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Boris Stomakhin

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Boris Stomakhin
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Boris Vladimirovich Stomakhin (Russian: Борис Владимирович Стомахин), (born August 24, 1974, Moscow), is a Russian radical political activist, journalist, and editor of dissident periodicals.

Journalism and political activism

Boris Stomakhin was an editor of monthly newspaper "Radical Politics" since 2000. Besides, he contributed numerous materials to Kavkaz Center, the Islamic internet agency that promotes independence of Chechnya and is maintained by Chechen separatists.

Stomakhin claimed that Russian troops in Chechnya are "occupiers" and compared President Vladimir Putin to Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milošević. According to his court sentence, Stomakhin also stated that modern Russia is Evil empire and therefore must be destroyed, and considered Shamil Basaev and Salman Raduev as heroes of Chechen resistance whose terrorist activities are legitimate . However, some human rights activists like Valeria Novodvorskaya and Yakov Krotov did not believe that he actually promoted any terrorist activities

Stomakhin was a leader of a radical political group "Revolutionary Contact Association" (RCA). Other members of this organization are Pavel Kantor, Dmitry Tarasov, Ludmila Evstifeeva, and Pavel Luzakov. They organized a number of pickets against Russian foreign policy in Ukraine, Estonia, Belarus, Chechnya.

According to the Russian newspaper Utro Stomakhin's organization might be involved with Chechen hostage-takers, based on information provided by FSB. Utro alleged that during the Moscow theater hostage crisis, terrorists had "contacted with activists of Revolutionary Contact Association" and they "may be involved in supplying terrorists with ammunition and its storing at Moscow" However, these charges were not brought to the court.

Stomakhin was accused of hate speech in December 2003 . His home was raided in April 2004 and his computers and books were confiscated for the expertise. Stomakhin was interrogated. The Psychiatric expertise at Moscow Serbsky Institute found that Stomakhin is competent for the trial. Stomakhin escaped to the Ukraine seeking political asylum status, which was eventually denied.

Arrest and trial

Having returned to Moscow, Stomakhin was arrested on March 21 2006. Stomakhin tried to escape during his arrest and fell down from fourth floor of his building, according to his lawyer Alexei Golubev and news reports His spine and bones were broken as a result.

He was sentenced to five years of prison for inciting religious and ethnic hatred, promoting violent change of constitutional regime, calls for violation of terriorial integrity of Russian Federation, defamatory statements(articles 280 and 282 of the Russian Criminal Code).

Below are some excerpts from Stomakhin's articles cited as incriminating evidence in the court sentence:

  • "Let tens of new Chechen snipers take their positions in the mountain ridges and the city ruins and let hundreds, thousands of aggressors fall under righteous bullets! No mercy! Death to the Russian occupiers!" (the article was written in response to rape and murder of Chechen women Elza Kungaeva by Yuri Budanov)
  • "We, 'Revolutionary Contact Association' and 'Radical Politics' are united with the Committee 2008 and are ready to cooperate with it. However we a lot more radical. We are for not waiting until 2008 and bothering ourselves particularly with the Constitution, but we are for calling people to overthrow the Putin's regime as soon as possible. And we do not see any possibility of preserving Russian Federation as a single state. But we are ready to unite with all allies, even those that are more moderate".
  • "Bombing in Moscow subway was justified, natural and legal... The Chechens have full moral right to blow up anything they want in Russia after all that Russia and Russians did to them, none objections on humanism and philanthropy could be accepted."
  • "All Chechnya is currently filled up with the same Budanovs, maniacs, blood lusting sadists, murderers and degenerates with epaulets . The entire Russian occupation army consists of such Budanovs".
  • "In Chechnya Russian army ceased to exist as a military structure of state, being transformed into a devilish gang of marauders and killers, the gang intoxicated from narcotics".

Stomakhin pleaded not guilty. According to RIA Novosti, news agency, cited by the Committee to Protect Journalists he said he was "tried for his views and not for any real crime. ... In the articles, I expressed my opinion, with which people were free to agree or disagree." He said an opinion was not a “call to action.”. However, according to the official court sentence, Stomahin pleaded not guilty on the grounds that he never made public appeals for extremist activities, never called for violent change of the constitutional regime, and never incited ethnic hatred .

Commentaries

ARTICLE 19 international organization, which protects free speech, stated that "we do not believe Mr. Stomakhin’s comments can be interpreted as incitement to ethnic hatred." He is currently one of two political prisoners in Russia listed by Committee to Protect Journalists , a member of International Freedom of Expression Exchange.

Valeria Novodvorskaya, government opposition figure, leader of the Democratic Union, claimed that the prosecution of Stomakhin was the start of a wider campaign, "because together with him, the entire human rights sector and the entire democratic movement will be put on trial for disagreeing with the majority, for not accepting the state policy of the Russian Federation, for sympathizing with the Chechen people, for anti-war demonstrations and pickets."

According to Micah H. Naftalin, Director of Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, "Bogus charges aimed at stifling dissent, cruel police tactics, ethnic bias, and blatant disregard for criminal procedural statutes are all on open display. We hope that others will join us in condemning this travesty of justice" . He argued that Stomakhin's sentence was disproportionate, but acknowledged that Stomakhin's statements were radical. He emphasized that Boris Stomakhin did not do anything violent, unlike in many other real hate crime cases that were not prosecuted by Russian authorities.

Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky condemned the conviction of Stomakhin as prosecution of free speech. He noted that many famous Russian writers were very critical of Russian nation and cited Nikolai Chernyshevsky who said that Russians are "a pitiful nation of slaves. We are all slaves, from the top to the bottom "

Widow of Andrei Sakharov Elena Bonner stated that Stomakhin is not guilty in extremism and hate speech, and he is a victim of political prosecution like Soviet dissidents who were prosecuted for their writings by Yuri Andropov.

Former FSB officer, writer, and dissident Aleksander Litvinenko praised Stomakhin as "last conscience of Russia" and supported his views that "Not pacifist wails of 'human rights activists', not agreements and 'negotiations' with executioners and sadists - but only an armed strike!".

Human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina and politician Valeria Novodvorskaya argued that Stomakhin's writings while outrageous had not been a public threat: they were very unlikely to incite anybody. According to Gannushkina and Novodvorskaya the neofascists who posses a real threat usually receive only minimal sentences or no sentences at all. Thus, the five year prison term to Stomahin is extremely excessive . However, Gannushkina acknowledged that some Stomakhin's articles were "absolutely outrageous" and she disagrees with his writings.

Journalist Vladimir Abarinov criticized court proceedings as an example of Kangaroo court He noted that the criminal case against Stomakhin was opened based on an article about Russian Orthodox Church that was not written by Stomakhin. It was decided by the court that Stomakhin actually copied this article from the Live Journal entry, as well as other publications of numerous news agencies . The authors of the original article were not ever accused of hate crimes. The authors of the original work disagree to share their responsibility with Stomakhin citing that he had reproduced their works without permission and distorted the original meaning

Critics of the court decision were censured by Russian publicist Maxim Sokolov. In his article published in newspaper Izvestia after the conviction of Stomakhin he argued that unlimited hate speech should be prosecuted according to the article 282 of the criminal code. He cited a text allegedly written by Boris Stomakhin, which claimed that "Russian Federation must be destroyed" using using all available violent means including nuclear weapons, because all Russians are collectively responsible for actions of their state with respect to Chechen people. According to Sokolov, the cited passage made application of the article 282 completely appropriate, although this text was never cited as incriminating evidence during the court proceedings.

References

  1. ^ Independent journalist given five-year sentence allegedly for inciting ethnic strife
  2. ^ Official Court Sentence on Russian language dated 20.11.2006
  3. Boris Stomakhin:Victim of the Regime or a Terrorist Radio Liberty Template:Ru icon
  4. Press article Baraev's group was assisted by someone from Moscow
  5. Prima News Agency report
  6. NewsRu Agency report
  7. Lenta.Ru Agency report
  8. Regnum News Agency report
  9. Grani News Agency report
  10. Human Rights Activists Website of Valeria Novodvorskaya article
  11. Center of Extremal Journalism article
  12. RIAN News Agency investigation
  13. RIAN News Agency news article
  14. ARTICLE 19’S STATEMENT ON THE CONVICTION OF RUSSIAN NEWSPAPER EDITOR BORIS STOMAKHIN, 23 November 2006
  15. KAVKAZ-CENTER WRITER APPEALS JAIL SENTENCE - by Jamestown Foundation
  16. UCSJ Calls For Fair Trial of Russian Jewish Activist, statement of UCSJ November 9, 2006)
  17. Open letter by Vladimir Bukovsky and others
  18. Letter by Sannikova and Bonner.
  19. Opinion of Aleksander Litvineko (Russian)
  20. ^ Conviction of Boris Stomakhin: Opinions (Russian) - by Anna Karpuk for grani.ru
  21. Scapegoats - by Valeria Novodvorskaya for grani.ru
  22. Second-hand fascism - by Valeria Novodvorskaya for grani.ru
  23. ^ Stomakhin Case - by Vladimir Abarinov for grani.ru.
  24. Official Court Sentence on Russian language dated 20.11.2006
  25. Maxim Sokolov Trap-282 Izvestia 23 November 2006

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