An episode from the documentary project The Term from October 2012, in which Alexei vividly exposes the glaring double standards of Putin’s “justice.” He compares the case of participants in a Dagestani wedding motorcade who opened fire on Tverskaya Street and got away with a fine of 100 rubles, to the sweeping repression of the Bolotnaya Case, where peaceful citizens were held for months in pretrial detention centers (SIZO) over riot police officers’ “chipped tooth enamel.” With irony but precision, Alexei explains this injustice: the Kremlin is ready to forgive any lawlessness by those who deliver election fraud and 99% of the vote.
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From my point of view, this is simply
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such a cynical, unlawful act.
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They really did intend
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to engage in hooliganism. They were driving along Tverskaya Street,
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stopping, slowing down all the
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cars that were overtaking them. They
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were shooting at those cars, or at least after
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those cars. So this was clearly
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an intent specifically to commit hooliganism,
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specifically criminal hooliganism.
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I believe this is criminal hooliganism.
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Of course,
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a violation of public order involving
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the use of a weapon. That is, Article 213.1
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at a minimum, committed by a group organized
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according to a prearranged plan, and even
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in relation to these authorities... the authorities, so
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part two. Well, at the very least—no, well,
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I mean, what else. A representative of the Interior Ministry said there had been
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no statements or evidence that anyone
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was harmed, and so on.
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No, Kostya, someone was harmed. Fine, no one was
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harmed. With hooliganism, there does not always have to be
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a specific victim, right?
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It is an antisocial act. That is,
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everyone is outraged overall. Whether we are outraged or not,
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that is, in principle, the problem,
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when there are groups of people
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who can commit acts like this in
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the center of Moscow. This really is hooliganism.
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And they had intent. Why were they doing
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it? They were genuinely acting like hooligans.
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Right? They were not just firing shots.
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Nothing of the sort. It is a tradition.
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Maybe it is an act of contemporary art.
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An act of contemporary... some women went into a
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church, and these guys just fired some shots. We
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do not know for sure whether they did or not. If they
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were shooting at cars, then where are the victims
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in those cars? And that is exactly
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why you and I are neither a court nor the
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prosecutor's office. We are asking for it to be investigated.
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Well said, Lyuba. We are not saying
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that we should summon the Dagestanis
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here right now and fine them or
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jail them ourselves. Let the court jail them; let them, at
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the very least, look into it. But when they
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fire shots, everyone reports on this
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shooting, and then they are released for
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100 rubles. That is not normal. I think
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we need to contrast the Bolotnaya case
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with this case. In the Bolotnaya case (the prosecution following the 2012 Bolotnaya Square protests), 12
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people are in prison for no clear reason. There, of all
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the
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the damage that was allegedly inflicted by these
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riot police officers on the OMON officers (special riot police), as we know,
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there was only a chipped tooth enamel and a bruised
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finger.
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And the chipped enamel was fixed, by the way.
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The chipped enamel was fixed, in fact. And there
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11 people have already been sitting in jail for half a year. And here
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you have a whole gang of some Dagestanis,
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possibly perfectly fine Dagestanis.
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They engage in obvious group
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hooliganism. They are fined 100 rubles.
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We need to make a leaflet, contrast
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these two cases, and distribute it. That is
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all. People, we will not even make
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any judgments; we will simply say: "People
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came out to protest election fraud.
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11 people are in jail."
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Are we going to write that they are Dagestanis?
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We are going to write that they are Dagestanis. We
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will write it. We will write that they are Dagestanis,
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but there will be nothing in that
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that incites ethnic hatred, because
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because
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they really are Dagestanis.
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Because, first of all, they really are
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Dagestanis, and second, that is precisely
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the political issue here. They are being let go
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because they are Dagestanis. They are being let go
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because the Putin regime does not want
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to get involved with some of their
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relatives, who bought them those
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Ferraris, for one thing. And secondly, in this
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way it is paying for the loyalty of their
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Dagestani fathers and mothers, who
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manufacture 99% voter turnout.
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We need to look for victims, if they
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really did shoot at some
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car.
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There are no victims—that is exactly the point.
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Listen, there are none right now because, first of all,
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no one is looking for them, and second,
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those victims are more afraid of these Dagestanis
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than anything else—no one wants to have
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anything to do with them. Ramazan Abdulatipov,
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commenting on the matter, said that
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a real Dagestani should celebrate
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his wedding in his native aul (traditional mountain village).
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In their native aul. Then let them go to their native
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aul if they so badly want
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to fire shots there; perhaps they have a
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special designated place there
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for shooting. They celebrated the wedding,
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slaughtered a lamb, fired some shots, went home,
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and everyone is happy.
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What matters is the concept of a public
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place. It is one thing to shoot in a forest, or
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well, obviously, Tverskaya—we do still
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consider Tverskaya and Mokhovaya to be public places,
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right? Yes. That is,
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if you can hunt in a forest, then
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it is understood, условно, that you are shooting and
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hunting, right? It is a forest. But in a
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public place you cannot
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hunt,
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even if there happens to be a deer in that public place.
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And the fact that these guys are Dagestanis is
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a real problem, because if this had been attempted by
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some
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poor Chuvash or Udmurts, Chuvash
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or Udmurts would already be somewhere
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sweating it out
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behind closed doors, while the Dagestanis
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were let go for 100 rubles, because
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they pay in a different way. They bring their own
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tribute through falsified votes. And
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their housing and utility rates are low, as we already
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established in our previous
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extremist leaflet.
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You’re looking at me rather gloomily, like
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those very Dagestanis. It feels as though
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I’m looking at Dagestanis at a wedding.