**Ivan Bolshakov, deputy chairman of the Moscow branch of the Yabloko party, has been sentenced to five years' probation on charges of assaulting a police officer. ** Avanes Bolshakov bolshakov was given a five-year suspended sentence. For breaking a police officer's arm.
What is remarkable about the sentence is not only that the case was fabricated from beginning to end. It is also that the judge gave a year more than the prosecutor asked for. Five years. If he puts a foot wrong, that suspended sentence will become a real prison term. *When delivering the verdict, the judge said that if, during this period, I am held liable even for an administrative offense, the suspended sentence will become a real one. * Interestingly, the whole scuffle took place in Yuzhnoye Butovo, a district in southern Moscow. If you remember, back then half the political beau monde rushed in to defend residents from eviction. There were only about five members of the Public Chamber (a state advisory body). Time has passed, TV no longer shows any of it, and there is no one left to defend Bolshakov. For YABLOKO, the Bolshakov case was a symbolic one. They used it to justify all their prostituted decisions. From voting for Luzhkov (otherwise Vanya would be jailed) to God knows what else. Yavlinsky liked to roll his eyes mysteriously and say that he had "spoken about Vanya's fate." As if to say: yes, we are forced to negotiate with the authorities, but not because we are crooks — for VANYA'S SAKE. A good lesson. You can lick the authorities' boots as intensely as you like, but the moment they find even the slightest reason to set the repressive machine in motion, it will start working. And no one will give you any credit for having voted for Luzhkov, supported anti-extremism charters, expelled whoever you were told to expel, backed election fraud through your representative on the Central Election Commission, and so on. The loyalty of a quasi-opposition is worth next to nothing. I send Judge Chechko rays of contempt and future lustration, and to Avanes and his family, rays of sympathy. Be careful, Vanya. If there are hooligans by your building entrance or anything like that, run. Those hooligans may be wearing uniforms.