{"id":3592,"date":"2019-06-03T13:43:20","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T10:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/?p=3592"},"modified":"2019-06-03T13:43:58","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T10:43:58","slug":"crossing-jordan-day-three-of-the-network-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/2019\/06\/03\/crossing-jordan-day-three-of-the-network-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Crossing Jordan: Day Three of the Network Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jordan and Maidan: The Network Trial, Day Three<\/strong>
\nSergei Kagermazov
\nOVD Info<\/a>
\nApril 11, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ovd1\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Yuli Boyarshinov in court. Photo by David Frenkel. Courtesy of OVD Info<\/em>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The left-wing radical community \nNetwork existed, but its young anarchists were training to fend off \nattacks by ultra-rightists when and if a coup like the one that took \nplace in Ukraine kicked off in Russia. In any case, this was the \ntakeaway message of the testimony given by defendant Yuli Boyarshinov. \nEcho of Moscow in Petersburg correspondent Sergei Kagermazov describes \nday three of the Network trial for <\/em>OVD Info.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guerrilla School<\/strong>
\nThe courtroom at the 224th Garrison Military Court in Petersburg is \nunable to accommodate everyone. Some members of the public are left \nstanding on the far side of the metal detector. The bailiffs claim there\n is no room and do not let people into the hallway even.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, it transpires that several \nuniversity students who had not heard of the case wormed their way into \nthe courtroom. Someone asked them to attend the hearing, and so \nreporters from Novaya Gazeta<\/em>, TASS, and Rosbalt are unable to get into the courtroom. Subsequently, one of the students was identified<\/a> as a member of the local branch of United Russia\u2019s Young Guard (Molodaya gvardiya)<\/a>. Fontanka.ru<\/em> would write<\/a> that the FSB were behind the restricted access to the courtroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The highlight of day three of the trial \nis defendant Yuli Boyarshinov\u2019s testimony. He pleaded guilty and moved \nto have his case tried separately under a special procedure involving \nelimination of the evidence phase, but the court denied his motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Boyarshinov, he knew he was \nan antifascist approximately since 2009. Six years later, he met another\n person accused [and convicted<\/em>] in the case, Igor Shishkin. Shiskin also pleaded guilty, made a deal with case investigators, and was sentenced<\/a> to three and a half years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAround 2015 or 2016, I came to think a \nviolent coup was possible in Russia. On the internet, I learned about \nradical right-wing groups planing something like what happened in \nUkraine in 2014,\u201d says Boyarshinov, who speaks as if he were reading the\n case file aloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People ordinarily do no talk like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyarshinov insists he was interested \nonly in self-defense in the event radical nationalists emerged in \nRussia. He learned to handle weapons at the Guerrilla Club, a place in \nPetersburg affiliated with the DOSAAF [Voluntary Society for Assisting the Army, Air Force and Navy<\/em>].\n Other suspects in the Network case, whom Boyarshinov identified as \nYegor and Polina, also took instruction there. Boyarshinov cannot recall\n their surnames. The young people purchased mock-ups of Kalashnikov \nrifles and practiced with them. However,  their only goal was \nself-defense. Boyarshinov emphasizes the young people were not planning \nany attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also then the suspect [sic<\/em>]\n met Alexandra Aksyonova, who introduced herself as Olya. Aksyonova is \nthe wife of another defendant in the case, Viktor Filinkov, who is being\n tried together with Boyarshinov. The young woman is currently in \nFinland, where her application for political asylum is under review. NTV\n has reported Aksyonova was one of the leaders of the Network and \nalleged she had ties with Ukrainian nationalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the Guerrilla Club, it was also a \nplace where future Donetsk People\u2019s Republic and Lugansk People\u2019s \nRepublic volunteer fighters trained, as well as the Swedes responsible \nfor the bomb attacks in Gothenburg in 2016 and 2017<\/a>.\n But none of these people had yet piqued the FSB\u2019s curiosity. When \nFilinkov asks whether Boyarshinov knew numerous nationalists trained at \nthe Guerrilla Club, Judge Roman Muranov disallows the question as having\n no bearing on the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jordan 1<\/strong>
\nBoyarshinov also testifies that, in the early summer of 2016, he was \ninvited to a meeting in the Priozersk District of Leningrad Region. The \nmeeting was attended by Yegor, Polina, and Shishkin, as well as Anton \nand Pasha, Network members from Penza (the men\u2019s real names were Maxim \nIvankin and Dmitry Pchelintsev, who are two more defendants in the \ncase), and two other people. Since the Petersburgers did not know the \npeople from Penza, they also used pseudonyms. Boyarshinov introduced \nhimself as Yura, Yegor as Matvei, and Shishkin as Maxim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the meeting, the young men from Penza \nshowed the others a document they called \u201cThe Code.\u201d It was a draft \nproject for a community called the Network. Boyarshinov says \u201cThe Code\u201d{\n ran to around fifteen pages, but only a couple of pages were read aloud\n to him. The case file contains a document resembling \u201cThe Code,\u201d but \nthat is the problem: it only resembles it. Boyarshinov was able to read \nthe entire text of \u201cThe Code\u201d only during the pretrial investigation. \nThe young men from Penza said [at the meeting in the Priozersk District<\/em>] they wanted to encourage the cooperation of different groups involved in self-defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ovd2\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Yuli Boyarshinov in court. Photo by David Frenkel. Courtesy of OVD Info<\/em>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, formally, I joined the Network community,\u201d Boyarshinov admits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to security considerations, it was decided to identify the Petersburg group as \u201cJordan 1.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subsequently, members of the Network \nwould choose different specialties for themselves. Since he had studied \ndemolition and explosives at the Guerrilla Club, Boyarshinov became the \ngroup\u2019s sapper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another meeting was held in western or \nnorthwestern Moscow Region in the woods. Six people attended, including \nmembers from Moscow. A third meeting took place in the winter of 2016 at\n Shishkin\u2019s mother\u2019s dacha. There were also several meetings in the \nautumn of 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was at one of these meetings that \nBoyarshinov met Filinkov. After Boyarshinov has testified, the people in\n the courtroom learn that, according to the case file, the FSB was \nalready staking out both defendants at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2017, another meeting was \nheld in a rented flat in Petersburg. Shishkin did not come to the \nmeeting, but Filinkov, the Muscovites, and Pchelintsev and Ivankin were \npresent. It was at this meeting that what the FSB identifies as \u201cthe \nminutes\u201d was left behind, finding its way into the case file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI cannot corroborate what is described \nin the minutes of the meeting: I did not take notes. But the description\n seems more or less accurate,\u201d says Boyarshinov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he read the minutes of the meeting, \nhe realized the Network had decided not just to learn self-defense, but \nto try and destroy the regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe in violence, in violence against state authorities. I am sorry I was in such a community,\u201d Boyarshinov repents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyarshinov was detained<\/a> by police. He claims to have found the smoke powder [with which police apprehended him<\/em>]\n on the the roof of a building, since he worked as an industrial \nclimber. He found the powder interesting, since he was studying \ndemolition and explosives. When it was reported Pchelintsev had been \ndetained, Boyarshinov decided to throw the powder away. He left his \nhouse and was caught by police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRussia\u2019s Falling Apart, We Have to Leave\u201d<\/strong>
\nThe next to testify is Stepan Prokofiev, in whose flat Filinkov lived \nwhile he was looking for a place to rent. Prokofiev\u2019s flat was searched \nby the FSB after they detained Filinkov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defendant [Filinkov<\/em>] immediately points out Prokofiev might commit perjury and slander him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe FSB coerced the witness,\u201d argues Filinkov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n[On the day of the search at his flat<\/em>],\n Prokofiev was awoken, forced to lie face down on the floor, and \nhandcuffed. He would spend the night at a police station. When \nFilinkov\u2019s defense attorney, Vitaly Cherkasov, asks whether police \nexplained to him why spent the night at a police station, Judge Muranov \ndisallows the question as having no bearing on the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ovd3\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

At the\n courthouse: members of the public holding pieces of paper inscribed \nwith the message \u201cNTV lies.\u201d Photo by David Frenkel. Courtesy of OVD Info<\/em>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFilinkov went to Ukraine to see his \nwife. When he got back, he told me he had met someone who had fought in \nDonbas while he was in Kyiv. Filinkov told me a couple of times that \nRussia was falling apart and we had to leave. He said it would happen \nafter the [March 2018 Russian<\/em>] presidential election. He would \ntalk about leaving for Georgia or Ukraine after this happened, because \nit was cheaper to live there,\u201d Prokofiev recounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filinkov counters that he never mentioned talking with anyone who fought in Donbas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutor Yekaterina Kachurina is more \ninterested in two guns that were legally registered in Filinkov\u2019s wife\u2019s\n name. However, it follows from the testimonies of Filinkov and the \nwitness that, for the time being, there is nothing for the prosecution \nto get its hooks into.  The papers for the guns were in order, and the \nguns were kept in a safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day ends with an attack by an NTV \ncrew on the attorneys and parents of the defendants. However, members of\n the pubic cover the lens of NTV\u2019s camera with pieces of paer inscribed \nwith the message \u201cNTV lies\u201d and rattle the young woman holding the \nmicrophone by peppering her with absurd questions. Meanwhile, the \ndefense attorneys are able to escape, while the parents get into taxis \nand quickly quite the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

_____________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vitaly Cherkasov<\/strong>
\nFacebook<\/a>
\nApril 10, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, defendant Yuli Boyarshinov, while generally admitting his guilt, did not corroborate the prosecution\u2019s position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prosecution has insisted that the \nmembers of the Network terrorist community, via \u201cdirect involvement in \ntraining sessions\u201d that took place in St. Petersburg, Leningrad Region, \nand Penza Region, mastered \u201ctactical methods of seizing buildings, \nfacilities, and individuals\u201d in order to \u201cforcibly capture and \neliminate\u201d state authorities and \u201cchange the constitutional order.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When examined in court, Boyarshinov \ncorroborated the testimony he had given during the pretrial \ninvestigation: the goal of the training sessions was to master the \nskills of self-defense against ultra-nationalists. Defense, not offense!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[\u2026]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

_____________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He Admitted His Guilt But Did \nNothing Wrong: Yuli Boyarshinov\u2019s Testimony at Network Trial Gives \nProsecution\u2019s Case No Trump Cards<\/strong>
\n\u0422atyana Likhanova<\/a>
\nNovaya Gazeta in Petersburg<\/a>
\nApril 11, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authorities decided to restrict<\/a> access to the trial<\/a> of the so-called terrorist community Network, which is an organization now officially banned in Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The high-profile case is being heard by a\n circuit panel of judges from the Moscow District Military Court at the \nGarrison Military Court in Petersburg. The hearings have been held in a \ncramped courtroom with two rows of benches accommodating ten people \neach. It is thus out of wildly out proportion with the heightened \nattention paid to the case by the public and the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, journalists from several periodicals appealed<\/a>\n to the Moscow District Military Court to provide them with normal \nworking conditions. On Wednesday morning, the approaches to the \ncourtroom were occupied by groups of students from the Chemical and \nPharmaceutical University and Herzen University\u2019s law school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former said they had been sent there \nby a university official responsible for military training and patriotic\n education, while the latter claimed they had come to witness a \nhigh-profile case they had long been following, although they could not \nanswer a single question about what was at stake in the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those crowded around the door to \nthe courtroom was a young man bearing a resemblance to Vlad Girmanov, \nsecretary of the military and patriotic club at the Pharmaceutical \nUniversity, as well as people who had picketed the Petersburg office of [Russian opposition politician and anti-corruption crusader<\/em>] Alexei Navalny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"nip1\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yuli Boyarshinov arriving at the courthouse. Photo by Elena Lukyanova. Courtesy of Novaya in Petersburg<\/em>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The influx of \u201cextras\u201d was an excuse to \nlimit the access of the press and the public to the trial. The bailiffs \nrefused to let correspondents from Deutsche Welle, TASS, Fontanka.ru<\/em>. Bumaga<\/em>,\n Rosbalt, and other media outlets into the courthouse to cover the \ntrial, as well as Petersburg Public Monitoring Commission member \nYekaterina Kosarevskaya. Complaints were filed with the head of the St. \nPetersburg bailiff service and the chairs of the Petersburg Garrison \nMilitary Court and the Moscow District Military Court. They were asked \nto verify the legality of the actions taken by the bailiffs and secure a\n courtroom large enough to accommodate everyone interested in witnessing\n this high-profile case. According to Fontanka.ru<\/em>, the order to restrict access to the courtroom was made<\/a> by FSB officers, who thus bypassed the top officials in the Petersburg judicial system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hearing opened with testimony by Yuli\n Boyarshinov, who has pleaded guilty. He said he had been an antifascist\n since 2009. In the winter of 2015\u20132016, he concluded that riots \ninvolving violence by nationalist groups (\u201calong the lines of the events\n in Ukraine in 2014\u201d) were possible in Russia. In order to acquire \nself-defense skills, Boyarshinov attended a month-long course at the \nGuerrilla Tactical and Firearms Training Center. (Its website says it is\n affiliated with the DOSAAF [Voluntary Society for Assisting the Army, Air Force and Navy<\/em>]\n and \u201cteaches civilians survival skills in local armed conflicts, social\n unrest, and martial law.\u201d) The course included instruction in handling \nfirearms, surviving in the woods, first aid, radio communication, and \nmines and explosives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyarshinov attended the classes with his\n friend Yegor and a young woman identified as Polina. In addition to \nlectures, training sessions were held at a shooting range near the \nvillage of Olgino, during which Boyarshinov used a mock-up of a \nKalashnikov assault rifle he acquired. Alexandra Askyonova, co-defendant\n Viktor Filinkov\u2019s future wife, also went to the shooting range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the summer of 2016, Boyarshinov was \ninvited to a meeting with \u201cguys from Penza who were also interested in \nself-defense.\u201d The meeting took place in the woods of Leningrad Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe made bonfires, discussed different social problems and issues of self-defense, and trained with dummy weapons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attendees used fictitious names \nbecause they did not yet trust each other. One of the four attendees \nwould later be identified as Dmitry Pchelintsev, another as Maxim \nIvankin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Boyarshinov, the Penza \nattendees talked about a project provisionally entitled the Network, \ndesigned to unite different groups for self-defense classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They presented their vision of the \norganization in a manifest of sorts, entitled \u201cThe Network Code,\u201d one or\n two pages of which were read aloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyarshinov claimed he did not take what \nhe heard seriously, and when someone later sent him the entire text of \n\u201cThe Code,\u201d he did not bother to read it from cover to cover. He read \nthe full text, nearly twenty pages, only when he was recently reviewing \nthe criminal investigation case file. He was unable to corroborate \nwhether what he read was identical to what had been sent to him earlier,\n but he said it seemed similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The document also outlines possible areas\n for studying self-defense skills: tactician, medic, signalman, and \nother roles, with no reference to specific people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese areas correspond to the disciplines I studied during the course at the Guerrilla Center,\u201d Boyarshinov noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"nip2\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Yuli Boyarshinov\u2019s father Nikolai in the courtroom. Photo by Elena Lukyanova. Courtesy of Novaya Gazeta in Petersburg<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second meeting that summer took place\n in the Moscow Region. Several young people from the capital joined the \nattendees of the first meeting. Boyarshinov remembered only that one of \nthem was named Lev. There were more conversations around campfires and \ntraining sessions with dummy weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the winter of 2016\u20132017, the group traveled to Igor Shishkin\u2019s mother\u2019s dacha, spending their time in much the same way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyarshinov stressed they worked only on \nfending off attacks during all the meetings and training sessions: they \nnever practiced raids and assaults. Political issues were not discussed,\n and there was no talk of drilling for terrorist-like crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shishkin, who made a deal with case \ninvestigators, also noted the absence of violent actions during the \ntraining when he described the trip to his mother\u2019s dacha in his \ntestimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyarshinov corroborated that Filinkov \ndid not attend the first two meetings. Aksyonova introduced Boyarshinov \nto Filinkov in the autumn of 2016. Filinkov took part in a couple of \ntraining sessions at the firing range near Olgino. One dealt with first \naid and evacuating the wounded, while the second focused on fending off \nattacks of VIPs [sic<\/em>] by employing the methods of private \nsecurity companies. No knives or firearms were used during the training \nsessions, only dummy machine guns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the group\u2019s allegedly strict \nconspiratorial methods, among which case investigators identified the \nuse of messengers and encrypted correspondence, Boyarshinov explained \nthey had been his usual means of communication in the years prior to his\n involvement with the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third meeting with the young men from\n Penza and several Muscovites took place in a rented flat in Petersburg \nin February and March 2017. In the case file, this meeting has been \nidentified as a \u201cnational congress of the Network terrorist community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyarshinov, on the contrary, described a\n two- or three-day meeting, involving approximately a dozen people. They\n discussed a little of everything, from music to social, environmental \nand antifascist events. Filinkov was in attendance, but Boyarshinov \ncould not remember him giving a report, showing any initiative or \nshouldering any responsibilities for further action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyarshinov could not say who organized \nthe meeting and who kept the minutes of the meeting. (A printed file \nentitled \u201cMinutes of the Congress\u201d was entered into physical evidence.) \nHe could not corroborate whether Filinkov was present the entire time or\n whether he came and went, since he had himself had come to and gone \nfrom the meeting. As far as he could remember, \u201cThe Network Code\u201d was \nalso discussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, some of those present said the \ngroup should prepare vigorously to fend off potential violent actions \nwhen circumstances in Russia deteriorated, while others had advocated \n\u201cprovoking actions themselves,\u201d Boyarshinov recalled uncertainly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only after carefully reading\n the redaction of \u201cThe Network Code\u201d provided to him by case \ninvestigators did Boyarshinov discover \u201cit had been proposed to \nestablish combat cells and target the authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have never espoused terrorism and I am sorry I wound up in this community,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Boyarshinov was \nunable to clarify who he believed had authored the document, how its \ncontents were regarded by any of his current co-defendants, and whether \nit had been backed by someone specifically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UPDATE<\/strong>
\nThe next day, April 11, the hearing started nearly two hours late. \n(Allegedly, the armed escort bringing the defendants to court had got \nstuck in traffic, although it takes fifteen minutes to drive from the \nremand prison to the courthouse.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hearing was brief. The court heard \nthe testimony of the two janitors who had served as official witnesses \nduring the search of Filinkov\u2019s place of residence. The presiding judge \nthen announced the trial was adjourned until May 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One explanation for such a long \nadjournment is the reluctance of Petersburg investigators to wind the \ncase up before the scandal surrounding the lead investigator in the main\n part of the Network case, Valery Tokarev, a senior investigator in the \nFSB\u2019s Penza Region office, has been cleared up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The previous day\u2019s evening news broadcast\n on state TV channel Russia 24 featured a segment on fugitive \nbusinessman Alexei Shmatko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shmatko, who complained he was tortured \nby Tokarev, has been granted political asylum in Great Britain. (The \nsegment starts at the fifty-minute mark.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n