The best way to once again feel that this system must be destroyed and will never be able to reform itself is to attend a parole hearing for a political prisoner, like the one my brother had today.
The concentration of lies and hypocrisy is so thick you could grab it with your hand. There sit three lackeys — one from the prosecutor’s office, one from the penal colony, and the judge. Everything was decided long ago (and not even by them — they got a phone call), but they pretend they’re making a decision:
- too many disciplinary penalties, how could that be?
- They give me penalties for walking around my cell in a T-shirt.
- inmate, you showed no interest in the corrective programs..
- There are no corrective programs, no one talks to me, I’ve been sitting alone for nine months.
- the colony considers parole inadvisable..
- the prosecutor’s office supports that..
- the court believes the inmate has not embarked on the path of rehabilitation..
As I watched and listened to all this, I kept thinking one thing: what’s missing here are portraits of Vasilyeva (Yevgenia Vasilyeva, a high-profile corruption defendant), who got parole without any trouble, Serdyukov (Anatoly Serdyukov, former defense minister), the daughter of former Moscow vice-mayor Roslyak, who received a sentence deferred for 14 (!) years for embezzling 6 billion rubles (about $65 million), and all the rest of the socially connected.
This “judicial system” works for them. They should be “administering justice” beneath their portraits and in their names.
“In the name of Elena Skrynnik, former agriculture minister, whose multibillion-ruble embezzlement has been conveniently forgotten and whose case was closed, I deny you the right to early release on parole for taking part in one-person pickets.”
I’m not even talking here about the Rotenbergs and Timchenkos — they are, in principle, beyond the jurisdiction of all this riffraff, the judges and prosecutors included. Those people serve clients a class below.
The system’s tasks have been reduced to three:
- punish its enemies and mock them;
- help former colleagues who are crooks and got caught up in a crackdown by chance or on orders;
- seize any property it takes a liking to (see Domodedovo Airport, among others);
Vile. The worst, most shameless people.