and negative about any activity that it does not authorize. And it doesn't matter whether this activity is positive or negative. If you look, all such projects were covered up in one way or another. Even the self-styled "Stop Ham", which had almost Putin's blessing, but nevertheless, also quietly died out. There is only a completely idiotic "Lion against", the degeneration of this whole idea, the participants of which are chasing smokers. Relatively speaking, pedophiles pass by, and "Leo against" is interested in whether they smoke or not smoke in the wrong place.

I, as a person, have a positive attitude towards such projects, on the whole it was all right. The correct reaction would be the incorporation, institutionalization of caring citizens who directly themselves wanted to make life better. It would be possible to make projects of public-police, where activists would act in contact with the police. But I know what happens to the activists who work this way, these initiatives are dying. The police are returning to their usual pace of work, to their usual orientation not towards results, but towards statistics. As a result, activists are not interested in working, they do not understand why they need all this, if, in fact, they do police work for free. There is no effect from such work, because the police do not offer “let's, like a cleaver, catch dozens of pedophiles”. No, the police won't do that, and they don't. Or there were anti-drug projects. After all, one should also not forget that when they fought with spice, it was not even considered a drug. Is the 2013 spice different from the 2015 spice? Yes, he is no different, except for the legal status.

I repeat, I understand people who are against arbitrariness. Well, when people arbitrarily fight smoking in the wrong place - it's funny. And when people arbitrarily fight grave and especially grave criminal offenses, then the benefits they bring outweigh other considerations.

We continue to raise funds for the XVII humanitarian mission. This time, ROD volunteers will take children's gifts to the front-line villages of the LPR. We also have a number of individual applications from large families from Stakhanov and drawing sets for the board.

Our details:

Matvey Tsen on migrants, politics and what it's like to be a Russian nationalist with a Chinese surname. Extended version of the interview for "Special letter" .

Matvey Tsen

Political advocacy is relatively new to modern Russia a phenomenon, since earlier lawyers tried to stay away from the public mainstream. But times are changing. Matvey Tsen is a prominent representative of the Russian political advocacy. And not only because he participates as a defender in criminal-political cases, but also because he himself is an active participant in the political process. Until recently, Zeng was a municipal deputy in the Moscow region of Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo, and today he can be seen at the actions of Russian nationalists, at meetings of the National Democratic Party and among specialists of the ROD human rights center.

- How is life for a Russian nationalist with the surname Tseng?

Lives normally ( laughs). Well, my grandfather is Chinese, on my paternal side, that's where my surname comes from. The rest of the ancestors are Russian, as far as I know about them. Therefore, I get three-quarters Russian ethnic origin, and one-quarter I'm Chinese. And culturally I am completely Russian - that's, actually, that's all. Born and raised here.

And, then, I just have such an appearance, I have no problems with it. On the contrary, it even helped me in part - my appearance allows me, if necessary, to pass myself off as a person of a different, "Eastern" mentality. In some situations, I passed myself off as another person and saw that the situation was changing, the attitude was changing, the interlocutor was revealed.

- For example?

Well, for example, in communicating with migrants from Central Asia, I heard things that they would never say to a Russian in appearance. There is no talk of any integration and assimilation. They perceive everything in a completely different way. And they just very clearly understand where are Russians, where are non-Russians, where are their own and where are strangers - they have completely unambiguous views on this whole situation, no one is going to integrate here, form some kind of Russian nation etc.

Nothing can be done about this, because the marker of a person is his appearance, his language. No employees of Center "E" (Main Directorate for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (CPE) approx. ed.), who could work with Asians, with Caucasians - there are all Slavs in the CPE, and their effectiveness in this environment is zero. In other power units, the situation is about the same, not much better. This is especially true of immigrants from Asia, with Caucasians in their organs a little better, in the sense that there are more and more of them ...

How do you become nationalists? There are many Ivanovs, Petrovs who are not interested in identity issues and so on. How did you come to this?

I believe that my mixed ethnicity contributed to the fact that I thought about these issues in general as a teenager. But I never had a real choice to start considering myself Chinese - for me it's about the same as starting to consider myself an elf. I do not have any kind of craving for Chinese culture, to the Chinese language, to the Chinese. Well, I probably like Chinese cuisine ... I never had any doubts that people have a nationality, some kind of ethnicity (I do not like the word nationality, it is Soviet, it confuses a little).

Every person has an objective ethnic background. It may be mixed and noticeable, as in my case, it may not be mixed and not noticeable, like most people. But there is also him, a person, self-identification and how he is perceived by the people around him. Normally, these things coincide, but they still need to be distinguished, because often, unfortunately, many Russians, being ethnic Russians by origin, do not have Russian self-identification, or they have not actualized it. And that's the problem ...

You say that there is an objective ethnic origin, and there is a sense of self, self-identification. Then all the same, deduce the formula: who is a Russian?

V general view Russian is an ethnically Russian or a person with a significant ethnic Russian component, who has a Russian self-identification and is accepted by others as Russian.

- What does “significant ethnic component” mean?

Well, this means that if - like me, for example - there is some Chinese grandfather or someone else, this is not an obstacle for a person to be Russian. If we take ethnicity, then when most of Russian ancestors, then the person himself is mostly Russian. I think this is understandable, no?

- Not good. Can you be more Russian, can you be less Russian?

Ethnically, yes.

- And where, then, is that borderline: here he is still Russian, and here he is no longer Russian?

Half border. If a person is ethnically mixed in half, then his self-identification is of primary importance. In fact, an ethnos, a nation, and a people are all concepts that do not operate with just a few people, they operate with millions, and in the case of the Russian people, tens of millions. That is, it is like a galaxy in which there are a lot of stars, millions and hundreds of millions, billions - and, accordingly, a galaxy, it objectively exists. And the entire set of stars as a whole makes up this galaxy.

The question of where this or that star is located - in the center of the galaxy or at its periphery - is not fundamental for determining whether a star belongs to this star system, just as the galaxy does not have a rigid dotted border, and there is no need for such a border with border pillars ... So it is with every person: someone is closer to the ethnic core of the Russian people, someone is further away, but all together we form the Russian galaxy.

I have no doubt that you are from the Russian galaxy, but your grandfather is of great interest to me. I heard that he was a Chekist ...

I don't know much about his activities, because he really served in the KGB and after his death most of his archives were taken by people from the KGB. It turns out that he worked almost until the end of his days ... And what remained in the family from his archives is mostly in Chinese.

Grandfather (his name was Zeng Xu Fu) was not only an intelligence officer, but also a Chinese scholar and participated, in particular, in the creation of a large Chinese-Russian dictionary - a four-volume, well, among those people who study Chinese, this is a fundamental work. And when I talk about this, they nod in understanding, because this is a very big work, you have to understand that Chinese is hieroglyphic, Russian is alphabetical. It is quite difficult to make a dictionary with such a difference in the structure of languages.

Grandfather has state awards, my relatives tried to find out what he was awarded for, but this is still classified information, i.e. we receive an answer from the FSB that in response to your request for rewarding your relative, we inform you that such a relative was indeed awarded. What, for what, how - they are not responsible ...

- What, really, and grandmother did not tell what grandfather was doing? :)

Well, let's just say, one of the family legends says that my grandfather worked as a translator at the negotiations between Mao Zedong and Stalin. When Mao Zedong came in 1949 for the famous two-month negotiations, which resulted in the signing of a historic treaty of friendship, alliance and mutual assistance between the USSR and China.

Another family legend says that during the Great Patriotic War there was a plan, if Moscow was surrendered to the Germans, to establish a sabotage and partisan struggle through the Chinese diaspora, which was specially left in the city, since they were not perceived by the Germans in any way, they spoke an incomprehensible Chinese language and all looked the same :) Well, they say, my grandfather was responsible for the training of these Chinese partisans ...

The third family legend says that for some time he worked as an intelligence officer in Japan under the guise of a restaurant owner ... My grandfather, by the way, has some Chinese relatives with whom we keep in regular contact.

- Have you been to China?

No, I have not been to China. I somehow calmly treat him, objectively. Well, yes, China is one of the most ancient civilizations. With an interesting original philosophy, culture, past achievements, and now on the rise. But I don't feel any kind of involvement in China.

- Did your grandfather live in Russia in the first generation?

The grandfather immigrated as a teenager to Soviet Russia in the 20s. There was a permanent civil war in China, and he actually fell into slavery. And then for some offense he should have been executed. On the night before his execution, he escaped, took a train that ran on the Chinese Eastern Railway (Chinese Eastern Railway) and left for the Soviet Union.

Here he ended up in an orphanage, learned Russian and came to the attention of the NKVD. Because he was an ethnic Chinese, but unambiguously - due to his early childhood - he was not a spy, which is very important for the special services. Chinese he had native language and this is a very valuable quality for intelligence ...

- Didn't you want to go on reconnaissance? There would be a dynasty ...

No, yes, I didn’t have much choice, because my father didn’t follow this line - he went into science, was a psychologist, but died at a young age. At the age of twenty-nine, he died. And although my grandfather at some point offered to send me to a boarding school with in-depth study Chinese, but the parents were against it, because they understood that, of course, only a KGB career followed from this boarding school. Good knowledge of the Chinese language, oriental appearance ... My parents were against it being programmed by my birth.

And then, when I was already determining myself, I graduated from school in the ninety-sixth year, I considered the option of entering the service, frankly speaking. But there is only this: “Are there any relatives - active employees? If there are no relatives, there is no chance. " But I don’t have the right temperament for this kind of work.

You were a municipal deputy. Now you are a lawyer, a member of the NDP party, a politician, a human rights activist in the ROD line ... You have a lot of entities. Who is Mr. Tszen?

It's simple different aspects my personality. From a professional point of view, I am a lawyer in the broadest sense of the word, in a narrower segment of lawyers - I am a lawyer, a person who has a lawyer's status, has passed exams and since 2002 has had a lawyer's office. Accordingly, the legal profession is my main income, as they say - "an independent legal adviser." They turn to me with legal questions - I provide legal assistance for money.

From the point of view of political convictions, I am a Russian nationalist in the broadest sense of the word and a national democrat in the narrower sense of the term “nationalist”.

From point of view social activities- an activity that is not strictly professional and is not, strictly speaking, political - I am a human rights activist and in 2008-2012 was a deputy of the Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo district, because, by and large, a municipal deputy is the same public figure. That, in fact, is all.

Does it interfere with each other? No, it does not interfere, but, on the contrary, helps. It is clear that my professional skills as a lawyer - they, of course, allow me to be a more effective human rights defender. In fact, for me, human rights protection means the same thing that I usually do - I provide the same legal assistance, only this time for free, that's all.

There is a lot of talk about the double standards of Russian law enforcement. As a lawyer observing this very law enforcement in practice, can you confirm or refute the thesis that, for example, skinheads and Caucasian youth are punished differently for the same offenses: the former get it to the fullest extent of the law, while the latter get off with a slight fright?

I do not think that judges and investigators treat Russians with any bias or favor Caucasians. Skinheads will really get more, not because they are Russians, but because they are skinheads - that is, because they did it out of political views, which in the language of our legislation are interpreted as extremism. In fact, extremism is one of the variants of political views. Therefore, they will get more.

And Caucasians will receive less, but not because they are Caucasians by themselves, but because their national diaspora is likely to stand up for them, they will have good lawyers, they will have all-round support from the outside, including this support either corruption or administrative - through high-ranking compatriots. The Russians do not have such unconditional mutual assistance.

- But it still works, because they are Caucasians ...

But the receiving mechanism end result another! There is a certain mechanism behind each such verdict, a certain behind-the-scenes work is carried out.

- So, Russians need to become a minority in order to begin to behave together, how do the diasporas behave?

Well, it is clear that if the genocide of the Russian people begins, then the last million Russians will resist extremely desperately and skillfully. But that's not what we want. There are two ways out: either to start behaving like a minority, being a real majority, or to rebuild the state in such a way that not declarative equality, but real equality is ensured - regardless of ethnicity. The first option is, as the saying goes, "To live with wolves - howl like a wolf", the second option is to develop the state in a European way.

It turns out that while development follows the path of "diasporization" of the Russian population, they are competitive in the modern aggressive social environment only close-knit enclaves: bikers, football fans, Cossacks, some professions, like a mining brotherhood, and the like.

Still the same right-wing subculture, it too ...

Well, the right-wing subculture, as it seems to me, is very loose, even in comparison with the same near-football structures ...

It is loosened, and therefore loose, do not forget about it. I am sure: if a center for combating bikerism worked against bikers, then they would also be "loose".

- Recently, the possibilities of changing the law on the Bar have been discussed. Down to the offer forbid lawyers participate in any social and political activity. How do you feel about such innovations?

First of all, I want to say that with political lawyers - with those who work with political prisoners - a certain struggle is being waged against them. Recently, for example, the lawyer Igor Popovskiy had serious troubles. Therefore, I am psychologically prepared for the fact that the same kind of troubles may arise for me at any time. And in comparison with a falsified criminal case, any legislative changes regarding the lawyer's status do not seem so terrible. I mean, lawyers are scared people.

But if we return to the above-mentioned initiatives, then I see no reason to prohibit lawyers from engaging in public, political activities because many of famous politicians were lawyers and lawyers in the broadest sense of the word. Law and politics are interconnected things. The lawyer does not have powers of authority. It is more logical that the judge and the prosecutor should not be involved in political activities, or a policeman, or an official, except for elective positions. But a lawyer - why not?

How did you get into politics? Many politicians are lawyers (or at least the sons of lawyers), but not many lawyers are politicians ...

The turning point was when I found out about Ivannikova case, it was the summer of 2005. I found out about him literally half an hour before the start of the rally in support of her, read it and realized that I had to do something. I got on a trolley bus and drove to Pushkinskaya Square, where I got to the rally, saw Belov and Krylov there, and away we go. That was crucial moment in my life.

- How have your views changed since then?

At first, I will not hide, during the first term of Vladimir Putin's presidency, I supported him, as I believed that he was putting things in order in the country.

- Well, after Yeltsin, many thought so ...

I began to be critical of Putin during his second term, when I saw that the positive that he had brought was coming to an end, but there was no development or progress. And many problems - in particular, immigration, interethnic conflicts, social stratification - they are simply ignored. At first it seemed that this was some kind of mistake by the authorities that could be corrected. It seemed that if the problematic was actualized and the authorities saw it, then it would correct the state of affairs. But then the realization came that this was not a mistake and not an oversight, but a purposeful policy, a chosen course.

Well, and finally I became disillusioned with Putin after the operation "successor". It seemed logical to me that two candidates from the parties in power would be nominated - Ivanov and Medvedev. Medvedev as more liberal, Ivanov as more conservative, and society could choose between the two. This would give impetus to a bipartisan system, perhaps even on the American model. Managed democracy, but not in the sense of a puppet, but in the sense of stable, when people can actually elect themselves, but from a limited range of options. And when Putin refused all of this and took the path of castling, then as a voter I was finally disappointed in such a policy of the Kremlin.

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matveytszen.pravorub.ru

Matvey Tsen Russian nationalist, lawyer of the Agafonov family

Matvey Nikolaevich Tsen was born in 1979, Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow State Law Academy, was close to the "Movement Against Illegal Immigration" (DPNI). Former member"Russian public movement" (ROD), after the suspension of which, in the fall of 2011 entered the human rights center "ROD" Natalia Kholmogorova and the "National Democratic Party" Konstantin Krylov. Protects political activists and Russian citizens of Russia affected by ethnic conflicts. Represents the Agafonov family in the Mirzaev case. Participant in opposition protests. The author of the blog www.second-sign.livejournal.com.

Defense goes on the attack

A lawyer with Chinese roots, Matvey Tsen, told the National Accent about how he became a Russian nationalist, as well as about the trial of the Avar Rasul Mirzaev, where he represented the family of the deceased Russian student Ivan Agafonov.

- Matvey, why did you decide to defend specifically Russian nationalists, and not Russians?

- The issue of choice between Russians and Russians has never been raised, because Russians, in my opinion, do not exist. In my entire life, I have met only one person who seriously called himself a Russian - that was Rasul Mirzaev. From an ethnic point of view, for me the concept of “Russian” has no meaning. In my opinion, the only meaning of the word "Russian" is Russian, who does not know that he is Russian.

- How do your relatives relate to your support for the nationalists?

- Zeng's last name is Chinese, my maternal grandfather was Chinese. Unfortunately, he died when I was still a child. If we talk about parents and relatives, they support me as a person, and political views either share or treat them with neutral respect.

- How did you find yourself among the Russian nationalists?

- In 2005, I went to a public action for the first time. It was a rally in support of Alexandra Ivannikova, who was accused of killing an Armenian: she accidentally stabbed a Caucasian who was trying to rape her. At the rally he met Konstantin Krylov. Then he got involved in the activities of the Russian Social Movement. He started going to actions, attended a discussion club at the Stanislav Belkovsky Institute for National Strategy.

- According to some information, you were also a member of the DPNI.

- I have never been a member of the DPNI, since I originally joined the "ROD". Perhaps these rumors are connected with the fact that at some point there was talk that the entire ROD would join the DPNI and we would have cross-membership.

- You represented the family of the deceased Ivan Agafonov in the case of the world champion in combat sambo Rasul Mirzaev. How do you assess its outcome?

- I consider the Mirzaev case to be very important. I hoped that it would be possible to change the vicious judicial practice that has developed in Russia, when death from one blow is often considered as causing death by negligence. Unfortunately, my hopes were not justified, and the charge against Mirzaev was mitigated by Article 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and this article provides for a very small punishment - only up to two years in prison. Moreover, if the offender has not been previously convicted, he is usually given a suspended year. That is, it turns out that the person is dead, and his killer simply does not visit nightclubs for a year.

- The father of the deceased Ivan Agafonov complained during the trial about threats from the supporters of Rasul Mirzaev. Were pressured on the lawyers of the victims?

- What other business do you do?

- My advocacy is divided into two parts: human rights and ordinary advocacy, which is carried out on a paid basis. I am engaged in human rights work within the framework of ROD. We provide legal assistance to both political activists and ordinary citizens who have come to us, who have suffered in ethnic conflicts or from the actions of the authorities. For example, now I am dealing with the case of the Muscovite Daria Egorova. Dagestani neighbors with traumatic weapons attacked her and her husband near the house. Unfortunately, the victims contacted us late, when the case had already been brought to court. It turned out that the materials of the criminal case did not contain the pistols used to shoot at the Yegorov family. Accordingly, since there is no weapon, the article “hooliganism” was removed from the prosecution. The case was in fact ruined at the stage of the investigation, and if the victims continued to let the case go, the attackers might not be punished at all. I hope that we will be able to rectify the situation. A big role in such stories is played by drawing public attention to the case. While everything is quiet, neither the investigation nor the court will do anything.

- You also defend nationalists who are being tried under "extremist" articles for participating in political actions. What problems do the defendants in these criminal cases face?

- The main problem is that people often seek legal assistance too late. It is necessary to think about protection ahead of time, before initiating a criminal case. After all, as a rule, it is clear that this is about to happen if the activist is engaged in a certain activity. Before the persecution begins, it is quite possible to find yourself a lawyer whom you trust. But usually right-wing activists think about protection only after the call from law enforcement agencies at the door. They usually look for a lawyer in a hurry and choose the first one they come across. Although this case must be approached wisely and understand that there are conscientious lawyers, and there are not.

- Recently, the non-systemic opposition has been louder and louder about political repressions. Which part of her do you think suffers the most from this kind of persecution?

- Until recently, nationalists have been subjected to more serious repression than leftists or liberals. The National Bolsheviks are a different story. Only now, when a criminal case was initiated against the leader of the Left Front, Sergei Udaltsov, did the left find themselves in approximately the same situation in which nationalists have existed for years. Virtually all leaders of nationalist opposition organizations are persecuted and criminal cases are brought up against them. At the same time, illiteracy in the issue of legal self-defense, as the Udaltsov case shows, is enough everywhere. The same Leonid Razvozzhaev, who, under pressure, confessed to organizing the riots. They didn’t beat him, but they created such a hysterical situation around that the man imagined that he would be killed. As a result, he gave the testimony they wanted from him. True, then, as soon as the opportunity presented itself, he retracted his testimonies, stating that they were “knocked out”. A similar situation was with the witness in the Tikhonov-Khasis case, Ilya Goryachev. However, he did not refuse to testify, what is their fundamental difference with Razvozzhaev.

On the whole, of the entire opposition, liberals are subject to less repression, but they react more competently thanks to the provided legal assistance and powerful human rights and information resources. We must learn from them!

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Matvey Tsen: "The Russian galaxy has no borders with border pillars" (full version of the interview)

Matvey Tsen on migrants, politics and what it's like to be a Russian nationalist with a Chinese surname. Extended version of the interview for "Special letter".

The political advocacy is a relatively new phenomenon for modern Russia, since earlier lawyers tried to stay away from the public mainstream. But times are changing. Matvey Tsen is a prominent representative of the Russian political advocacy. And not only because he participates as a defender in criminal-political cases, but also because he himself is an active participant in the political process. Until recently, Zeng was a municipal deputy in the Moscow region of Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo, and today he can be seen at the actions of Russian nationalists, at meetings of the National Democratic Party and among specialists of the ROD human rights center.

- How is life for a Russian nationalist with the surname Tseng?

Lives normally ( laughs). Well, my grandfather is Chinese, on my paternal side, that's where my surname comes from. The rest of the ancestors are Russian, as far as I know about them. Therefore, I get three-quarters Russian ethnic origin, and one-quarter I'm Chinese. And culturally I am completely Russian - that's, actually, that's all. Born and raised here.

And, then, I just have such an appearance, I have no problems with it. On the contrary, it even helped me in part - my appearance allows me, if necessary, to pass myself off as a person of a different, "Eastern" mentality. In some situations, I passed myself off as another person and saw that the situation was changing, the attitude was changing, the interlocutor was revealed.

- For example?

Well, for example, in communicating with migrants from Central Asia, I heard things that they would never say to a Russian in appearance. There is no talk of any integration and assimilation. They perceive everything in a completely different way. And they just very clearly understand where are the Russians, where are non-Russians, where are their own and where are strangers - they have completely unambiguous views on this whole situation, no one is going to integrate here, form some kind of Russian nation, and so on.

Nothing can be done about this, because the marker of a person is his appearance, his language. No employees of Center "E" (Main Directorate for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (CPE) approx. ed.), who could work with Asians, with Caucasians - there are all Slavs in the CPE, and their effectiveness in this environment is zero. In other power units, the situation is about the same, not much better. This is especially true of immigrants from Asia, with Caucasians in their organs a little better, in the sense that there are more and more of them ...

How do you become nationalists? There are many Ivanovs, Petrovs who are not interested in identity issues and so on. How did you come to this?

I believe that my mixed ethnicity contributed to the fact that I thought about these issues in general as a teenager. But I never had a real choice to start considering myself Chinese - for me it's about the same as starting to consider myself an elf. I do not feel any attraction to the Chinese culture, to the Chinese language, to the Chinese. Well, I probably like Chinese cuisine ... I never had any doubts that people have a nationality, some kind of ethnicity (I do not like the word nationality, it is Soviet, it confuses a little).

Every person has an objective ethnic background. It may be mixed and noticeable, as in my case, it may not be mixed and not noticeable, like most people. But there is also him, a person, self-identification and how he is perceived by the people around him. Normally, these things coincide, but they still need to be distinguished, because often, unfortunately, many Russians, being ethnic Russians by origin, do not have Russian self-identification, or they have not actualized it. And that's the problem ...

You say that there is an objective ethnic origin, and there is a sense of self, self-identification. Then all the same, deduce the formula: who is a Russian?

In general, a Russian is an ethnically Russian or a person with a significant ethnic Russian component who has a Russian self-identification and is accepted by others as Russian.

- What does “significant ethnic component” mean?

Well, this means that if - like me, for example - there is some Chinese grandfather or someone else, this is not an obstacle for a person to be Russian. If we take ethnic origin, then when most of the ancestors are Russian, then the person himself is mostly Russian. I think this is understandable, no?

- Not good. Can you be more Russian, can you be less Russian?

Ethnically, yes.

- And where, then, is that borderline: here he is still Russian, and here he is no longer Russian?

Half border. If a person is ethnically mixed in half, then his self-identification is of primary importance. In fact, an ethnos, a nation, and a people are all concepts that do not operate with just a few people, they operate with millions, and in the case of the Russian people, tens of millions. That is, it is like a galaxy in which there are a lot of stars, millions and hundreds of millions, billions - and, accordingly, a galaxy, it objectively exists. And the entire set of stars as a whole makes up this galaxy.

The question of where this or that star is located - in the center of the galaxy or at its periphery - is not fundamental for determining whether a star belongs to this star system, just as the galaxy does not have a rigid dotted border, and there is no need for such a border with border pillars ... So it is with every person: someone is closer to the ethnic core of the Russian people, someone is further away, but all together we form the Russian galaxy.

I have no doubt that you are from the Russian galaxy, but your grandfather is of great interest to me. I heard that he was a Chekist ...

I don't know much about his activities, because he really served in the KGB and after his death most of his archives were taken by people from the KGB. It turns out that he worked almost until the end of his days ... And what remained in the family from his archives is mostly in Chinese.

Grandfather (his name was Zeng Xu Fu) was not only an intelligence officer, but also a Chinese scholar and participated, in particular, in the creation of a large Chinese-Russian dictionary - a four-volume, well, among those people who study Chinese, this is a fundamental work. And when I talk about this, they nod in understanding, because this is a very big work, you have to understand that Chinese is hieroglyphic, Russian is alphabetical. It is quite difficult to make a dictionary with such a difference in the structure of languages.

My grandfather has state awards, my relatives tried to find out what he was awarded for, but this is still classified information, i.e. we receive an answer from the FSB that in response to your request for rewarding your relative, we inform you that such a relative was indeed awarded. What, for what, how - they are not responsible ...

- What, really, and grandmother did not tell what grandfather was doing? :)

Well, let's just say, one of the family legends says that my grandfather worked as a translator at the negotiations between Mao Zedong and Stalin. When Mao Zedong came in 1949 for the famous two-month negotiations, which resulted in the signing of a historic treaty of friendship, alliance and mutual assistance between the USSR and China.

Another family legend says that during the Great Patriotic War, there was a plan, if Moscow was surrendered to the Germans, to establish a sabotage and partisan struggle through the Chinese diaspora, which is specially remaining in the city, since they were not perceived by the Germans in any way, they spoke an incomprehensible Chinese language and all in one face 🙂 Well, they say, my grandfather was responsible for the training of these Chinese partisans ...

The third family legend says that for some time he worked as an intelligence officer in Japan under the guise of a restaurant owner ... My grandfather, by the way, has some Chinese relatives with whom we keep in regular contact.

- Have you been to China?

No, I have not been to China. I somehow calmly treat him, objectively. Well, yes, China is one of the most ancient civilizations. With an interesting original philosophy, culture, past achievements, and now on the rise. But I don't feel any kind of involvement in China.

- Did your grandfather live in Russia in the first generation?

My grandfather immigrated to Soviet Russia as a teenager in the 1920s. There was a permanent civil war in China, and he actually fell into slavery. And then for some offense he should have been executed. On the night before his execution, he escaped, took a train that ran on the Chinese Eastern Railway (Chinese Eastern Railway) and left for the Soviet Union.

Here he ended up in an orphanage, learned Russian and came to the attention of the NKVD. Because he was an ethnic Chinese, but unambiguously - due to his early childhood - he was not a spy, which is very important for the special services. His mother tongue was Chinese and it is a very valuable quality for intelligence ...

- Didn't you want to go on reconnaissance? There would be a dynasty ...

No, yes, I didn’t have much choice, because my father didn’t follow this line - he went into science, was a psychologist, but died at a young age. At the age of twenty-nine, he died. And although my grandfather at some point offered to send me to a boarding school with an in-depth study of the Chinese language, my parents were against it, because they understood that from this boarding school, of course, only a Chekist career followed. Good knowledge of the Chinese language, oriental appearance ... My parents were against it being programmed by my birth.

And then, when I was already determining myself, I graduated from school in the ninety-sixth year, I considered the option of entering the service, frankly speaking. But there is only this: “Are there any relatives - active employees? If there are no relatives, there is no chance. " But I don’t have the right temperament for this kind of work.

You were a municipal deputy. Now you are a lawyer, a member of the NDP party, a politician, a human rights activist in the ROD line ... You have a lot of entities. Who is Mr. Tszen?

These are just different aspects of my personality. From a professional point of view, I am a lawyer in the broadest sense of the word, in a narrower segment of lawyers - I am a lawyer, a person who has a lawyer's status, has passed exams and since 2002 has had a lawyer's office. Accordingly, the legal profession is my main income, as they say - "an independent legal adviser." They turn to me with legal questions - I provide legal assistance for money.

From the point of view of political convictions, I am a Russian nationalist in the broadest sense of the word and a national democrat in the narrower sense of the term “nationalist”.

From the point of view of social activity - activity that is not strictly professional and is not, strictly speaking, political - I am a human rights activist and in 2008-2012 was a deputy of the Pokrovskoe-Streshnevo district, because, by and large, a municipal deputy is the same public figure. That, in fact, is all.

Does it interfere with each other? No, it does not interfere, but, on the contrary, helps. It is clear that my professional skills as a lawyer - they, of course, allow me to be a more effective human rights defender. In fact, for me, human rights protection means the same thing that I usually do - I provide the same legal assistance, only this time for free, that's all.

There is a lot of talk about the double standards of Russian law enforcement. As a lawyer observing this very law enforcement in practice, can you confirm or refute the thesis that, for example, skinheads and Caucasian youth are punished differently for the same offenses: the former get it to the fullest extent of the law, while the latter get off with a slight fright?

I do not think that judges and investigators treat Russians with any bias or favor Caucasians. Skinheads will really get more, not because they are Russians, but because they are skinheads - that is, because they did it out of political views, which in the language of our legislation are interpreted as extremism. In fact, extremism is one of the variants of political views. Therefore, they will get more.

And Caucasians will receive less, but not because they are Caucasians by themselves, but because their national diaspora is likely to stand up for them, they will have good lawyers, they will have all-round support from the outside, including this support either corruption or administrative - through high-ranking compatriots. The Russians do not have such unconditional mutual assistance.

- But it still works, because they are Caucasians ...

But the mechanism for obtaining the final result is different! There is a certain mechanism behind each such verdict, a certain behind-the-scenes work is carried out.

- So, Russians need to become a minority in order to begin to behave together, how do the diasporas behave?

Well, it is clear that if the genocide of the Russian people begins, then the last million Russians will resist extremely desperately and skillfully. But that's not what we want. There are two ways out: either to start behaving like a minority, being a real majority, or to rebuild the state in such a way that not declarative equality, but real equality is ensured - regardless of ethnicity. The first option is, as the saying goes, "To live with wolves - howl like a wolf", the second option is to develop the state in a European way.

It turns out that while development follows the path of “diasporization” of the Russian population, only close-knit enclaves are competitive in the modern aggressive social environment: bikers, football fans, Cossacks, some professions, such as a mining brotherhood, and the like.

Still the same right-wing subculture, it too ...

Well, the right-wing subculture, as it seems to me, is very loose, even in comparison with the same near-football structures ...

It is loosened, and therefore loose, do not forget about it. I am sure: if a center for combating bikerism worked against bikers, then they would also be "loose".

Recently, the possibilities of changing the law on the legal profession have been discussed. Up to the proposal to prohibit lawyers from participating in any social and political activity. How do you feel about such innovations?

First of all, I want to say that with political lawyers - with those who work with political prisoners - a certain struggle is being waged against them. Recently, for example, the lawyer Igor Popovskiy had serious troubles. Therefore, I am psychologically prepared for the fact that the same kind of troubles may arise for me at any time. And in comparison with a falsified criminal case, any legislative changes regarding the lawyer's status do not seem so terrible. I mean, lawyers are scared people.

But if we return to the above initiatives, then I see no reason to prohibit lawyers from engaging in public and political activities, because many of the well-known politicians were lawyers and lawyers in the broad sense of the word. Law and politics are interconnected things. The lawyer does not have powers of authority. It is more logical that the judge and the prosecutor should not be involved in political activities, or a policeman, or an official, except for elective positions. But a lawyer - why not?

How did you get into politics? Many politicians are lawyers (or at least the sons of lawyers), but not many lawyers are politicians ...

The turning point was when I learned about the Ivannikova case, it was the summer of 2005. I found out about him literally half an hour before the start of the rally in support of her, read it and realized that I had to do something. I got on a trolley bus and drove to Pushkinskaya Square, where I got to the rally, saw Belov and Krylov there, and away we go. It was a turning point in my life.

- How have your views changed since then?

At first, I will not hide, during the first term of Vladimir Putin's presidency, I supported him, as I believed that he was putting things in order in the country.

- Well, after Yeltsin, many thought so ...

I began to be critical of Putin during his second term, when I saw that the positive that he had brought was coming to an end, but there was no development or progress. And many problems - in particular, immigration, interethnic conflicts, social stratification - they are simply ignored. At first it seemed that this was some kind of mistake by the authorities that could be corrected. It seemed that if the problematic was actualized and the authorities saw it, then it would correct the state of affairs. But then the realization came that this was not a mistake and not an oversight, but a purposeful policy, a chosen course.

Well, and finally I became disillusioned with Putin after the operation "successor". It seemed logical to me that two candidates from the parties in power would be nominated - Ivanov and Medvedev. Medvedev as more liberal, Ivanov as more conservative, and society could choose between the two. This would give impetus to a bipartisan system, perhaps even on the American model. Managed democracy, but not in the sense of a puppet, but in the sense of stable, when people can actually elect themselves, but from a limited range of options. And when Putin refused all of this and took the path of castling, then as a voter I was finally disappointed in such a policy of the Kremlin.

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Lawyers vs. 282

Dmitry Agranovsky: Strictly speaking, censorship is a form of preliminary verification of texts and, in this sense, articles of the Criminal Code, which punishes already committed actions cannot be a form of censorship. However, in the form in which Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation exists, it is, of course, legally untenable, since it provides enormous opportunities for its broad interpretation, or, more simply, for any arbitrariness.
Alexander Vasiliev: First, let's remember what exactly is punished for under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: for “ACTIONS AIMED AT inciting hatred or enmity, as well as humiliating the dignity of a person or a group of persons on the basis of gender, race, nationality, language, origin, attitude to religion, as well as belonging to any social group... ". Now try this template to remake any other article of the criminal code: “Actions aimed at theft”, “Actions aimed at murder”, “Actions aimed at rape”, etc. Absurd? What another. It turns out that under Art. 282 are punished not for the socially dangerous act (crime) itself, but for some unknown “actions” directed at it. What is considered these very "actions" neither the laws nor the explanations of the courts have not yet been determined. As a result, the article turns out to be completely “rubbery”, since under these very notorious “actions” one can recognize anything - a carelessly expressed phrase, a drawing in a school notebook, and a sidelong glance towards some “privileged Russians”. Also, this article fairly adds "rubberiness" and the term "social group" used in it. It also has no specific legal meaning. As a result, the foolishness of law enforcement agencies in its application has no boundaries. There are already such social groups as “Unfaithful police officers”, “Persons who carried out the genocide of the Russian people”, “Enemies of the white race”, and it is forbidden to incite hostility and hatred towards all of the abovementioned by the Russian court. Here's a freak article.
Matvey Tsen: The wording of Article 282 is such that it does not have any objective content that does not depend on the will of the law enforcement officer. This means that virtually anything can be recognized as "incitement to hatred or enmity" and almost anything can be not recognized as such. It all depends on the wishes of the Investigative Committee, the prosecutor's office, the "E" center and their pocket experts. Now a situation has arisen when everyone who writes or speaks about any acute socio-political or historical theme, runs the risk of "falling under the 282nd", therefore "yes" - Article 282 is a form of political censorship. Obviously, the constitutional ban on censorship is interpreted by the authorities in a narrow sense as a ban only on preliminary censorship, and not on censorship in general, which, in my opinion, would be more correct.
Andrey Fedorkov: Dissatisfaction with the presence of Article 282 in the Criminal Code is caused both by its unsuccessful disposition from the point of view of legal technique, and by vicious law enforcement practice, thanks to which this article is unambiguously associated with public consciousness with a punitive tool to suppress any criticism of the existing political regime. The legal imperfection of Article 282 is primarily due to the extreme vagueness of its wording, which allows, if there is an appropriate "order" from law enforcement agencies or influential officials, to initiate criminal prosecution against any objectionable opponent - an adversary of the ruling class or a political rival. The existing law enforcement practice gives all grounds for an affirmative answer to the question that Article 282 in modern Russia is a mechanism for the implementation of political censorship. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Article 282 is the "successor" to the notorious Article 70 of the RSFSR Criminal Code on anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, differing only in shorter sentences.
Oksana Mikhalkina: I agree that Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, or rather its application, can be considered as a form of political censorship.

2) MANY CALL THE 282nd ARTICLE "POLITICAL" AND EVEN AN ARTICLE SUPPRESSING DISSENT.
DO YOU AS A LAWYER AGREE WITH THIS ASSESSMENT?

Dmitry Agranovsky: Of course. Due to inaccurate and incorrect wording, as well as certain law enforcement practices that have nothing to do with the norms democratic state, this article is mainly used to suppress dissent.

Alexander Vasiliev: Of course, 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is a "political article" in its purest, standard form. Protecting it is not clear what and it is not clear from whom, the 282nd is cherished dream any dictator. What could be simpler - he took some statement of a person objectionable to the regime, conducted a pseudo-examination in some sharashka office (for example, the Institute of Cultural Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences) and that's it: a case in court - a person in a slammer.
Matvey Tsen: Article 282 suppresses not only dissent, but also any socio-political thought in general, since such a thought is impossible without a critical understanding of the surrounding reality, and there is no distance at all from criticism to “inciting hatred or enmity” today.
Andrey Fedorkov: Since under Article 282, primarily writers, journalists, poets, bloggers, users of social networks, civic activists, representatives of opposition movements are prosecuted for their statements, articles, books, public performance whose content is aimed at criticizing the policy pursued by the ruling oligarchic-bureaucratic class, it can be safely argued that 282 is sharpened precisely for the fight against dissent.
Oksana Mikhalkina: Yes, I believe that this is a "political" article aimed at suppressing dissent, since its content does not correspond to Art. 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation literally:
1. Everyone is guaranteed freedom of thought and speech.
2. Propaganda or agitation inciting social, racial, national or religious hatred and enmity is not allowed. Promotion of social, racial, national, religious or linguistic superiority is prohibited.
3. No one can be forced to express their opinions and beliefs or to renounce them.
4. Everyone has the right to freely seek, receive, transmit, produce and distribute information in any legal way. List of information constituting state secret, is determined by federal law.
5. Freedom of the media is guaranteed. Censorship is prohibited.

3) ARTICLE 282 IS CALLED "RUSSIAN" ARTICLE. DO YOU SHARE THIS ASSESSMENT OF THE ENFORCEMENT OF THIS CRIMINAL RULE?

Dmitry Agranovsky: For me, the selectivity of our law enforcement practice and the double standards in it are quite obvious. Including the 282nd article. There is no "general" state. The state is a machine for serving the interests of the ruling class, therefore, first of all, opponents of this class are subjected to repression, namely, left-wing activists and Russian nationalists, as the most organized oppositional parts of society. The leadership of ethnic groups, I note, is usually quite inscribed in ruling class and has common interests with him.
Alexander Vasiliev: Until recently, 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was really applied exclusively to right-wing activists. However, recently, the nationalists who were unrestrained in their language began to run out. As a result, numerous drones specializing in “combating extremism” (this is the “E” center, the FSB Directorate for the Protection of the Constitutional System, etc.) find it increasingly difficult to fight for their piece of funding from the budget. As a result, precedents for the initiation of cases on 282 against the so-called. anti-fascists and even representatives of national minorities (and, as a rule, Caucasians are not included in this group of “unlucky people”) and other motley oppositionists. And recently, on their own skin, they began to feel all the charms of 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and rabid liberals. However, this category of citizens, due to their natural mindset, the threat hanging over them has not yet understood ...

Matvey Tsen: In general, the entire complex of so-called "anti-extremist" legislation, namely: the law "On Counteracting Extremist Activity" and Articles 280, 282, 282.1, 282.2, 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are directed primarily against Russian nationalists. This is evidenced by the subtleties of the wording and the law enforcement practice under these articles. This is caused, in my opinion, by the fact that Russian nationalists are part of the Russian political community, and Islamic militants are external factor... “Anti-extremist” legislation is effective precisely in the fight against “insiders”, but it is absolutely unsuitable for countering “outsiders”, which is demonstrated, for example, by the situation in Dagestan, where the terror of Islamic militants is resisted by de facto punitive raids. In such a situation, an investigator of the Investigative Committee with a criminal case under Article 282 against a man with a gun looks simply ridiculous. And there is only one way to overcome these double standards - by abolishing Article 282 of the Criminal Code and abolishing the law “On Counteracting Extremist Activity”.
Andrey Fedorkov: If we analyze the statistics of sentences handed down by Russian courts available through publications in the media, it would be legitimate to assert that it is Russian nationalists who are most often involved in criminal offenses for crimes of the so-called “extremist orientation”. My law practice testifies to the same. As for the representatives of "privileged" groups, one of the main reasons, in my opinion, is the presence in the hands of their patrons of powerful lobbying tools to influence the actions of law enforcement agencies, legislative bodies and executive power, as well as to the official electronic and print media. It is no secret to anyone that strong ethnic solidarity is valued above the letter of the law, which allows any crime of this kind to be taken at least into the plane of domestic conflict. Moreover, in a number of cases, due to the prevailing vicious practice mutual guarantee, corruption, community and nepotism, criminals often manage to blame the victim for what happened (“Rafik, he was completely innocent!”). To overcome such double standards, first of all, the political will of the authorities, the independence of law enforcement and judicial bodies from any outside influence, the real implementation of the principle, which they like to talk about a lot, but for the implementation of which almost nothing is done - equality of all before the law, is necessary first of all. For the practical implementation of these measures, a radical transformation of the Russian state system, and until the moment this happens, almost the only one with respect to in an efficient way counteraction to double standards, it remains to give maximum publicity, initiate a wide public outcry to any attempts by "privileged" groups to evade responsibility provided for by law for committed unlawful acts.
Oksana Mikhalkina: I believe that the bias and tendentiousness of law enforcement under the 282nd and similar articles directly depends on the political situation. Today, it is beneficial for the authorities to attract Russian nationalists under this article, then, perhaps, they will take up the liberals, anarchists, communists and others. How can you overcome this biased approach? It is necessary to generalize the judicial practice in such cases, and lawyers and lawyers working in such processes need to cooperate and develop a common defense strategy. The results of linguistic examinations are always the basis for verdicts under Article 282 and court decisions on recognizing materials as extremist. How to deal with custom "experts", whose conclusions are predetermined in advance, even before reading the material under study? Lawyers have no special linguistic knowledge. There is no method for determining whether a particular work contains signs of extremism or incitement to ethnic hatred and enmity. There are morally outdated Methodological Instructions of the Prosecutor General's Office, to which all such "tame experts" refer, sometimes misinterpreting them. The results of alternative linguistic examinations, as a rule, are not taken into account by the court. In general, there is something to think about for both lawyers and human rights defenders ...

4) WHAT EXAMPLES OF STUDY OR PREVALIZED APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 282 AND ITS TWIN BROTHERS CAN YOU NOTICE FROM YOUR LAWYER PRACTICE?

Dmitry Agranovsky: From my practice, I would single out ALL cases of application of articles from the "family" of the 282s, in particular, all cases of application of Article 282.2 (participation in the activities of a banned organization) against persons whom the state considers to be members of the banned National Bolshevik Party.
Alexander Vasiliev: I want to emphasize that Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is a legal evil in
pure, concentrated form. Recognize any incidents of her
justified and correct application is in fact to recognize the right of the current ruling regime to legal arbitrariness and political repression.
Matvey Tsen: From the current one - the case against Konstantin Krylov, accused of the fact that he, I quote from the Decree on prosecution as an accused: “... expressed linguistic means negative information about the actions of representatives of certain races, nations, nationalities ("Caucasians") in relation to another group of persons ("Russians"), which may indicate the incitement of hatred or enmity and / or humiliation human dignity". We are talking about his speech at the rally "Stop feeding the Caucasus!" October 22, 2011. The political nature of this case is obvious, especially against the background of the extreme irritation of Putin and Medvedev with this rally, which they demonstrated publicly. From the recent past - the case against Nina Zenkova, the owner of a small bookstore on Lenin Street in Tula - she was accused under Article 282 for telling them about a rare book at the request of operatives disguised as bookstore buyers and spoke approvingly about its content. And this book on a completely different case only six months after this incident was recognized as extremist.

Andrey Fedorkov: Examples of ridiculous, striking outrageous absurdity, and even more so, biased and biased application of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation has accumulated enough during its existence. From my practice, I will give two of the most typical examples.
1) At the end of 2010, the prosecutor's office of the Leninsky district of Kirov was charged under part 1 of article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for speaking at a lecture on the topic "The healing powers of Mother Nature", in particular, he was accused of inciting hostility to the social group "civil servants". In addition, signs of extremism were identified in the use of a reproduction of the picture of the famous Russian artist V. Vasnetsov “Prince Oleg and the Magus” reproduced on the book of Dobroslav “The Magi”. According to the conclusions of the Kirov "experts" E.V. Araslanova and A.I.Bezrodnykh, which the court made the basis of the accusatory basis: "a reproduction of the painting by Russian artist V. Vasnetsov" Prince Oleg and the Magus " to "command, power over other people and focus on struggle", "statements in the brochure" Magi "-" deceitful, rotten, corrupt market regime "refer to the state system of the Russian Federation", that "evaluating the power as a" Jewish capitalist regime " clearly claims that the government consists of Jews, lives in luxury at the expense of the labor of ordinary people, deceiving and robbing them. " This is only a small part of the nonsense contained in the conclusions of the above-mentioned "experts", which the Leninsky District Court of Kirov unconditionally recognized as reliable and admissible evidence of A.A. Dobrovolsky's guilt in committing the crime provided for by Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
2) The continuing story of the criminal prosecution of a well-known public figure in St. Petersburg, Yuri Belyaev, also under Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, whose arrest on December 9, 2011 in Moscow, by all indications, resembled a real military operation. To understand the obvious, to put it mildly, the strangeness of the charges brought against Belyaev, I will quote from the ruling on prosecution as an accused: “Belyaev Yu.A. having the intent to commit actions aimed at inciting hatred and enmity ... with the use of the media, with the aim of realizing criminal intent, no later than July 26, 2007 (!), being in a car belonging to him, moving on the territory of the Kirovsky district of St. Petersburg, by giving an interview to a journalist of the said newspaper ... knowing in advance about the subsequent publication of this article in the media, in which he deliberately expressed negative attitudes against whole groups of people on the basis of race, nationality, origin, attitudes towards religion - people from Asia, Africa, the Caucasus ... ". At the same time, at the time of the decision to prosecute as an accused, the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution had already expired, the very fact of the existence of this interview is doubtful, and even more so it is not clear how the investigation authorities established the location of an abstract car that moved in 2007 with an accuracy of a specific area of ​​the city ... Even stranger seems to be how surprisingly the investigating authorities established the train of thought of Belyaev, who de “knew in advance about the publication of this article” ?! Probably, they resorted to the help of psychics with crystal balls. The defense now has good reason to believe that the journalists then, in pursuit of yet another high-profile "yellow material", published a horror story about terrible and terrible "Russian fascists" with extremist appeals, and then with the aim of making the material scandalous and in order to avoid the stipulated the law of punishment for the publication of this publication, they decided to "sign the case" of Belyaev, that is, to simply shift all their responsibility to the well-known St. Petersburg nationalist. If in general the initially discussed material was not suddenly a simple custom-made "setup" directed specifically against a specific oppositionist ...
Oksana Mikhalkina: On this moment processes of this kind in my practice have not yet been completed, therefore, in the interests of clients, I am not yet ready to discuss the details of these cases.

5) WHAT IS THE PROCEDURE FOR CANCELING ARTICLE 282 OF THE CRIMINAL CODE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND THE AMNESTY OF CONSUMED UNDER IT?

Dmitry Agranovsky: In my memory, not a single article from the 282 family has ever come under any amnesty, although it is not heavy. My proposals at the initial stage are at least a complete abolition of such punishment as imprisonment under Article 282. The second compromise step would be to translate this article from the Criminal Code into the Code of Administrative Offenses. My approach is as follows - in any case, you cannot give real terms for WORDS until the person has moved on to specific actions.
Alexander Vasiliev: In the case of Article 282, I am in favor of the most drastic measures. The 282nd should be erased from the Russian criminal code once and for all. As a result, the decriminalization of this "act" will automatically entail the termination of criminal prosecution under this article in relation to persons both prosecuted under it and those already convicted (including those who have served their sentence), since the principle of retroactive force of the criminal law will work. In turn, these categories of citizens will have a legal right to rehabilitation and compensation for damage caused by illegal criminal prosecution. Ideally, it is necessary to raise the question of bringing to criminal responsibility those who introduced this article to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (from those who are still alive) and law enforcement and judicial officials who actively applied it.
Matvey Tsen: It is necessary to carry out a completely standard procedure that has been worked out for years. For example, since January 1 of this year, Articles 129 ("Slander") and 130 ("Insult") have been excluded from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The relevant criminal cases were terminated, and those already convicted were released from criminal punishment.
Andrey Fedorkov: Cancellation of Article 282 of the Criminal Code and amnesty for those already convicted under it is possible only by submitting a relevant bill to the State Duma of the Russian Federation and its subsequent approval by both chambers Federal Assembly, and then signing by the President of the Russian Federation. However, I have great doubts that the current government will take such a measure and abandon such a convenient tool for prosecuting its political opponents. In my opinion, it is generally necessary to raise the question more broadly: if not abolition, then all so-called. "Anti-extremist legislation", to which the corresponding the federal law, and a package of articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: 280, 282, 282.1, 282.2, 205.2. Moreover, there is a need for a radical reform of the structural divisions of law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation of the above-mentioned "crimes". Per last years In Russia, a whole network of special services has developed, engaged in real political investigation, persecution and provocation against activists of opposition parties, movements, and civil protest groups. These are, first of all, created by decree soon already former President Medvedev in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation Centers for Combating Extremism (CPE). The staff of this center are engaged in outspoken political investigations, their methods of work are often similar to those of the infamous police security department. tsarist Russia, as well as the GPU-NKVD. Everyone knows the stories of the murder of the National Bolshevik Yuri Chervochkin, the press regularly publishes materials about the practice of torture by employees of the Nizhny Novgorod CPE, headed by the odious Lieutenant Colonel Trifonov, and many other scandalous stories of the use of illegal methods of conducting operational-search activities. There are similar services of political investigation in the structure of the FSB, which are engaged in the recruitment and introduction of agents into opposition organizations, collecting information, and exerting forceful pressure on active opponents of the current government. Thus, the abolition of only one article 282 while maintaining the existing political regime in the country will not give anything, it is not cosmetic botox reforms that are needed, but the restoration of all civil rights and freedoms in full, the creation of an independent judiciary and the implementation of other well-known democratic measures.

Oksana Mikhalkina: It is impossible to cancel this article, as politicians are urging today. It is possible and necessary to recognize it as inconsistent with the Constitution of the Russian Federation. It is on the grounds that its wording differs from Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. As a justification, one can refer to the interpretation of the First Amendment to the US Constitution (on freedom of speech). With regard to amnesty, this issue is in the competence of the State Duma. Previously, people who were first brought to justice for the first time, women, persons convicted of crimes not grave and of moderate severity were often amnestied, but the 282nd has never come under the amnesty, which seems to hint ...

The poll was conducted by the Russian Verdict human rights center.

A lawyer with Chinese roots, Matvey Tsen, told the National Accent about how he became a Russian nationalist, as well as about the trial of the Avar Rasul Mirzaev, where he represented the family of the deceased Russian student Ivan Agafonov.

- Matvey, why did you decide to defend specifically Russian nationalists, and not Russians?

The issue of choice between Russians and Russians has never been raised, because Russians, in my opinion, do not exist. In my entire life, I have met only one person who seriously called himself a Russian - that was Rasul Mirzaev. From an ethnic point of view, for me the concept of “Russian” has no meaning. In my opinion, the only meaning of the word "Russian" is Russian, who does not know that he is Russian.

- How do your relatives relate to your support for the nationalists?

Zeng's last name is Chinese, my maternal grandfather was Chinese. Unfortunately, he died when I was still a child. If we talk about parents and relatives, they support me as a person, and political views either share or treat them with neutral respect.

- How did you find yourself among the Russian nationalists?

In 2005, I went public for the first time. It was a rally in support of Alexandra Ivannikova, who was accused of killing an Armenian: she accidentally stabbed a Caucasian who was trying to rape her. At the rally he met Konstantin Krylov. Then he got involved in the activities of the Russian Social Movement. He started going to actions, attended a discussion club at the Stanislav Belkovsky Institute for National Strategy.

- According to some information, you were also a member of the DPNI.

I have never been a member of the DPNI, since I originally joined the "ROD". Perhaps these rumors are connected with the fact that at some point there was talk that the entire ROD would join the DPNI and we would have cross-membership.

You represented the family of the deceased Ivan Agafonov in the case of the world champion in combat sambo Rasul Mirzaev. How do you assess its outcome?

I consider the Mirzaev case to be very important. I hoped that it would be possible to change the vicious judicial practice that has developed in Russia, when death from one blow is often considered as causing death by negligence. Unfortunately, my hopes were not justified, and the charges against Mirzaev were mitigated by Article 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and this article provides for a very small punishment - only up to two years in prison. Moreover, if the offender has not been previously convicted, he is usually given a suspended year. That is, it turns out that the person is dead, and his killer simply does not visit nightclubs for a year.

The father of the deceased Ivan Agafonov complained during the trial about threats from Rasul Mirzaev's supporters. Were pressured on the lawyers of the victims?

- What other business do you do?

My advocacy is divided into two parts: advocacy and general advocate practice, which is carried out on a fee basis. I am engaged in human rights work within the framework of "ROD". We provide legal assistance to both political activists and ordinary citizens who have come to us, who have suffered in ethnic conflicts or from the actions of the authorities. For example, now I am dealing with the case of the Muscovite Daria Egorova. Dagestani neighbors with traumatic weapons attacked her and her husband near the house. Unfortunately, the victims contacted us late, when the case had already been brought to court. It turned out that the materials of the criminal case did not contain the pistols used to shoot at the Yegorov family. Accordingly, since there is no weapon, the article "hooliganism" was removed from the prosecution. The case was in fact ruined at the stage of the investigation, and if the victims continued to let the case go, the attackers might not be punished at all. I hope that we will be able to rectify the situation. A big role in such stories is played by drawing public attention to the case. While everything is quiet, neither the investigation nor the court will do anything.

You also defend nationalists who are being tried under "extremist" articles for taking part in political actions. What problems do the defendants in these criminal cases face?

The main problem is that people often seek legal assistance too late. It is necessary to think about protection ahead of time, before initiating a criminal case. After all, as a rule, it is clear that this is about to happen if the activist is engaged in a certain activity. Before the persecution begins, it is quite possible to find yourself a lawyer whom you trust. But usually right-wing activists think about protection only after the call from law enforcement agencies at the door. They usually look for a lawyer in a hurry and choose the first one they come across. Although this case must be approached wisely and understand that there are conscientious lawyers, and there are not.

Recently, the non-systemic opposition has been louder and louder about political repression. Which part of her do you think suffers the most from this kind of persecution?

Until recently, nationalists have been subject to more serious repression than leftists or liberals. The National Bolsheviks are a different story. Only now, when a criminal case was initiated against the leader of the Left Front, Sergei Udaltsov, did the left find themselves in approximately the same situation in which nationalists have existed for years. Virtually all leaders of nationalist opposition organizations are persecuted and criminal cases are brought up against them. At the same time, illiteracy in the issue of legal self-defense, as the Udaltsov case shows, is enough everywhere. The same Leonid Razvozzhaev, who, under pressure, confessed to organizing the riots. They didn’t beat him, but they created such a hysterical situation around that the man imagined that he would be killed. As a result, he gave the testimony they wanted from him. True, then, as soon as the opportunity presented itself, he retracted his testimonies, stating that they were "knocked out". A similar situation was with the witness in the Tikhonov-Khasis case, Ilya Goryachev. However, he did not refuse to testify, what is their fundamental difference with Razvozzhaev.

On the whole, of the entire opposition, liberals are subject to less repression, but they react more competently thanks to the provided legal assistance and powerful human rights and information resources. We must learn from them!