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Boris Vladimirovich Stomakhin (Russian: Борис Владимирович Стомахин), (born August 24, 1974, Moscow), is a Russian radical politician of Jewish origin, journalist, editor of Samizdat periodicals.
Journalism
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 rebels. He also issued a number of other Samizdat periodicals .
Political views
In his articles, Stomakhin advocated terrorist attacks on Russian civilians, called to exterminate all Russians, claimed that modern Russia is Evil empire and therefore must be destroyed, called Russians a "nation of occupiers", and compared President Vladimir Putin to Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic. Stomakhin considered terrorists Shamil Basaev and Salman Raduev as heroes of Chechen separatist movement and claimed that terrorist acts committed by them are legitimate because Russians, according to the allegations of Stomakhin, are conducting genocide of Chechen people.
When the last unrecognized president of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov was killed by FSB forces in antiterrorist operation, Stomakhin published the following passages in article "Death to Russia":
Kill, Kill, Kill! To flood all Russia with blood, to not give a quarter to anyone, to try to make at least one atomic explosion on the territory of Russian Federation -- this is like the program of radical Resistance should be, and Russian's, and Chechen's, and anyone's! Let the Russians, according to their deserts, reap as they has sown . Russians should be killed, and only killed, for there is no one among them who is normal, intelligent, or who can be talked with and for understanding of whom we could rely. Harsh collective responsibility of all Russians should be introduced, of all loyal Russian citizens for the actions of the government elected by them -- for the genocide, executions, ordeals, trade with corpses... From that moment there should be no division of killers on combatant and non-combatant, wilful or forced.
Political career
Stomakhin organized a number of illegal picketes by his organization against Russian foreign policy in Ukraine, Estonia, Belarus, Chechnya. He also criticized Russian government in defamatory and obscene statements. He was a leader of extremist political group "Revolutionary Contact Association" (RCA). Other members of this organization are Pavel Kantor, Dmitry Tarasov, Ludmila Evstifeeva, and Pavel Luzakov.
According to the Russian newspaper Utro Stomakhin's organization might be involved with Chechen hostage-takers. It 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"
Stomakhin was accused of the extremist activities, calls to violent change of Constitutional regime, calls to violate territorial integrity of Russian Federation, hate speech, inciting ethnic and religious hatred in his articles, which covered among other things, the Chechen conflict, the Russian Orthodox Church, and Russian nation. A case against him was opened in December 2003. His home was raided in April 2004 and his computers and books were confiscated for the expertise. Stomakhin was interrogated. Human Rights House alleged that prosecutors planned to declare him mentally ill and send him for treatment to Moscow Serbsky Institute where Pyotr Grigorenko and Viktor Nekipelov were treated in the past. Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia had conducted an independent unofficial expertise , although it is just an NGO, and not a medical institution. However, ordered official 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, despite Stomakhin's claims that he is politically prosecuted person in Russian Federation.
Arrest and Trial
Having returned to Moscow, Stomakhin was arrested on March 21 2006. Stomakhin tried to escape during his arrest and fell down (or possibly was pushed ) from fourth floor of his building. His spine and bones were broken as a result.
The statement of Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, a foreign NGO, in which it was reported that Stomakhin probably "was pushed" is false, because Stomakhin had jumped voluntarily according to numerous reports in mass media and non-governmental organizations. Stomakhin's lawyer Alexei Golubev also acknowledged in an interview to RIA Novosti news agency that Stomakhin had done so deliberately.
According to Stomakhin's lawyer Alexei Golubev, "He has been kept in a cell all this time, despite the fact that he is practically paralyzed."
He was sentenced to five years of prison for the extremist activities, 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).
No one human rights organization or non-governmental organization had supported Stomakhin at the trial, and no one organization sued the Russian Federation government for alleged by them abuses of Stomakhin, trial abuses or Stomakhin contention abuses.
Passages from Stomakhin's articles cited as incriminating evidence in the court sentence are the following:
- "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!"
- "Moscow subway terrorist bombing was justified, natural and legal... The Chechens have every right to blow up anything in Russia after everything that Russia and Russians did to them."
- "Russian Federation must be destroyed forever. State that does such things to entire nations has no right to exist."
- "Zelimkhan Yandarbiev died as a hero. He launched so many strikes to bloody Russia as he could".
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.
Public opinion
ARTICLE 19 international orgaization, which protects free speech, stated that "we do not believe Mr. Stomakhin’s comments can be interpreted as incitement to ethnic hatred."
Valeria Novodvorskaya, government opposition figure, leader of the Democratic Union that has a miserable number of voters, 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." At the same time, Novodvorskaya was a witness from Stomakhin's side at the Stomakhin's trial, where she never raised any such claims. She also never claimed specific facts in support of her statements.
Micah H. Naftalin, Director of Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, a foreign NGO, said: "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 also described statements by Boris Stomakhin as 'non-violent'. No one Jewish NGO in Russian Federation supported his view though.
Opposition figures like 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 .
Opposition journalist Vladimir Abarinov noted that Stomakhin has been convicted for publishing an article against Russian Orthodox Church that was actually plagiarized by Stomakhin from a Live Journal entry of a different person On trial no one disputed the authorship of the articles written by Stomakhin .
However, no specific charges were brought by any human rights organizations and the critics of the court decision, and no details or facts of 'human rights violations' or any abuse whatsoever were presented to public.
Critics of the court decision were censured by Russian publicist Maxim Sokolov. In his newspaper article published 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 Stomakhin's article Death to Russia published on the website of the Revolutionary Contact Association . The article was written in response to murder of last elected president of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov by Russian forces.
The Stomakhin's article contained the following passages written by Stomakhin: Kill, Kill, Kill! To flood all Russia with blood, to not give a quarter to anyone, to try to make at least one atomic explosion on the territory of Russian Federation -- this is like the program of radical Resistance should be, and Russian's, and Chechen's, and anyone's! Let the Russians, according to their deserts, reap as they has sown . Russians should be killed, and only killed, for there is no one among them who is normal, intelligent, or who can be talked with and for understanding of whom we could rely. Harsh collective responsibility of all Russians should be introduced, of all loyal Russian citizens for the actions of the government elected by them -- for the genocide, executions, ordeals, trade with corpses... From that moment there should be no division of killers on combatant and non-combatant, wilful or forced. According to Sokolov the cited passages made application of the article 282 completely appropriate, although the court sentence did not cite this article as a reason of Stomakhin conviction.
References
- ^ Boris Stomakhin article Death to Russia
- ^ Independent journalist given five-year sentence allegedly for inciting ethnic strife
- Official Court Sentence on Russian language dated 20.11.2006
- ^ Maxim Sokolov Trap-282 Izvestia 23 November 2006
- Press article Baraev's group was assisted by someone from Moscow
- Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia
- ^ UCSJ Calls For Fair Trial of Russian Jewish Activist, statement of UCSJ November 9, 2006)
- Prima News Agency report
- NewsRu Agency report
- Lenta.Ru Agency report
- Regnum News Agency report
- Grani News Agency report
- Human Rights Activists Website of Valeria Novodvorskaya article
- Center of Extremal Journalism article
- RIAN News Agency investigation
- RIAN News Agency news article
- ARTICLE 19’S STATEMENT ON THE CONVICTION OF RUSSIAN NEWSPAPER EDITOR BORIS STOMAKHIN, 23 November 2006
- KAVKAZ-CENTER WRITER APPEALS JAIL SENTENCE - by Jamestown Foundation
- Conviction of Boris Stomakhin: Opinions (Russian) - by Anna Karpuk for grani.ru
- Scapegoats - by Valeria Novodvorskaya for grani.ru
- Second-hand fascism - by Valeria Novodvorskaya for grani.ru
- Stomakhin Case - by Vladimir Abarinov for grani.ru.
- Official Court Sentence on Russian language dated 20.11.2006
External links
- Official Court Sentence on Russian language dated 20.11.2006
- Articles by Boris Stomakhin
- The article 'Death to Russia' by Boris Stomkahin in Google cache
- Revolutionary Contact Association website
- Revolutionary Contact Association website
- Another website of Revolutionary Contact Association
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