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Dead Silence: How Security Forces Forced Activists Silence Before BRICS Summit in Kazan The Telegram channel Birds, with which Mullayeva cooperates, said that the security forces “convey conducted a survey about her last two years of her life and her plans for whereabouts in October.” The publication writes that “a whith is preliminarily related to the future summit.” In the warning signed by the head of the department of public order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for Kazan, Alexander Tsarevsky, a journalist is officially warned about “preventing violations of the Federal Law of June 19, 2004 No. 54-FZ “On Assemblies, Meetings, Demonstrations, Processes and Picketing”. The main wave of “preventions” began to spread among activists two weeks after the visit of the staff of the Center “E” to Naila Mullaeva – starting from the first days of October. On October 4, the head of the headquarters of Boris Nadezhdin in Kazan, Dmitry Rumyantsev, said in his Telegram channel that in Tatarstan, CPE employees, together with the prosecutor’s office, “go to the homes of politicians, activists, deputies, public figures and handed a warning about illegal actions on the eve of the BRICS 2024.” According to Rumyantsev, this happened in at least three cities of the republic - Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny and Yelabuga. The number of public and political figures covered by the mailing “letters of happiness”, the activist did not name. The next day, October 5, this information was confirmed by one of the Kazan activists on condition of anonymity with the correspondent of Idel.Realii. “In Kazan, activists began to make warnings about the inadmissibility of participation in uncoordinated actions before the BRICS summit. If they do not stay at home, they leave a subpoena with a demand to appear in the prosecutor's office. There are also reports of threats, the source said. Under threats, our source meant the fact that some Kazan activists received “warnings” from anonymous accounts in the Telegram that they could be expected to have administrative responsibility for participating in the action on October 5th. On this day, representatives of the Tatarstan branch of the Yabloko party and Kazan activists came to the monument to the victims of political repressions to honor the memory of two journalists - Anna Polilkovskaya and Irina Slavina. Anna Politkovskaya is a Russian journalist who covered the Russian-Chen wars and human rights violations. On October 7, 2006, she was killed in Moscow, and over the years, the names of customers have not been officially named. Irina Slavina is the editor-in-chief of Koza.Press, an independent journalist and public figure. On October 2, 2020, she committed a self-sacmove near the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Nizhny Novgorod, leaving before that farewell words: "I ask you to blame the Russian Federation for my death." “The action was attended by police officers and CPE of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan, who did not allow us to install photos on the memorial and in every possible way prevented the laying of flowers. Employees also handed the Chairman of our Registency Ruslan Zinatullin and a number of other activists of a warning about the inadmissibility of an offense. Hour later, the police are still on duty at the monument, and the memorial was destroyed,” the Telegram channel of the Tatarstan Yabloko said. The distribution and distribution of warnings continued in the following days. According to activists, this was done by employees of the Center "E", who handed the subpoenas to the prosecutor's office, and sometimes the warnings themselves for the signature of district prosecutors directly to the addressees, or their relatives and friends. In cases where employees could not catch anyone at home, the documents were thrown directly into mailboxes, the interlocutors of “Idel.Realies” say. The names of the two activists mentioned in the next post Dmitry Rumyantsev. “Employees of the CPE at the moment again began to hand the warnings. Today, Novikov and Bulat Khakimzyanov were presented to Novikov. Let’s remind you that they are ex-canaditors for deputies at different levels of government,” Rumyantsev said in his Telegram channel. He added that this is a violation of the law, since such warnings “can be handed to the prosecutor’s office.” WORK ON ERRA MISTAKES Interlocutors of "Idel.Realities" say that the warnings and subpoenas to the activists contained gross errors in personal data. One of the recipients was reconciled with the year of birth, the other had a distorted surname, the third had a new patronymic. According to one of the sources of our publication, this may indicate a hurry, in which the security forces carried out “preventive work”. At the same time, warnings were awarded to both political activists and those who specialize exclusively in urban planning and environmental problems. In some warnings, prosecutors refer to the Strategy for Countering Extremism, approved by the President of Russia in 2014 - this document is no longer valid; a new version of the Strategy came into force on May 29, 2020. The key wording in those documents, copies of which is available to the editorial board, turned out to be typical. With reference to this outdated document, prosecutors write that “the organization and conduct of uncoordinated public events (including protest actions) are the most dangerous manifestations of extremism.” “According to the information received, in the conditions of destructive information and propaganda impact <...> may be involved in uncoordinated public events (including protest actions) with their subsequent transformation into mass riots in order to destabilize the socio-political situation in the Russian Federation,” reads another typical wording of the warnings made against different activists. Also in the texts of the warnings mention responsibility for the “fakes” about the Russian army and for the “discrediting” of the Armed forces of the Russian Federation. Directly, the BRICS summit is not mentioned in the warnings studied by the correspondent of Idel.Realities. At the same time, the following wording can be found in the agendas to the prosecutor's office: "On the eve and during the period of the international event "Semimic of BRICS countries" on the territory of Kazan, you can be involved in uncoordinated public events (including protest actions)." Collaborating with the human rights project “Support of political prisoners. The memorial” lawyer Andrei Fedorkov notes that although prosecutors refer to the old Strategy, the paragraph on the “most dangerous manifestations of extremism” is also contained in the latest edition of the document. According to the law, the condition for issuing warnings should be sufficient, confirmed information about the impending illegal actions. But in practice in Russia, it is quite quite unfounded statements that a person has such intentions. The fact that among the “most dangerous manifestations of extremism” in one row listed uncoordinated public actions and riots, indicates that in Russia any protest action is criminalized and declared a manifestation of extremism, says Fedorkov. At the same time, according to the lawyer, errors in the personal data of the addressee really allow to consider the warning a nutropheme as a nutrophene document. And the fact that the warnings in some cases were handed by employees of the Center "E", can not be considered a violation of the law, Fedorkov is sure. The law, according to him, says that it is “sending” by the prosecutor to a person, nowhere is it said that the prosecutor should make a warning personally. So the presentation of the document under the signature or sending it by registered letter is quite subject to this definition, the lawyer summarizes, clarifying: if the warning is simply thrown into the mailbox of the addressee, then it is not considered "directed". "EXTREMISTORS" HIRED FROM THE TALIBAN Activists suggest that with the help of warnings, the security forces are trying to avoid excesses directly during the summit: the authorities of Tatarstan are most afraid of unwanted public activity these days. In the spring of 2022 and 2023, such measures of influence - but in the version of "light" - have already been applied to Kazan activists, who with their protests could spoil the impressions of guests of the capital of Tatarstan from the international economic forum "Russia - Islamic World". In May 2022, Kazan residents who opposed the construction of a mosque in the Kyrlay Park and a residential complex in the Gavrilovskaya groe began to bypass employees of the Center "E". The security forces warned people about the responsibility for the unauthorized holding of public actions. And on May 19, 2023, employees of the Center "E" guarded at the entrance of the eco-activist Timur Yeskarayev, who was going to meet with residents of the suburbs of Kazan, who opposed the construction of high-rise buildings on the forest site. The activist spent the first half of the day at the Center for Countering Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Republic of Tatarstan, and there were no formal grounds for keeping Yeskarayev in the police with the security forces. They took him to their headquarters "for a conversation." In those days, the city hosted another forum "Russia - Islamic Peace". Representatives of the Taliban, a movement still considered a terrorist organization in Russia, came to the event. ORDERED TO FORBE The story of the persecution of Tatar national activists on the eve and on the day before and on the day of the Harter kone - the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Kazan - is the most obvious and scandalous in a series of "clean-throughs" that the security forces held in Tatarstan on the eve of the BRICS summit. The harath (Day of Remembrance) has been celebrated by the Tatar public since 1989: at first it was a multi-thousand march through the central streets of Kazan. In 2000, the procession was banned by the authorities, allowing only a rally, which first took place on Freedom Square, then at the square in front of the Kamala Theater, and later in Tinchurin Park. At the Khater kona, the events of October 1552, when the troops of Ivan the Terrible captured the capital of the Kazan Khanship. Tatar scientists consider this a turning point in the history of the Tatars: the nation has lost its independence, following Kazansky fell and other Tatar khanates. On October 12, the police disrupted the collective prayer, which Tatar activists tried to hold at the tower of Syuyumbike. The public decided to limit themselves to prayer after the executive committee of Kazan refused to hold a rally. The response of officials said that the reason for the refusal was allegedly incomplete and unclear information about the goals of the event. According to the Tatar Youth Union, Azatlyk, on October 12, security forces detained several activists, including Galashan Nuriekhmet, who was held in the Kazan police station for several hours. At least two more participants in the movement, who planned to participate in the prayer, the police came and threatened detention when trying to go to the tower of Syuyumbike. On October 11, the police and the prosecutor's office of Naberezhnye Chelny handed two warnings to the activist Rafik Karimullin at once. The security forces said that his personality “indicates the prerequisites for extremist activity”, and the prayer is not coordinated with the authorities. Another wave of persecution of Tatar activists, but could be connected not only and not so much with the BRICS summit, but with the purposeful policy of the last few years. As Idel.Realies have already told, with the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the authorities of Kazan have never agreed on public actions dedicated to the Day of Remembrance to the Tatar activists. In October 2023, public figures, having received a refusal to hold a rally, gathered at the walls of the tower of Sümbike for collective prayer. In the autumn of this year, the security forces induced that the actions can take place in this format - and worked ahead of schedule. At the same time, in 2021, after the statements made at a rally timed to the Khart, a rally was opened against the All-Tatar Public Center (VTOC) about “inciting hatred against the Russians”. In the same month, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation suspended the activities of the WTO "in connection with the implementation of extremist activities." In the summer of 2022, the Supreme Court of Tatarstan recognized the WECC as an “extremist” organization and liquidated it. By that time, the Chairman of the WTC Farit Zakiyev, who had time to leave for Turkey, recalled that the security forces purposefully began to bring to justice for participating in the HAter kone “after the meeting of 2019”. https://www.idelreal.org/a/myortvaya-tishina-kak-siloviki-zastavili-molchat-aktivistov-pered-sammitom-briks-v-kazani-/33162792.html Back |
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