Vladimir Putin is putting the finishing touches to an amnesty that could help give the Kremlin a more humane face and set free tens of thousands of prisoners from Russian jails.
But for the dozen ordinary Russian citizens who were arrested at a protest on the eve of Putin’s inauguration for a new presidential term last year, there is little hope of reprieve.
Russian prosecutors have charged 27 people in connection with “mass riots” that erupted at the rally in Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square on May 6th, 2012. Several police officers were injured in the mayhem, asphalt was torn up from city pavements and public toilets were overturned.
The Bolotnaya 12 (so called because of the location of the clashes) are the first big group to be tried. If convicted, they could face prison sentences of eight to 13 years.
Many observers believe the charges are fabricated or overblown and that the case, coming as the Kremlin tightens the screws on dissent, is politically driven.
“The investigation was entirely one-sided,” says Sergei Davidis, a board member at the Memorial Human Rights Centre. “They did not examine charges against the police. Everything has been taken out of context. It’s all hugely absurd.”
Broader implications
As the trial of the Bolotnaya 12 entered the defence phase last week, a group of ordinary citizens gathered at the Zamoskvoretsky criminal court exchanging nervous smiles. Most were friends or relatives of the accused, but some had come to register alarm about the broader implications of the case for all Russians.
“I am here because I can’t not be here,” said one woman who has attended every hearing since the trial opened in June. “Any one of us could have been detained. They’re sitting in jail for us.”
There is a round of applause when the police finally lead in the handcuffed prisoners in a straggly procession with a rottweiler bringing up the rear.
Nine of the defendants have been in jail for more than a year, denied bail despite having no previous convictions. As is the practice in all Russian criminal cases, they are confined to a metal cage in the courtroom. The three others – two women and a man who are under house arrest – sit with the lawyers.
Among the witnesses called to give evidence was Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition activist, who helped lead the wave of street protests that erupted in Moscow after a rigged parliamentary election two years ago.
Navalny spoke calmly at the hearing, referring only once to the “crooks and thieves” he says are ruling Russia.
According to his version of the May 6th events, police provoked unrest by changing the agreed route of the march at the last minute and restricting access to Bolotnaya Square. “Officials intentionally instigated a crush so as to claim there were riots,” he said.
Doctored video tapes
At another hearing, a defence lawyer presented forensic evidence suggesting that police video tapes of the alleged May 6th riots had been doctored to incriminate his client.
With a mound of evidence still to be examined, the trial could grind on for many more months. For Nataliya Zakavkazskaya, a music teacher whose son is one of the Bolotnaya 12, the hearings are pointless .
“It’s already decided that everybody is guilty,” she says. “The judge is under orders to be repressive. It’s how she makes her bread.”
Most of those charged in the Bolotnaya case are young, but they come from different walks of life. Among the 12 on trial are students, a journalist, managers, a man with a PhD in physics and a subway worker.
By casting the net wide, the authorities are apparently warning ordinary people to beware of joining street protests, says Tanya Lokshina, senior Russia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It’s a signal. Be careful. Don’t go there. It can happen to you. It can happen to your children.”
The Pussy Riot trial, where three members of a punk rock band received harsh sentences last year for performing a raucous anti-Putin stunt in a Moscow cathedral, sent a similar message: the Kremlin would no longer tolerate dissent. “But the Bolotnaya case is more complex and even more sinister, as some of the suspects seem to have been plucked randomly from the crowd.”
Political prisoners
Russian opposition leaders say all those detained in the Bolotnaya case are political prisoners and should immediately be released. But hopes are fading that Putin might include the group in a wide- reaching amnesty planned to mark the 20th anniversary of the Russian constitution on December 12th.
At a meeting with the Kremlin’s human rights council last Wednesday, the Russian president ruled out a reprieve for prisoners convicted of violent crimes, particularly those guilty of assaulting police.
Yet an amnesty for the Bolotnaya group would allow the Kremlin to show a more humane face and escape the controversy surrounding the case, says Davidis. “The problem is the authorities don’t know how to correct their mistakes. They don’t always act rationally.”
