Those who read comrade agranovsky’s journal may already have seen the gripping descriptions of hundreds of procedural violations in the Arakcheev-Khudyakov case. The verdict was guilty. And the policy toward servicemen who fought in the Chechen Republic was accusatory as well: lock them all up. Quite a different matter were those who had supposedly “fought for the freedom of Ichkeria” (the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria). They got a complete green light. All you had to do was swear loyalty to Ramzan Kadyrov, and all the Russian soldiers and civilians you had killed were forgiven. They would even give you back an assault rifle. And an ID as a police or FSB officer. And a service car—a Porsche Cayenne. This is what we call “pacifying Chechnya” and “restoring peaceful life.” Here, for example, is a case being handled by the "NAROD" movement. Once upon a time there were two friends: Alamad Uslanov and Shamil Galamatov. They made their living the same way as a considerable share of the male population of the Chechen Republic: through attacks and killings. One day (16.02.2002), they fired grenade launchers at a convoy of federal troops on the outskirts of the village of Gekhi-Chu. And then again (22.03.2002), they fired automatic weapons at polling stations in the village of Valerik in the Achkhoy-Martan district. Then apparently there was more. But luck ran out for these brave lads, and they were arrested. But we should remember that it was not just some pitiful federal soldiers languishing behind bars. These were the brave sons of the Chechen people. Uncle Tofik called Uncle Radzhap, Aslambek met with Dzhumshud, and so on and so forth. And suddenly it turned out that these militants were not militants at all, but sick people. They themselves had no idea what they were doing. At the preliminary investigation stage, the little militants were sent for a psychiatric evaluation. Where to? To the Republic of Dagestan! And there the experts determined that the grenade-launcher attack on the convoy and the automatic-weapons attack on the polling station had been committed in a state of insanity. Therefore, they should not be imprisoned, but treated! Personally, I find it hard to imagine how someone in an insane state could organize an attack on a polling station and fire a grenade launcher at a military convoy, but the doctors must know better. And it gets even better. These sick men were sent to a psychiatric hospital in Volgograd. To an ordinary regional hospital. Even though, by the rules, they should have been held in a federal medical institution with a special security regime. But even there, these “sick people” did not suffer for long. After six months, they were simply sent home for outpatient treatment. Why? Because, in the opinion of both the court and the prosecutor, "they do not pose a danger to society, to themselves, or to others; their behavior does not create a risk of causing other serious harm." And that was that. The sons of the mountains went back home. We have already written a million complaints about this. So far, nothing has changed. But at least we managed to stop the endless bureaucratic ping-pong between the Volgograd prosecutor’s office, the General Prosecutor’s Office, and the Chechen prosecutor’s office, back and forth. The first substantive reply has been received. It officially describes the entire lawless outrage, though of course it calls it not lawlessness, but compliance with the law. Still, never mind. As the saying goes, “The mills of God grind slowly, but exceedingly fine.” We will do everything possible to return these sons of the mountains from their auls (traditional Caucasian mountain villages) to prison. In addition, here is an old article in Kommersant on the subject. In Volgograd, a scandal has erupted: it has emerged that at least two Chechen militants convicted of attacks on convoys of federal troops and polling stations in Chechnya, and sentenced to compulsory psychiatric treatment, were discharged from a regional hospital just six months after being admitted and sent home.
The matter will move much faster if there is some public support. So we would be grateful for any and all sharing of this information.