From Kirill Poludon at Kasparov.ru:

Russian voters are not interested in electoral fraud or campaign violations since they have no way of contesting election results. The efforts of one civil group that spent a year collecting signatures for a petition to have the 2011 State Duma election results declared illegitimate has thus been thwarted. Systemic oppositionists have not been any help, either: members of Yabloko, A Just Russia, and the Communist Party have refused to contest the election results and ignored the 13 thousand signatures collected by the group.

On December 14, the Russian Supreme Court threw out a request by five voters to disband the Central Electoral Commission, which confirms Duma election results. In addition to the signatures, the group of activists submitted 60 pages of evidence that the 2011 elections had been fraudulent. Federal Judge Nikolai Tolcheyev, however, was unconvinced, and rejected the request on the basis that the applicants “are contesting acts that do not affect [their own] rights, freedoms, or legal interests.” The activists disagreed.

The group decided to start the petition almost immediately after the controversial elections. “I was outraged,” said journalist Aleksei Torgashev. “But I didn’t want to just go to a rally and yell ‘Putin, go!’ Something concrete needed to be done.”

Leading activist Mikhail Shneyder of the Solidarity opposition movement introduced the idea to send a petition to the Supreme Court during a December 13, 2011, meeting with members of the first mass rally on Bolotnaya Square.

“We collected signatures by hand during rallies and marches. There was a huge torrent of pages of signatures for new elections after a blank form was published in Novaya Gazeta,” Shneyder told Kasparov.ru.

In six months, the group has managed to collect 13,117 in-person signatures. Several hundred were rejected for having insufficient information. The group chose a paper petition instead of an online one to have the added emphasis of the sheer weight of the paper, as well as to prevent critics from complaining about automated electronic signatures.

The activists planned to submit the petition in conjunction with opposition politicians, but members of Yabloko and A Just Russia almost immediately declined to contest the election results.

“We tried to cooperate with the Communist Party. They told us that the suit was being prepared; they constantly dragged it out. But a few days before the one-year limit to contest election results was up, the Communists refused to submit the complaint, even though we know it was ready. And the Communist Party didn’t even accept the election results,” Shneyder said.

“It turns out that it’s not very hard for the Kremlin to make agreements with our oppositionists. The decision to not submit the application to contest the election results was a political one,” claimed activist Grigory Sheyanov.

To prevent the total loss of a year’s worth of work and to deal “humanely” with those who signed the petition, the group decided to turn in a petition with only their names. It was rejected.

“We didn’t expect a different outcome. Yes, there is a legal stipulation that election results can only be contested by candidates. But that’s absurd. We’ll get a definitive decision from the Supreme Court and go to the Constitutional Court so that we can dispute the constitutionality of this position. Nobody before us has done this,” Sheyanov noted.

The activists who have come together over this case are unsure if their group will stay united after the final court appeals are over. In this sense, they are an analogy for the crisis within the entire protest movement.

“At the end of 2011 we found one vector – to protest unjust elections,” explained Aleksandr Rzhavsky of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “Since then, different events superseded this, and the movement fell apart since there’s nothing to unite around. Even the question of political prisoners clashes with other issues.”

Although they largely expect a disappointing court outcome, the activists do not believe they have spent their time in vain. “We brought attention to the lack of legal defense for voters, we showed just how ‘oppositionist’ certain parties are, and we brought the case through to the end.” And they are convinced that, regardless of what provokes the next wave of protests, the horizontal connections and experience with the petition will add “critical mass” to future projects.

“They ask you: do you want parole? Then you just adapt,” Alyokhina said in her article. “It’s not hard to get out on parole. You need to sew 12 hours a day for a thousand rubles maximum per month; you need to refrain from writing complaints; you need to make substitutions, snitch on others, tread upon the last vestiges of your principles; you need to shut up and bear it; you need to get used to it.”

According to the Pussy Riot member, the entire “corrective” system is built on the basis of forcing prisoners to acclimate to arbitrary conditions. All the inmates are forced to memorize internal regulations, and violations of these regulations result in punishment that forms the basis for turning down an inmate’s request for parole. “If you fall asleep while doing your corrective work, that’s a violation; a poorly sewn-on tag is a violation; having a loose button on your coat during lineup is a violation,” Alyokhina explained.

Alyokhina also described her living conditions. She particularly pointed out the inaccessibility of hot water and how different her hands look after months of washing them with cold water. As a vegetarian, she is also having an adverse physical reaction to the prison’s “meat-only menu.”

On November 29, Alyokhina received an official reprimand for oversleeping. Less than a week earlier, she had been moved to a solitary cell at her own request because of conflicts with other prisoners. Pyotr Verzilov, husband of fellow jailed Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, said that Alyokhina’s lawyer is fighting the reprimand in court. The federal prison service said that it could be removed for “a positive attitude towards work.” As it stands now, the reprimand could prevent Alyokhina from receiving parole in the future, which she and Tolokonnikova are subject to review for in March 2013. The two are currently serving two-year sentences for “inciting religious hatred” in what has been globally decried as a politically-motivated case.

According to Ekho Moskvy, Mityaev was arrested on November 7 – much earlier than other figures that fell under the federal probe. His parents complain that the arrestees are being subjected to a double standard: While Yevgenia Vasilyeva, former head of the Property Relations Department, is being held under house arrest, Mityaev was placed in pre-trial detention at Butyrka Prison. The latter is well-known as the prison where Hermitage Capital Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was murdered after being held for over a year and by being denied necessary medical attention. Mityaev’s parents say that he suffers from a serious heart condition and is similarly being denied proper care.

The situation is especially troubling for the Mityaev family given that, according to the arrestee’s mother, he had cooperated with federal investigators to help build the corruption case. She says he provided evidence on the Defense Ministry’s property sales and on who received “cuts” from those deals.

Mityaev is charged with accepting a bribe of 3 million rubles (about USD 97,000). According to investigators, he agreed to help sell Defense Ministry property in the Moscow suburb Shchelkovo in return for the bribe.

So far, nineteen people have been accused of participating in those “disturbances”; twelve of them are in jail in pre-trial confinement. Here are some of their stories:

⁃ Vladimir Akimenkov, 25, communist and activist of the Left Front. Arrested on June 10th, 2012, he will be in detention until March 6th 2013. Vladimir was born with poor eyesight. In jail, it is getting even worse. In the last examination, he had 10% vision in one eye, and 20% in the other. This, however, was not a sufficient cause for the court to replace detention with house arrest. At the last court session of the court, the judge cynically commented that only total blindness would make him reconsider his decision.
⁃ Michael Kosenko, 36, no political affiliation, arrested on June 8th. Kosenko, who suffers from psychological disorders, also asked for his stay in jail be replaced with house arrest. However, the court declared him “dangerous to society” and plans to send him for forced treatment.
⁃ Stepan Zimin, 20, anarchist and antifascist, arrested on June 8th and placed under detention until March 6th 2013, after which date his arrest can be extended. Stepan supports his single mother, yet once again the court did not consider this sufficient cause to set him free under the obligation to remain with city limits.
⁃ Nikolai Kavkazskii, 26, socialist, human rights activist and LGBT-activist. Detained on the 25th of July.

Investigators have no clear evidence proving the guilt of any one of these detainees. Nevertheless, they remain in jail and new suspects steadily join their ranks. Thus the last of the players in the “events of May 6th,” the 51-year-old liberal activist and scholar Sergei Krivov, was arrested quite recently, on October 18th. There is every indication that he will not be the last.

If the arrests of already nearly twenty ordinary demonstration participants were intended to inspire fear in the protest movement, then the hunt for the “organizers of massive disturbances” is meant to strike at its acknowledged leaders. According to the investigation, said “disturbances” were the result of a conspiracy, and all the arrested were receiving special assignments. This shows that we are dealing not only with a series of arrests, but with preparations for a large scale political process against the opposition.

On October 5th, NTV, one of the leading Russian television channels, aired a film in the genre of an “investigative documentary,” which leveled fantastical charges against the opposition and in particular, against the most famous representative of the left, Sergei Udaltsov. This mash-up, made in the tradition of Goebbels’ propaganda, informs of Udaltsov’s ties with foreign intelligence, and the activities of the “Left Front” that he heads are declared plots by foreign enemies of the state. By way of decisive proof, the film includes a recorded meeting between Sergei Udaltsov, Left Front activist Leonid Razvozhaev, Russian Socialist Movement member Konstantin Lebedev, and one of the closer advisors of the president of Georgia, Givi Targamadze. In particular, the conversation includes talk of money delivered by the Georgians for the “destabilization” of Russia.

Despite the fact that the faces on the recording are practically indiscernible and that the sound is clearly edited and added separately to the video, within just two days the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General’s Office (the agency today playing the leading role in organizing repression) used it to launch a criminal case. On October 17th, Konstantin Lebedev was arrested and Sergei Udaltsov released after interrogation, after having signed an oath to remain within the limits of Moscow. On October 19th, a third participant in the new “affair,” Left Front activist Leonid Razvozhaev, tried to petition for refugee status with the Ukrainian delegation of the UN. As soon as he stepped outside of the delegation building, unknown parties violently forced him into a vehicle and illegally transported him across the Ukrainian border onto Russian territory. Once in an undisclosed location in Russia, he was subjected to torture and threats (including regarding the safety of his family) and compelled to sign a “voluntary submission of confession” and “statements of confession.” In these “statements,” Razvozhaev confessed to ties with foreign intelligence and to preparations for an armed insurgency, in which Konstantin Lebedev and Sergei Udaltsov were also involved. Afterwards, Razvozhaev was delivered to Moscow and placed in jail as a criminal defendant. At present, Razvozhaev has asserted in meetings with human rights activists that he disavows these confessions obtained under duress. However, he could not disavow their consequences. “Razvozhaev’s list,” beaten out of him by torture, has become notorious: it contains the names of people who will before long also become objects of persecution.

Read the full letter here.

Liliya Shibanova, head of the Golos Association, said on Monday that government authorities have toughened regulations on filming, which was particularly instrumental in revealing fraud in elections last December, and that members of the Central Electoral Commission have ramped up pressure on observers and active voters. Golos is the only independent electoral watchdog in Russia.

“We still haven’t moved on from that critical point where there’s a total lack of competition in the elections,” Shibanova said. “The technologies to falsify results remain in place as before, and the government has preserved the most important regions for itself, allowing opposition victories only on the municipal level.”

The Golos head noted that the only victories given to oppositionists were for members of the Yabloko party and independent candidates on the local level. Gubernatorial elections in Bryansk, Ryazan, Priamurye, Nizhny Novgorod, and Belgorod, however, all went to United Russia.

Aleksandr Kynev, an analyst from the Foundation for Information Policy Development, told Gazeta.ru that a preponderance of “spoiler parties” were also a problem for parties such as A Just Russia, the LDPR, and the Communist Party.

Such spoiler parties, which confuse voters and ultimately siphoning votes away from other parties, became possible after electoral reforms earlier this year lowered the threshold of members needed to form a party to 500. “In order for you not to get lost, you need to have a known, unique face. This can only be in the form of clear political positions, clear political steps, and bright leaders,” Kynev said.

According to the newspaper, a corresponding order has already been written up and posted online for public discussion and signed by Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev and the head of the Federal Migration Service.

Sources in the Ministry (MVD) said that the formal reason for the measure is the departure of the migration service from the MVD. Unofficially, however, they said it was intended as a way to deal with undesirable foreigners, such as political activists and religious radicals.

As an example of what the MVD is apparently concerned about, Izvestia noted an incident this past March during the Russian presidential election when women from the Ukrainian organization Femen stripped naked at the polling station where Vladimir Putin had cast his vote. The group was subsequently banned from the country.

The MVD black list would also include powerful foreign criminals, such as mafia bosses.

The Izvestia report stated that the foreign minister would personally decide the fate of each “undesirable” foreigner.

Human rights advocates fear that the measure could become a repressive instrument for the MVD to use for political purposes.

In February 2011, British journalist Luke Harding was stopped at passport control and denied entry to Russia with no explanation.

The Guardian, where Harding worked, believes that the decision to keep the journalist out of the country was made at the highest level of government in connection with the Guardian’s publication of documents from WikiLeaks that characterize the Russian government as a mafia state and suggesting the possible involvement of President Vladimir Putin in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, said that the group held a meeting with its regional partners and concluded that they did not intend to register as “foreign agents.”

She added that some organizations could alter this decision, but in that case the Moscow Helsinki Group “would not direct its anger at those who fell apart, but at those who were broken apart.” “Where is the Soviet government that tried to break us in the ’70s?” asked the former Soviet dissident. “And we’re still here. The repression is just tightening up.”

Golos director Lilia Shibanova said that her organization is prepared for the coming persecution and intends to argue the measure in court – up to the Constitutional Court, if necessary.

“We are organizing a public campaign in order to show people what our position is and what kind of work we do,” she said.

According to For Human Rights director Lev Ponomarev, it’s necessary to “warn all non-commercial organizations in Russia about the danger of registering under the new law.” He explained that following the new measures would entail having to turn down funding from international foundations, and that Russian businesses are “too frightened” to work with such organizations.

He also noted that even North Caucasian organizations, which are in a particularly difficult position since they are constricted by the federal government on one hand and radicals on the other, are refusing to register as agents.

“We need to remember that human rights organizations are a part of the protest movement and we need to stick clearly to this position,” Ponomarev said.

Valery Boshchev, a member of the Social Partnership Foundation, believes that the government’s actions towards human rights advocates constitute hysteria, and compared the “foreign agent” designation to the Nazi law requiring Jews to wear yellow stars. “We’re going to put banners up everywhere, announcing: ‘We aren’t swindlers or thieves, just foreign agents. We don’t take bribes and don’t steal money,'” said foundation director Igor Chestin.

The all-Russian small and medium business organization Opora Russia also intends to take on the new designation, but along with the intent of holding an information campaign to tilt public opinion in their favor.

The new NGO law was signed by President Vladimir Putin on July 21. The approximately one thousand organizations that would qualify as “foreign agents” mostly do work in the spheres of education, charity, and human rights. The label is designated for organizations that receive foreign funding and also “do political work” inside Russia, which is defined to include “influencing public opinion.”

A separate, additional measure was passed during its first reading in the Russian State Duma on September 11 to establish a one million ruble fine (about 32,350 USD) for agencies that refuse to properly register.

Experts have already noted numerous inconsistences and inaccuracies in the law and have asked for a number of terms to be more clearly defined. There is wide agreement that the measure is being used as an instrument of political repression.

RFE/RL: How important has USAID funding been to your organization?

Lyudmila Alekseyeva: It’s not [just] about our organization. It’s about the human rights sphere in [Russia]. I think it really helped.

In 1997, USAID issued a large grant for us to monitor the human rights situation in Russia. Of course, the Moscow Helsinki Group could not conduct work of this scale on its own and it worked together with human rights organizations from 80 different regions. Each of these collected material and compiled reports on the situation. We then did reports on the basis of this material.

We of course taught them how to work. This three-year grant helped lay the ground for monitoring work in our country.”

RFE/RL: What impact will the cessation of USAID funding have in general in Russia?

Alekseyeva: Of course it will have very sad consequences. It will reduce the effectiveness of human rights organizations. But I think that the cessation of the work of USAID is entirely logical after the law on NGOs came into force requiring social organizations financed from abroad to register themselves as foreign agents.

If we decline to do this and if organizations like us decline to do this, then [the authorities] will still stop our activates and won’t allow us to make use of their bank accounts. If we agree to register [as foreign agents], we also won’t be able to [to work effectively] because a certain section of the population will stop trusting us because the authorities have created a psychological understanding that everything from abroad is hostile and aimed at Russia’s demise.

Even worse, the Kremlin will probably issue an order to bureaucrats telling them not to cooperate with organizations that have registered themselves as foreign agents.

RFE/RL: In what ways will the Moscow Helsinki Group suffer specifically from the cessation of USAID funding?

Alekseyeva: We will remain without funding because we don’t receive Russian financing. The state won’t finance us because we defend citizens whose rights are violated by Russian bureaucrats. Our state won’t fund that kind of organization. Business here won’t finance us either because every businessman understands that if he finances an organization that is not useful to the authorities, then he puts his own business under threat.

We don’t have any other sources of financing apart from abroad. It will seriously reduce the efficiency of our work. We won’t be able to continue, for instance, our educational projects that we’ve had for many years.

RFE/RL: So how will you get around this problem in practice?

Alekseyeva: The Moscow Helsinki Group was founded in 1976 during the Soviet period, when of course there was no financing whatsoever either from abroad or from Russia. It received its first grant only in 1993, when it was already an internationally renowned organization.

We will lose the efficiency of our work. We will return to the way we worked in the Soviet Union. Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, human rights workers find themselves once again in the same position.

[We’ll get around it by] volunteering. Back [in Soviet times], we distributed our documents on human rights violations through samizdat. Now it is much easier than it was back then.

Information will come to us — we can find out things through the Internet and people approach us directly via telephone or online. We will put out material on citizens’ human rights violations.

RFE/RL: Why do you think the Russian authorities have made this move now?

Alekseyeva: Because now a serious attack is being carried out on all the rights of citizens — on their voting rights as well as their right to expression and on the right to unite. All of these rights are guaranteed by our constitution, but the authorities have already long forgotten about its existence.

Click here for a PDF of Kasparov’s full written statement, posted below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MOSCOW – AUGUST 24, 2012

• Garry Kasparov was acquitted on charge of participating in an illegal rally outside of Pussy Riot courthouse on August 17, 2012. This is one of the first-ever such acquittals in the Putin era.

• Kasparov still faces the accusation of assaulting a police officer. No charges have been filed and overwhelming evidence has been published contradicting officer’s allegation.

• Kasparov will pursue charges for illegal arrest and assault by the police and for libel against the officer who accuses Kasparov of biting him on the 17th.

After nine hours in a Moscow courtroom, Garry Kasparov was acquitted of the charge he violated the law against illegal protests. Hours of witness testimony and video of Kasparov’s arrest refuted the official police reports that Kasparov was chanting slogans or resisting arrest. Kasparov’s attorney presented dozens of media reports from the day of the arrest that contradicted the official police timeline of Kasparov’s arrest and detention.

STATEMENT BY GARRY KASPAROV

First I want to say that this acquittal is not the end of the saga. While waiting for the judge’s decision, I again visited the investigator who is in charge of the assault accusation against me and my own charges of illegal arrest and assault against the police and of libel against officer Ratnikov. The authorities must decide whether to pursue the cases and whether or not to combine these cases into one. They are examining the evidence, much of which was accepted in my trial today.

I will press forward with the criminal charges against the police. My acquital can only strengthen my defense in the criminal case and my complaints. A court has decided that they arrested and asasulted an innocent man. This is no small event. It is perhaps the first time ever in Putin’s Russia that someone has been acquitted of these charges in this way. (Ironically, I was one of the first convicted under the strong new anti-protest laws, when I was jailed in 2007.) Today the judge made it clear that the police testimony was not to be trusted. She also allowed our video evidence and witnesses for the defense to an unprecedented degree.

It remains to be seen if this admirable decision was of her own conscience or if it indicates something within the institution. If it was soley the judge’s decision, we will find out soon if the district attorney’s office appeals the verdict. They have ten days to do so. Or is it possible that the authorities decided they had received enough negative publicity for one week and are attempting to show the world that Russian justice actually exists. If this is the case, it will take much more than one trial of a well-known individual with the world watching. The real test will be the many similar cases to come. We must keep watching and fighting, to keep the pressure on!

This is why I feel obliged to press criminal charges over my abuse at the hands of the police. Friends and colleagues across Russia have been convicted by false testimony just like that I faced today in court. Having this acquittal in my hands means I must push forward. Only success in punishing the officers responsible can help protect others from injustice. I was fortunate to be able to bring resources to bear and to have global support in my cause. My family and I are so grateful. I am deeply indebted to the many journalists who came forward on their own to provide videos, photos, and their personal testimony. In a country where journalists are subjected to heavy pressure, and often violence, this was a significant risk.

This result demonstrates the power of solidarity. This means more than donating money and your voice. It is a shared sentiment that freedom matters everywhere, for every person, not only in your own country. It is essential to stay involved. The more people pay attention and bring pressure from the grassroots, the more cases will end the way mine did and the fewer will result like that of Pussy Riot. Find a way to make a difference!

Garry Kasparov

LINKS

• Video and English transcript of Kasparov speaking to reporters outside of the court after his acquittal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN0735Imx6k

• Kasparov’s Facebook page, for regular updates. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Garry-Kasparov/243791258306

• Donate to the Foundation for Democracy in Russia, a non-profit founded by Kasparov to provide legal defense and other aid to the anti-Putin movement in Russia. http://www.theotherrussia.org/support-the-other-russia/

Video of his speech after exiting the courthouse and a translation are below. Updates are being posted at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Garry‐Kasparov/243791258306 and https://twitter.com/Kasparov63.

I have a strange sensation, it’s hard to even find words for it, because my lawyers, friends and I didn’t expect anything besides another typical guilty verdict, and when, over the course of so many years, all opposition activists have been inevitably convicted in courts like this, it’s hard to imagine that the day would come when the courts could provide us with legitimate consideration. Actually, today was very unusual, because from the very beginning, as opposed to many other previous similar cases, the judge agreed to allow motions by the defense. Moreover, all of the defense’s motions were accepted, including those that called witnesses to the stand and those that entered video and photographic material as evidence. Of course, this was a very, let’s say, unusual sign, but we didn’t understand that it would influence the final verdict so much.

I would like to express my particular gratitude to the journalists who managed to collect so many materials, especially photo and video ones, which were used in the case today and which absolutely had an influence both on the judge and, perhaps, on the people who have influence on the judge. All the same, it was just too obvious. I’d like to thank the journalists who came and appeared as witnesses here today, because it was clear that these people, who were completely different and of completely different nationalities, all said the exact same thing. It seems to me that this left an impression, and it also became obvious that, as opposed to many similar situations, there was no actual case of any sort of event occurring. And the extremely confused testimonies of the two police officers who detained me, which contradicted each other, they of course convinced the judge that their version of events held no credibility.

The result was a full acquittal, and this is a very important step forward. I don’t intend to stop here; I want to have charges brought against the officers who illegally detained me. We’ve already filed the necessary paperwork with the investigative branch for the Khamovniki region. And I hope that this verdict will give us additional evidence so that that my detention and beating will be given due consideration by investigators.

As far as the next case is concerned, the one by Officer Ratnikov about this absurd attack – again, I hope that this today’s session will allow us to draw upon video and photo materials. We have very unique materials, basically an entire archive that allows us to give practically a second-by-second account of everything that happened outside of the Khamovnichesky Court. Again, my thanks to the journalists who managed to film all of this, to dig it all up from their electronic devices and even now continue to come forward with different photos and video clips. And I hope that the investigators will act just as objectively as this judge did today, and that I’ll be so lucky as to have Officer Ratnikov be convicted of libel.

It’s hard for me to say what sort of consequences today’s verdict is going to have for the Russian opposition on the whole. I even feel slightly guilty, because until now all of these verdicts have been guilty ones, and so many of my friends are still experiencing this pressure. We know that the widespread investigation of the May 6th events on Bolotnaya Square is still ongoing. But nevertheless, this is a very important step forward, and I’m going to do everything in my power to help those who need defense in these matters, because not everyone is so lucky to have their detentions and the police violence they experienced be covered so fully by the press.

Translation by theotherrussia.org.

• The reports also say that Kasparov was yelling slogans such as “Russia without Putin” and that they warned him to stop before he was arrested, as they are legally required to do – this is patently false, as is clear from video footage of the arrest.

• We have also included a timeline of time-stamped media reports, all of which were published before the police reports claim the arrest occurred.

Garry Kasparov’s statement to police, indicating the real time of his arrest – 3:15 pm.

You can see “15:15,” the real arrest time, written towards the bottom. Note that Kasparov’s statement was dictated to an officer at the moment while the officers’ statements are pre-prepared, typed and photocopied.

Statement by Police Captain Pavel Domashev showing false 4:30 pm arrest time.

STATEMENT

City of Moscow, August 17, 2012
Time: 5:30 pm

Police Precinct of the Russian Internal Ministry for the Khamovniki Region, City of Moscow, Police Captain D.G. Avraamov received a statement from citizen:

1. Name: Pavel Sergeevich Domashev
2. Date of birth: *****
3. Place of birth: ******
4. Address: *******
5. Nationality and citizenship: *****
6. Passport or other document: *******
Education: ******
7. Place of work and rank, telephone number: ********** Police Captain, Commander of the 2nd Operational Regiment of the Main Branch of the Russian Internal Ministry for the City of Moscow, tel. *******

Article 51 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation has been explained to me and is understood

(signature)

Based on the questions that have been asked of me, I can say the following:

On August 17, 2012, at 8:00 am, I began work guarding public order and safety at the following address: 7th Rostovsky Pereulok, Building 11, Moscow, and also at that time, the neighboring territory of the Khamovnichesky Regional Court was cordoned off in connection with the verdict reading for the group Pussy Riot, and citizens were repeatedly explained over a loudspeaker what detours there were for the surrounding area. At about 11:00 am, 200 citizens began to gather near the Khamovnichesky Regional Court of the City of Moscow. Close to 4:30 pm, one citizen from the group of citizens yelled slogans “Freedom to Pussy Riot.” “Down with the police state!” “Russia without Putin” The citizen did not react to the repeated, lawful demands of police officers over the loudspeaker to stop the unlawful actions. In connection with which I, together with Officer M.I. Zavrazhnov, made the decision to detain the citizen and place him in holding at a branch of the Internal Ministry of Russia for the Khamovniki region of the city of Moscow, who turned out to be Garry Kimovich Kasparov, born ******, registered at the following address: ****** for further investigation.

Statement by Police Captain Mikhail Zavrazhnov showing false 4:30 pm arrest time. Note that his statement is literally identical to his co-captain’s, hence no extra translation is provided:

Photographs showing Kasparov’s arrest and the time:

TIMELINE OF ARREST THROUGH MEDIA REPORTS

Photo by Olaf Koens of Kasparov in police van posted to Twitter – 15:27 17 Aug 2012
https://twitter.com/obk/status/236423940975779840/photo/1

Interfax.ru Live Update Page – 15:27 17 Aug 2012
“15:27 – У суда задержан Гарри Каспаров” (“Garry Kasparov has been arrested at the courthouse)
http://www.interfax.ru/society/txt.asp?id=260980&sw=%CA%E0%F1%EF%E0%F0%EE%E2&bd=24&bm=7&by=2012&ed=24&em=8&ey=2012&secid=0&mp=2&p=1

AFP Live Report Page – 15:43 17 Aug 2012
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/afp/pussy-riot-verdict-live-report/538957

Russia Today Live Page (English) – 15:53 17 Aug 2012
http://rt.com/news/pussy-riot-verdict-updates-907/

Given the disturbing events of the past few days, many people have been asking what they can do to help. Garry Kasparov’s non-profit organization, the Foundation for Democracy in Russia, supports legal defense for opposition activists. You can donate to the foundation by clicking here.