I love this kind of thing. MOSCOW, Jan. 13 — RIA Novosti. Investigators may ask the court to impose a stricter preventive measure on Alexei Navalny, the press service of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation told RIA Novosti. Earlier, Navalny was released under travel restrictions, and the opposition politician undertook not to leave his place of residence (Moscow) without the investigator’s permission. "The investigation has established that the accused, Navalny, left without the investigator’s proper permission. In this connection, the investigator has issued a warning that if the travel restrictions are violated, the investigator may petition the court to impose a stricter preventive measure," the agency’s source said. http://ria.ru/incidents/20140113/988965505.html A great story, once again confirming the point that Kremlin investigators and Kremlin PR people are one and the same — you can’t even tell where one ends and the other begins. So. As you all know, I’m under travel restrictions in the “Navalny brothers” case — one of a gazillion cases opened against me by Kremlin crooks. At first, the restriction applied only to the city of Moscow itself, but later, since it was impossible not to violate such a restriction, they added Moscow Region to it. After all, how are you supposed to get to Zelenograd, for example, without leaving Moscow Region? Or to Vnukovo Airport? To get home to Maryino, I have to turn off the MKAD (Moscow Ring Road) into Moscow Region. So both I and the investigators knew perfectly well that my travel restrictions extended to Moscow Region, and everyone lived with that just fine. Here is the order:
If you and I read Russian the same way, then what it says here is that I do not need any prior permission. I simply have to notify the investigator afterward that such trips took place. The deadlines, format, and procedure are not specified. You report it however and whenever you like. For some time now, when I’m in the region, I’ve been getting stopped by some strange traffic cops with video cameras on their chests. They’re not interested in the driver; they run straight to the passenger-side door and demand that I show them my ID. Most of the time we argue for a long time: why the hell are they checking a passenger’s documents? I tell them I’m Ivan Sergeich, and they’re not entitled to know anything more about me. They laugh and shout: Ivan Sergeich, we can’t let you go without a passport, etc. Sometimes they come up with some ominous violation — for example, that I wasn’t wearing a seat belt while riding in the back seat. Eventually I get tired of talking to them, tell them I’m Navalny, they loudly repeat it for the camera, and we go our separate ways. Here’s one of those videos that either the cops or the Investigative Committee itself leaked (or sold) to LifeNews. As they say, “LifeNews managed to obtain it.” Those idiots immediately ran a piece saying, “NAVALNY SPOTTED IN MOSCOW REGION. HE VIOLATED HIS TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS,” making up some Range Rover along the way. And separately, I should note that even bigger idiots from the “Young Guard of United Russia” (the youth wing of the ruling United Russia party) squeezed another item out of that story:
Navalny got drunk in a sauna and can now leave Russia. And then, apparently, Bastrykin, the Czech spy, was sitting in front of his monitor, lovingly stroking his Czech passport, dipping a dumpling into a Velkopopovický Kozel beer, and dreaming about how he would spend his retirement in Prague, when suddenly on the torrent feed: NAVALNY VIOLATED HIS TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS. He throws aside the dumpling, grabs the phone, and yells into it: WHAT’S THIS ABOUT NAVALNY VIOLATING THINGS OVER THERE? CHANGE HIS PREVENTIVE MEASURE! The investigators snap to attention and today issue me a WARNING:
In response to all my bewilderment, they blush and say: this decision has been made. What to do with this is not very clear. The order on the preventive measure does not require any permission from me to travel to Moscow Region. If you do ask for permission in writing (I asked several times to travel outside the region; not once was it granted), they take a month to reply. The response always came by mail. My parents live in Moscow Region. I also go grocery shopping there, like many Muscovites do — formally speaking, to one of the shopping centers on the MKAD. So now am I supposed to write a month in advance: I request permission to travel to Auchan to purchase three packs of pasta; I undertake to provide receipts? That’s the story. Either they’re trolling me, or they’re looking for a pretext to lock me up. Either it’s LifeNews, or the Investigative Committee. Either drug addicts, or idiots. I honestly don’t know.