Victoria Arnold. RUSSIA: Pacifist Christian musician fined, banned from internet posting

 17 August 2023.

Victoria Arnold, Forum 18

Musician and teacher Anna Chagina has been handed a fine and a ban on internet posting for opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She stood accused of "discrediting" the Russian armed forces more than once in a year. "I also want to remind you of a simple ethical rule – do to others as you would have them do to you," Chagina said in her final statement. Elsewhere, Mikhail Simonov, the first person to be sentenced to jail for opposing the war from a religious perspective, has lost his appeal against his 7-year jail term.

A court in Siberia has handed musician and teacher Anna Chagina a fine and a ban on posting on the internet as punishment for her opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Chagina stood accused of "discrediting" the Russian armed forces more than once in a year – firstly, by displaying a poster reading “Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9)" at an anti-war protest, and secondly, by making anti-war posts on social media, including reposts of texts by religious philosopher Nikolay Karpitsky.

Anna Chagina

Private

On 7 August 2023, Soviet District Court in Tomsk fined Chagina 150,000 Roubles under Criminal Code Article 280.3 Part 1 ("Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in order to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens, [and] maintain international peace and security") and prohibited her from publishing anything online for 2 years (see below).

Judge Roman Zaynulin imposed the punishment “with the aim of restoring social justice and preventing [Chagina] from committing a new offence." He reduced the fine to 100,000 Roubles to account for time spent under restrictions. 100,000 Roubles is equivalent to almost 6 weeks’ average wages in Tomsk Region as of May 2023. It is unknown whether or not Chagina will choose to appeal. In the meantime, Chagina must abide by travel restrictions and a good behaviour order. According to the verdict, her laptop will be returned when the verdict comes into force, but her mobile phone will remain confiscated as it was “used in the commission of the offence." (see below).

On 14 August, Forum 18 wrote to Soviet District Court and Tomsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office, asking why a Biblical quotation (as in Chagina’s first, administrative prosecution) and reposts of Karpitsky’s observations on the war were considered "discreditation" of the Russian armed forces, and whether the prosecution intended to challenge the court’s verdict. No response has been received (see below).

In court, Chagina did not deny making the internet posts which led to her conviction but pleaded not guilty, stating that she had always held pacifist views: "There is the right, enshrined in law, to express any opinion publicly. ‘No to war’ is [my] position, regardless of which war" (see below).

“I also want to remind you of a simple ethical rule – do to others as you would have them do to you," Chagina told the court in her final statement. "I believe that we will be able to overcome this deepest crisis that has arisen between our peoples, and I urge everyone to find strength in ourselves and stop hating. Don't believe what they say. We have no greater enemies than ourselves" (see below).

"When military action finally comes to an end and those who survive return – and sooner or later, that will happen – the [Russian Orthodox Church] will have to answer for its ideological support of the war," Chagina told Forum 18 through friends on 11 August, before the verdict came into legal force. "I think a global crisis of faith awaits us inside the ROC [Russian Orthodox Church]" (see below).

Mikhail Simonov, the first person to be sentenced to imprisonment for opposing the war in Ukraine from a religious perspective, appealed unsuccessfully against his conviction on 25 July 2023 at Moscow City Court (see below).

On 30 March, Forum 18 asked the Federal Investigative Committee and its Moscow branch, as well as Moscow City Prosecutor's Office, in what way Simonov's comments could be construed as motivated by hatred of a political or social group, and why it was necessary to have a 63-year-old man with health problems placed in detention. Forum 18 has received no reply to any of these questions (see below).

On 30 March, Simonov had received a 7-year prison term under Criminal Code Article 207.3 ("Public dissemination, under the guise of credible statements, of knowingly false information on the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation") for making online comments condemning the war, including one which said "We, Russia, have become godless. Forgive us, Lord!" He is currently in transit within the prison system and it remains unknown where he will serve his sentence (see below).

Ongoing and new cases

Guard brings Fr Ioann Kurmoyarov into Kalinin District Court, St Petersburg, 6 February 2023

Rferl.org (RFE/RL)

Father Ioann Kurmoyarov (of a branch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia not in communion with the Moscow Patriarchate), the only person currently on trial for opposing the war in Ukraine on religious grounds, has been in custody in St Petersburg’s Kresty-2 prison since June 2022. The judge in his case rejected his latest petition to be placed under lesser restrictions on 28 June 2023.

In August 2022, Darya Lebedeva, head of the joint court system press service for St Petersburg, insisted to Forum 18 that Fr Ioann had to be held in detention because: "if at liberty and not isolated from society, Kurmoyarov may continue his criminal activity, conceal himself from investigators and the court, destroy evidence and otherwise interfere with the criminal proceedings".

Fr Ioann is on trial under Criminal Code Article 207.3 ("Public dissemination, under the guise of credible statements, of knowingly false information on the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation") for posting anti-war videos on YouTube, and is next due to appear in court on 22 August 2023.

Yury Sipko, June 2019

Svoboda.org (RFE/RL)

In early August, the Investigative Committee in Moscow opened a criminal case against Baptist pastor Yury Sipko, the former head of the Russian Baptist Union. He is under investigation under Criminal Code Article 207.3 ("Public dissemination, under the guise of credible statements, of knowingly false information on the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation"), Part 2 Paragraph D ("based on political, ideological, racial, national, or religious hatred or enmity, or based on hatred or enmity against any social group"). Investigators raided Sipko’s home in Moscow, but could not arrest him as he had already left the country – they have now had him placed on the Interior Ministry’s wanted list (see forthcoming F18News article).

Federal Security Service (FSB) investigators in Kaluga also searched the home of Pentecostal bishop Albert Ratkin on 8 August, and took him in for questioning. He was later released and is so far being treated as a witness in Sipko’s case (see forthcoming F18News article).

Administrative Code cases for opposition to the war on grounds of faith or with the use of religious imagery and quotations continue to be brought. Cases in 2023 have included Eduard Charov, who was fined in April for "discrediting" the Armed Forces and "inciting hatred" towards state authorities after he criticised Russia's invasion of Ukraine on social media, asking "Would Jesus Christ have gone to kill in Ukraine?".

Conscientious objectors to military service have been jailed, such as Pentecostal Andrey Kapatsyna who refused to fight in Ukraine, telling commanders that "in accordance with his religious beliefs, he could not take up arms and use them against other people." On 29 June 2023, a Vladivostok court sentenced him to 2 years, 10 months' imprisonment under new legislation punishing non-fulfilment of orders in a period of combat operations. There is no legal or practical provision for alternative civilian service (ACS) during mobilisation, despite the Constitution guaranteeing this right for every citizen.

“Discreditation" and “False information"

Specific penalties for criticising Russia's actions in its renewed war against Ukraine came into force on 4 March 2022. These include Administrative Code Article 20.3.3 ("Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation"), which is used against apparently any form of anti-war statement either in public spaces or online, and Criminal Code Article 207.3 ("Public dissemination, under the guise of credible statements, of knowingly false information on the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation").

If individuals commit an offence covered by Administrative Code Article 20.3.3 more than once within a year, they may be prosecuted under Criminal Code Article 280.3 ("Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in order to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens, [and] maintain international peace and security").

On 28 March 2023, a series of amendments to the Criminal Code came into legal force, increasing penalties for disseminating "false information" about and repeatedly "discrediting" the Russian Armed Forces (Criminal Code Articles 207.3 and 280.3). The amendments also widen the definition of these offences (and of Administrative Code Article 20.3.3) to include criticism of "volunteer formations, organisations and individuals who assist in the fulfilment of tasks assigned to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation" (that is, private mercenary units).

Under Criminal Code Article 280.3 ("Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in order to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens, [and] maintain international peace and security"), Part 1, the maximum prison sentence was raised from 3 years to 5 years. Under Part 2, the same offence if resulting in "death by negligence", harm to health or property, or mass public disorder, the penalty was raised from 5 years to 7 years.

Under Criminal Code Article 207.3 ("Public dissemination, under the guise of credible statements, of knowingly false information on the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation"), Part 1, the maximum prison sentence was raised from 3 years to 5 years (Part 2 remains unchanged).

Russian Orthodox (ROCOR) priest Nikandr Pinchuk was the first person to receive a criminal conviction for opposing Russia's war in Ukraine on religious grounds. On 17 October 2022, a court in the Urals fined him two months' average local wage under Criminal Code Article 280.3, for a social media post condemning the "horde of the Antichrist" attacking Ukraine. Neither Verkhoturye District Court nor Prosecutor's Office replied to Forum 18's questions on why expressing religious views on the war in Ukraine should be considered "discreditation" of the Armed Forces and incur such a large fine.

Tomsk: Fine and ban on internet posts for “discrediting" the army

Soviet District Court, Tomsk, August 2021

Google

On 7 August 2023, Anna Sergeyevna Chagina (born 29 November 1979) made her tenth and final appearance at Soviet District Court in Tomsk on a charge of repeatedly “discrediting" the Russian armed forces.

Judge Roman Zaynulin found her guilty and imposed a fine of 150,000 Roubles and a 2-year ban on making online publications. He reduced the fine to 100,000 Roubles to take into account the one day Chagina was detained after her arrest, and the time she spent under restrictions during the investigation and awaiting trial. 100,000 Roubles is equivalent to almost 6 weeks’ average wages in Tomsk Region as of May 2023.

In her final statement to the court, Chagina – a viola player and music teacher – said that she believed that war, “no matter what it is called – a special military operation, or something else – causes irreparable harm [and] damage to our countries and human destinies," the Vtomske.ru local news website reported on 7 August. “I believe that no one can win a war. Only love, which always remains, can win. Even now, when our soldiers are shooting at each other, when people are dying, it still remains."

“We have the opportunity to finish this as soon as possible. This is our responsibility. I want to remind those who consider themselves Christians that Kiev is the mother of Russian cities," Chagina added.

“I also want to remind you of a simple ethical rule – do to others as you would have them do to you. I believe that we will be able to overcome this deepest crisis that has arisen between our peoples, and I urge everyone to find strength in ourselves and stop hating. Don't believe what they say. We have no greater enemies than ourselves."

Prosecutors had sought a fine of 200,000 Roubles and a 3-year ban on posting material online. The maximum punishment Chagina could have received under Criminal Code Article 280.3 ("Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in order to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens, [and] maintain international peace and security"), Part 1, was 3 years’ imprisonment. This was because her alleged offence took place before the March 2023 increase in possible sentences.

The verdict has not yet entered legal force. Chagina has not yet decided whether to appeal, she told Forum 18 through friends on 11 August - she has 15 days to do so from the date the verdict was issued. Akt-Produkt, an independent St Petersburg-based record label with which Chagina has collaborated, noted on VKontakte on 13 August that supporters had already managed to raise enough money to pay the fine.

In the meantime, Chagina must abide by travel restrictions and a good behaviour order. According to the verdict, her laptop will be returned when the verdict comes into force, but her mobile phone will remain confiscated as it was “used in the commission of the offence."

First conviction

Criminal Code Article 280.3 punishes those who “discredit" the Russian armed forces more than once within a year. Chagina's first conviction for this was for displaying a poster reading “Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9)" at an anti-war protest in Tomsk in March 2022, just two days after the new offence of “discreditation" came into force.

“Many times after [the arrest for the poster], I inwardly turned to these words of Christ and realised that peacemaking begins with what is in a person's heart," Chagina told Forum 18 through friends on 11 March 2023.

On 14 March 2022 she was fined 45,000 Roubles under Administrative Code Article 20.3.3 ("Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation"), Part 1, also at Soviet District Court in Tomsk.

Second accusation of “discreditation"

The second accusation of “discreditation," which led to Chagina’s criminal prosecution, derived from a number of posts she made on her profile page on the VKontakte social network, which a witness allegedly came across by chance and reported to an acquaintance in the FSB. In summer 2022, Chagina had begun to notice that she was being followed. After her arrest in autumn 2022, the investigator remarked that all the local police already knew her, media outlet Govorit Ne Moskva (which specialises in regional stories) noted in December 2022.

Maksim Khalturin shows ankle monitoring bracelet, February 2019

CurrentTime TV

After her second arrest on 30 November 2022, the court placed her under specific restrictions, including a night-time curfew, a ban on using the internet and postal service, and the use of an electronic tag. Chagina continued to have to wear the tag for more than seven months, until prison service officials removed it at the start of July to use on another person, as they had run out of devices.

Those internet posts cited in the August 2023 court verdict, seen by Forum 18, comprise a post on 12 May 2022 saying that she had signed human rights defender Lev Ponomaryov's change.org petition against Russia's renewed invasion of Ukraine, and another on 7 June 2022 saying “NO TO WAR" (with a link to a news report on the State Duma’s proposed creation of more war-related criminal offences), as well as three reposts of texts from the Facebook page of Nikolay Karpitsky.

Karpitsky is a religious philosopher from Tomsk who now lives in Slovyansk in Ukraine. He has documented the experience of wartime life almost every day since the invasion and produced a series of videos on YouTube entitled “War from the point of view of religion."

Karpitsky’s texts which feature in the court’s written verdict are those (of 3 May, 28 May, and 11 June 2022) which accuse Russian forces of targeting Ukrainian homes and civilian infrastructure. These include: “After all, they will not spare anyone. First, they will demolish everything they can with artillery. Then, on the cleared territory, the intelligence services will look for ‘Nazis’, that is, to torture and kill all those who are suspicious. And then the city will be given to the gopniks [thugs, delinquents] for plunder, who will kill just for the sake of entertainment. Thus they have already acted in Bucha and other cities."

The Investigative Committee and experts for the prosecution determined that these posts characterised Russian troops’ actions as “predatory, dangerous, [and] violent."

A number of other materials from Chagina’s VKontakte page contributed to the Investigative Committee’s 30 November 2022 decision to charge her (seen by Forum 18), though do not appear in the final indictment or verdict.

These included a 17 May 2022 repost from the “Libertarnaya Teologiya" VKontakte page, with information about and links to download a book entitled “The long road of Russian pacifism: the ideal of international and internal peace in the religious-philosophical and socio-political thought of Russia" (ed. T. Shchapov, Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences, 1997). This included the quotation: “Saints who acquired inner peace, according to hagiographic literature, almost always became peacemakers in both the private and political life of ancient Rus' .. With their lives, they testified that only by renouncing selfish aspirations, life ‘according to the elements of this world’, affirming oneself in love for God and neighbour, can a person defeat evil – not to slay it with a sword, but to absorb it into oneself and dissolve it by the effort of faith and love."

In court, Chagina did not deny making the posts but pleaded not guilty, stating that she had always held pacifist views: “There is the right, enshrined in law, to express any opinion publicly. ‘No to war’ is [my] position, regardless of which war."

August 2023 verdict

Judge Zaynulin found no mitigating or exacerbating circumstances in the case, and “taking into account the effect of the chosen punishment on the correction of the guilty person" and “with the aim of restoring social justice and preventing [Chagina] from committing a new offence," decided to impose a fine and 2 years’ “deprivation of the right to carry out activities related to administration of sites on electronic and information-telecommunication networks, including the internet, and the posting of information on them for public access."

Forum 18 wrote to Soviet District Court and Tomsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office on 14 August, asking why a Biblical quotation (as in Chagina’s first, administrative prosecution) and reposts of Karpitsky’s observations on the war were considered “discreditation" of the Russian armed forces, and whether the prosecution intended to challenge the court’s verdict. No response has been received.

“A global crisis of faith awaits us inside the Russian Orthodox Church"

“As far as my religious life is concerned, everything has remained the same: I go to church, nobody has tried to limit my freedom of belief in any way," Chagina told Forum 18 through friends on 11 August, before the verdict came into legal force.

“When military action finally comes to an end and those who survive return – and sooner or later, that will happen – the [Russian Orthodox Church] will have to answer for its ideological support of the war. If Russia openly recognises its defeat, the Church will be emotionally responsible for this before society.

“There are already few people now in the churches, on weekdays there’s almost nobody at all. And after the war, I think a global crisis of faith awaits us inside the ROC [Russian Orthodox Church]. There are priests who are generally afraid to speak, and this fear is not just of the state, but also of the people. It is as if an abyss has grown between pastor and flock."

Moscow: 7-year prison sentence upheld

Mikhail Simonov being led into Moscow’s Timiryazevsky District Court, 30 March 2023

Antonina Favorskaya/SOTAvision

Mikhail Yuryevich Simonov (born 27 January 1960), the first person to receive a prison sentence for his religiously motivated opposition to the war in Ukraine, appealed unsuccessfully against his conviction on 25 July 2023 at Moscow City Court.

The Investigative Committee’s case against Simonov was based on two comments he made on the VKontakte social network in March 2022: "Killing children and women, on Channel One [television] we sing songs. We, Russia, have become godless [bezbozhniki]. Forgive us, Lord!"; and "Russian pilots are bombing children."

On 30 March 2023, the capital’s Timiryazevsky District Court found Simonov guilty under Criminal Code Article 207.3 ("Public dissemination, under the guise of credible statements, of knowingly false information on the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation"), Part 2 Part D ("based on political, ideological, racial, national, or religious hatred or enmity, or based on hatred or enmity against any social group"). He was sentenced to 7 years’ imprisonment.

On 30 March, Forum 18 asked the Federal Investigative Committee and its Moscow branch, as well as Moscow City Prosecutor's Office, in what way Simonov's comments could be construed as motivated by hatred of a political or social group, and why it was necessary to have a 63-year-old man with health problems placed in detention. Forum 18 also asked Moscow City Prosecutor's Office why prosecutors had requested such a long prison sentence of 7 years. Forum 18 has received no reply to any of these questions.

Simonov is still in transit within the prison system, a person following the case told Forum 18, and as of early August, he was being held at Investigation Prison No. 2 in Tsivilsk in the Chuvash Republic. It is as yet unknown where he will serve his sentence.

Simonov remained in detention throughout the investigation and trial and between his conviction and appeal, and is therefore deemed to have already served 13 and a half months of his prison term. He is thus likely to be due for release in June 2029 – after which he will be subject to a 4-year ban on some online activities.

At Simonov’s appeal hearing, his lawyer Aleksandr Aldayev argued that Criminal Code Article 207.3 contravenes international law, RusNews reported on its Telegram channel on 25 July. Simonov himself stated that he “did not fully understand the essence of the charge against him," and that pleaded guilty only to the offence of “Public dissemination of knowingly false information under the guise of authentic information" (ie. Article 207.3 Part 1), denying that he had been motivated by “political hatred." The appeal judge refused, however, to reclassify the charge against him. (END)

N. Karpitsky. May 12, 2022. Ukraine. Four hundred and forty-third day of the war

The shelling of Kramatorsk was heard again tonight, and yesterday our town was under fire. A S-300 missile hit a private house, a woman was wounded, her elderly mother was killed. This is our daily life, so constantly. Victory Day over fascism was also celebrated in the midst of sirens. For us it is a day of remembrance of the victims, for the necro-imperialists - a day of festivity. Of course, Russian necrophilism differs from Hitler’s Nazism, but both are varieties of fascism from a scientific point of view. Who would have thought that after 78 years fascists will celebrate victory over fascism by firing 25 rockets on cities of Ukraine!

In winter, they shot at transformers to freeze us out. We had to stay without electricity, but it was calmer. Now again, residential areas have become the main target of shelling. Air raids are often heard, however, missile strikes are still unexpected when there is a lull. Therefore I do not react to either sirens or explosions, and there is still nowhere to hide. When rockets hit Kramatorsk, the sound is distant and dull, when they hit us, it's vibrant. If in our district, the sound is very harsh and the windows rattle. But it doesn't happen every day, not to compare with how it was last summer.

When the explosion is very close, it's a shame to admit, but the first thought is a selfish one: "Good thing it wasn't me!" Then, you're waiting for the rest of the missiles to pass by, and soon everything will go silent. As soon as the shelling subsides, you realize that someone may now have been killed or crippled. Public outcry is caused by terrible shots from Uman, Dnipro, Kherson, where dozens of people die in their apartments, in shops, at bus stops, photographs of the happy faces of mothers with children who are no longer there. But aside from that, people die in their apartments from shelling every day, you simply cannot remember everyone. Start getting used to the daily routine of death, and that’s the worst part. 

During the shelling, I involuntarily calculate the probabilities. Let's say there are six explosions. Our city is stretched for ten kilometers, and the probability that one of the missiles will hit exactly my house is a fraction of a percent. If you are outside, the probability of getting hurt increases several times, but it's still not much. A kind of "devilish Russian roulette". If in "Russian roulette" the probability of a blank shot is significant, in "devilish roulette" missiles kill someone anyway. The decrease in the probability of death is achieved not by a blank shot, but by increasing the number of people exposed to mortal danger, so it's a win-win for the devil or whoever leads the shelling.

There is a huge difference between episodic and constant shelling. In Bakhmut, the probability of survival is small, but, unlike Mariupol, the orcs could not surround it. Mariupol residents had to fight for survival, breaking out of the city through checkpoints where they were beaten, along roads that were shelled. It is still unknown how many died there. Obviously, many and many tens of thousands of people, but how many exactly - it's even scary to think about. Compared to Mariupol, we are very lucky. We are not bombed by aviation, and after a missile hits a residential building, rescuers dig out the victims. There was no one in Mariupol to do this.

One of my ordinary days. I gave a lecture to my students, and want to limber up. The day is sunny, warm and quiet. I rode my bike to the supermarket. As soon as I open the door, a loud explosion is heard somewhere nearby. By the sound - a powerful rocket, a kilometer and a half or two from us. There is no siren - they still do not have time to turn it on in case of such single attacks. And you can't hide from them in a bomb shelter. I don't even know where the bomb shelter is. The only thing left to do is to ignore the danger. So did the people around me, walking between the shelves, paying at the checkout. Several more explosions. I return home, a view of Karachun opens in front of me, and to the left of it, two columns of smoke rise above the city. 

Such shelling has become a daily routine, they no longer disrupt the usual rhythm of city life. They correspond to the first level of danger to which any resident of Ukraine is exposed in any city, because there are no safe places now. Anyone at any time can die from a missile attack at home. Such missiles are very powerful and are capable of bringing down an entire section of a high-rise building. However, few missiles are fired in a single attack, and even those are dispersed throughout Ukraine, so many ignore this level of danger.

The second level of danger is when the city begins to be systematically shelled with Hurricane or Smerch MLRS, as they shelled Slavyansk last summer. Rockets are weaker, a single strike can destroy several apartments, but the attacks are much more intense and can last for an hour or two. Here the probability of getting killed increases manifold, and there is no way to walk around the city. However, the orcs do not have enough MLRS to destroy the entire city, so more than 80% of the destruction is done with cannon artillery. When the orcs attacked the city from Izyum and Liman last summer, they only had to deploy howitzers in our direction to destroy Slaviansk. In desperate fighting, the Ukrainian military did not allow this to happen.

Being in the target area of the cannon artillery corresponds to the third level of danger. There is already a very high chance of dying in your flat, but it is possible to take refuge in a shelter that cannot be hit by artillery shells. However, artillery can keep hitting for weeks and months, so sooner or later everything can be destroyed to the ground. The fourth level of danger is when there are urban battles. The Russian army does not know how to storm cities without destroying them to the ground. In these conditions, you can survive only if you have really good luck. The highest level is the total destruction of a besieged city by air, when bomb shelters were turned into mass graves, as was the case in Mariupol.

In recent months, I have been very upset that we had to retreat in the face of dumb orc infantry attacks due to a lack of the most primitive anti-personnel weapons. Now I’m watching the enemy artillery beat out, and the optimism is growing again. Something is happening at the front, I don't understand what exactly, and that's a very good thing. For if I understood, it would mean that our offensive plans were revealed. Since they are not disclosed, it makes no sense to read analysts' forecasts.

Victoria Arnold. The criminal trial of Tomsk musician Anna Chagina // Forum 18, 20 March 2023

20 March 2023. Victoria Arnold, Forum 18

URL: https://nikukraina.blogspot.com/2023/03/victoria-arnold-tomsk-musicians.html

The criminal trial of Tomsk musician Anna Chagina on charges of again "discrediting" the Armed Forces resumes on 11 April. She was fined in 2022 for a poster reading "Blessed are the peacemakers". "Many times after [the arrest for the poster], I inwardly turned to these words of Christ and realised that peacemaking begins with what is in a person's heart," Chagina says. In St Petersburg, Fr Ioann Kurmoyarov's trial resumes on 10 April. He says he has been denied medical attention in prison, including from a cardiologist.

The criminal trial has begun in Tomsk of a musician and teacher who allegedly "discredited" the Russian Armed Forces more than once in a year. Anna Chagina appeared in court for the first time on 15 March – her next hearing is due to take place on 11 April. If convicted, she could spend up to three years in prison or have to pay a fine of up to 300,000 Roubles. The court extended the restrictions imposed on her - including a night-time curfew and a ban on using the internet - until 2 September. She has been fitted with an ankle bracelet to monitor her movements.

Chagina's first (administrative) conviction was for displaying a poster reading "Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9)" at an anti-war protest in Tomsk in March 2022, just two days after the new offence of "discreditation" came into force.

"Many times after [the arrest for the poster], I inwardly turned to these words of Christ and realised that peacemaking begins with what is in a person's heart," Chagina told Forum 18. "Happiness is when you become one who can reconcile those who are warring. One who has come to terms with oneself, with people, with Life. When you carry light and joy in yourself, which spread to other people".

Investigators subsequently accused Chagina of posting anti-war materials on social media and charged her under Criminal Code Article 280.3, Part 1 ("Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in order to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens, [and] maintain international peace and security", when these take place more than once in twelve months).

Although it remains unclear exactly which posts form the basis of the prosecution, they appear to include texts and videos by religious philosopher Nikolay Karpitsky, who has described wartime life in Ukraine and discussed the Russian invasion from a Christian perspective.

Punishments increased for "fakes" and "discreditation"

On 18 March, President Vladimir Putin signed into law a series of amendments increasing penalties for disseminating "false information" about and repeatedly "discrediting" the Russian Armed Forces (Criminal Code Articles 207.3 and 280.3). The amendments also widen the definition of these offences (and of Administrative Code Article 20.3.3) to include criticism of "volunteer formations, organisations and individuals who assist in the fulfilment of tasks assigned to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation" (that is, private military outfits such as Wagner).

Under Criminal Code Article 280.3, Part 1, the maximum prison sentence will be raised from 3 years to 5 years – under Part 2 (the same offence if resulting in "death by negligence", harm to health or property, or mass public disorder), from 5 years to 7 years.

Under Criminal Code Article 207.3, Part 1, the maximum prison sentence will be raised from 3 years to 5 years (Part 2 remains unchanged).

The amendments are due to come into force ten days after their official publication on 18 March.

Tomsk: Anna Chagina's trial to resume 11 April

On 15 March, Anna Sergeyevna Chagina (born 29 November 1979) made her first appearance at Soviet District Court in the Siberian city of Tomsk on charges of repeatedly "discrediting" the Russian Armed Forces. Judge Roman Zaynulin refused the defence request to lift the restrictions under which she has been living for the last three and half months. He adjourned the trial until 11 April.

Tomsk Region Investigative Committee opened a case in November 2022 against Chagina – a violinist, viola player, and music teacher – under Criminal Code Article 280.3 ("Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in order to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens, [and] maintain international peace and security", when these take place more than once in twelve months). They accused her of posting anti-war materials on her page on the VKontakte social network.

Chagina noted to Forum 18 through friends on 11 March that the criminal case is based on her own texts and comments on VKontakte, as well as commentary from the Telegram channel of the Orthodox philosopher Nikolay Karpitsky: "I don't agree with all the wording in Nikolay's texts, but I published some of his thoughts on my VK page without cuts."

Originally from Tomsk, where he led the Tomsk Regional Anti-Fascist Committee, Karpitsky has lived in Slovyansk in Ukraine since 2014. Since Russia's invasion in February 2022, he has written regularly about wartime life in Slovyansk and has discussed the war from a Christian perspective in videos on his YouTube Channel, some of which Chagina also reposted.

(In 2011, Karpitsky acted as an expert witness for the defence when prosecutors in Tomsk attempted to have "The Bhagavad-Gita As It Is" - a translation of and commentary on the ancient Sanskrit text by Swami Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness – banned as extremist. Courts in Tomsk refused to uphold the prosecutors' suit.)

Forum 18 wrote to Tomsk Region Investigative Committee to ask why expressing religion-based opposition to the war in Ukraine should be considered "discreditation" of the Russian Armed Forces, and on which specific social media posts the case against Chagina was based. "Taking into account the interests of the investigation, it is not possible to answer your request," it responded on 27 February.

A Tomsk court had already handed Chagina a fine of 45,000-Roubles (about three weeks' average local wages) under Administrative Code Article 20.3.3 for displaying a poster reading "Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9)" at an anti-war protest in Tomsk in March 2022.

"Many times after [the arrest for the poster], I inwardly turned to these words of Christ and realised that peacemaking begins with what is in a person's heart," Chagina told Forum 18. "Happiness is when you become one who can reconcile those who are warring. One who has come to terms with oneself, with people, with Life. When you carry light and joy in yourself, which spread to other people."

In comments to Forum 18, Chagina expressed her sadness at the attitude of some religious organisations to the war.

"From the moment the war began, I actively began to learn what other Christians think about the war, what is happening in different faiths. An unpleasant surprise was that hatred, division, pain and fear, like invisible enemies, come from everywhere. The thought that there are priests who bless people to kill is very hard, unbearably suffocating.

"It is terrible to see that a significant part of the Russian Orthodox Church is captured by idolatry towards the state and the ethnic group, although this did not begin on 24 February [2022], but, alas, has been going on for centuries. But it's even harder for me to understand that among Russian-speaking Protestants there are also those for whom earthly authorities turned out to be more important than the Gospel."

Despite her own opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, "I did not remove from my [VKontakte] friends those who support the war", Chagina told Forum 18. "People can be mistaken, and they can repent of their mistakes. Now we can't communicate. But I believe that the veil will fall from many eyes, and I want to be open, waiting for this time to come."

Chagina also noted: "War divides us, draws a fiery line between us. War gives a global reason for despair, despondency and hatred, and instead of repentance, it offers to bury oneself forever in guilt. But war cannot destroy the ability to pray and think. I am very interested in what lies ahead for us: another tragedy of alienation or hope for a radical turn towards a renewed and profound communion among Christians, towards the unity of the Church?"

"For me, the Church is a single universal organism, the totality of all who hope for salvation in Christ. As the Apostle wrote, 'there will no longer be Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, man nor woman, but all will be one in Christ', all will be one in Love. I rejoice that through the darkness of our mistakes and falls, God, as before, walks with us, comes to us. It is difficult to take the first step towards Love, but this is our responsibility."

Tomsk: Chagina's court-imposed restrictions extended to 2 September

Anna Chagina has been under a court-ordered night-time curfew and bans on sending and receiving correspondence, using the internet, and attending large-scale public events since 1 December 2022, shortly after investigators searched her home. The Federal Penitentiary Service fitted her with an ankle bracelet that monitors her movements.

(Several Jehovah's Witnesses - including Maksim Khalturin in early 2019 - have had ankle bracelets fitted to monitor their movements while they were under criminal investigation.)

At the 15 March 2023 hearing, Judge Zaynulin extended the restrictions on Chagina until 2 September.

"The prosecutor expressed ritual fears that 'the accused may commit a more serious crime of a similar nature', on the basis of which the restrictive measures should be left unchanged", Akt-Produkt, an independent St Petersburg-based record label with which Chagina has collaborated, commented on VKontakte on 16 March. "What kind of 'crime of a similar nature' could be committed [during the curfew] is not clear, and the investigation, which could somehow theoretically be interfered with, has been completed."

Akt-Produkt noted that the judge ignored this argument and the fact that, after Chagina had moved house, the Federal Penitentiary Service in her new district had given her "a faulty device which regularly records phantom 'violations' [of the curfew]".

Victoria Arnold. Tomsk musician's criminal trial to begin 15 March // Forum 18, 7 March 2023

7 March 2023. Victoria Arnold, Forum 18

URL: https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2814

RUSSIA: Tomsk musician's criminal trial to begin 15 March

The criminal trial of Tomsk Christian and musician Anna Chagina on charges of repeatedly "discrediting" the Armed Forces is due to begin on 15 March. She is being tried for social media posts opposing Russia's war in Ukraine, having already received a fine in 2022 for her poster at an anti-war protest which read "Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9)". Tomsk Region Investigative Committee refused to discuss the case. The criminal trial of St Petersburg Orthodox priest Fr Ioann Kurmoyarov is due to resume on 10 April.

On 15 March, Judge Roman Zaynulin of Soviet District Court in the Siberian city of Tomsk is due to begin the criminal trial of Anna Chagina, according to the court website. If convicted, the 43-year-old Christian, a musician and teacher, faces a maximum three-year jail term or a large fine on charges of "discrediting" the Russian Armed Forces more than once in one year.

Chagina's first (administrative) conviction was for displaying a poster reading "Blessed are the peacemakers" at an anti-war protest in Tomsk in March 2022, just two days after the new offence of "discreditation" came into force (see below).

Investigators subsequently accused Chagina of posting anti-war materials on social media and charged her under Criminal Code Article 280.3 (see below).

Chagina's online posts included reposting an anti-war petition by Russian Orthodox clergy, online debates on the war from a Christian perspective and updates on the criminal prosecution of Orthodox priest Fr Ioann Kurmoyarov in St Petersburg. It remains unclear exactly which of her social media posts form the basis of the prosecution case (see below).

The Investigative Committee detained Chagina for one day after searching her flat in Tomsk at the end of November 2022. Since then, she has been under specific restrictions, including a ban on using the internet, and latterly a non-disclosure agreement preventing her from discussing the investigation. Witnesses in the case have also had to sign such agreements (see below).

"It was important for me to convey my position to people," Chagina told the Govorit Ne Moskva media project (which specialises in regional stories) through friends in December 2022, before she or they signed the non-disclosure agreements. "I am mentally prepared for the fact that the state will punish me for this. As far as I understand, I face either a prison term or a huge fine. I'm not afraid of either" (see below).

Forum 18 wrote to Tomsk Region Investigative Committee to ask why expressing religion-based opinions on events in Ukraine should be considered "discreditation" of the Russian Armed Forces, and on which specific social media posts the case against Chagina was based. "Taking into account the interests of the investigation, it is not possible to answer your request," it responded. It added that all information about preliminary investigations that it is legally permissible to make public is published on the Investigative Committee's website. The website has given no information on Chagina's case (see below).

The Investigative Committee has not explained why Chagina and witnesses in the case were required to sign non-disclosure agreements (see below).

Meanwhile, the trial continues at St Petersburg's Kalinin District Court of Orthodox priest Fr Ioann Kurmoyarov on charges of disseminating "knowingly false information on the use of the Armed Forces". On 6 March, he was brought to court for his latest hearing from St Petersburg's Kresty-2 prison (where he has been held since his arrest in June 2022). The judge adjourned the hearing until 10 April because Kurmoyarov's lawyer Luiza Magomedova was unwell (see below).

* * *

Tomsk: Fine for "Blessed are the peacemakers" poster

Christian Anna Sergeyevna Chagina (born 29 November 1979), a viola player and music teacher from the Siberian city of Tomsk, opposed Russia's renewed invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022.

Her first offence of "discreditation" took place on 6 March 2022 on Novo-Sobornaya Square in central Tomsk, where about 100 people had gathered to protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Chagina held a poster she had made: "Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9)".

Police detained twenty of the protestors, including Chagina, and charged them under the new Administrative Code Article 20.3.3 ("Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation"), which had entered legal force two days before.

A judge at Tomsk's Soviet District Court convicted her under Administrative Code Article 20.3.3 on 12 March 2022 and fined her 45,000 Roubles, about three weeks' average local wages.

"I consider myself innocent of any charges, and no matter how tomorrow's hearing ends, I remain calm," Chagina commented on her VKontakte page on 11 March 2022. "To call for peace, to call for it with all my heart, to call on everyone's open heart, to call for reason, to sow what is good and eternal is my human and professional duty."

"I sincerely believe that what is happening with our planet is in our hands. War starts the moment we forget our responsibility. When we think that 'it will manage itself somehow', 'it will work out', 'it will pass, 'you can wait it out', 'it does not concern me', 'nothing depends on me'."

(Chagina also attended protests against the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, in support of jailed opposition leader Aleksey Navalny in 2021, and against the "partial mobilisation" in September 2022. Before a concert in March 2022, she spoke out against the war on stage and played a Ukrainian song.)

According to Tomsk's Soviet District Court's written decision of 12 March 2022, seen by Forum 18, Chagina "took part in an illegal public event in the form of a rally, the purpose of which .. was to form a negative opinion among bystanders and the population of Tomsk regarding the special military operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation".

"Aware that those gathered were united by a single plan to undermine confidence in the decisions of the state authorities of the Russian Federation to conduct a special military operation to save Donbas," the court decision added, Chagina "shouted slogans on the subject of the event, held a poster of a similar content, and, not responding to the explanations of police officers about the illegal purpose of the event or their demand to disperse, thereby committed an administrative offence".

In court, Chagina did not deny holding a poster, but argued that she had been carrying out an individual picket (which is legally permitted without official authorisation). She said in her written statement that she had made the "Blessed are the peacemakers" poster herself and had displayed it in order to "express her civic position".

Chagina appealed unsuccessfully at Tomsk Regional Court on 8 April 2022.

* * *

Tomsk: Criminal case

During 2022, Anna Chagina continued to post material on her page on the VKontakte social media site opposing Russia's war in Ukraine.

On 8 March 2022, Chagina reposted the full text of the anti-war open letter of 1 March 2022, ultimately signed by nearly 300 Russian Orthodox clergy. On 12 May 2022, she wrote that she had herself signed human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov's change.org petition against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Pavel Levushkan is a Lutheran pastor and commentator from Latvia, who is based in Riga but has previously served in Tomsk. Nikolay Karpitsky is a religious philosopher from Tomsk who now lives in Slovyansk in Ukraine. On her VKontakte page, Chagina linked to a YouTube video of the two men discussing the theme of hatred ("How to process your hatred, find cool resolve [obresti kholodnuyu reshimnost] and remain yourself") as part of the series "War from the point of view of religion" on Karpitsky's channel. Chagina also reposted other videos from this series.

Chagina's posts also include supportive comments about other Russians prosecuted for "discrediting" or "disseminating false information" about the Russian Armed Forces, Karpitsky's descriptions of wartime life in Ukraine, comments on the war from the Vatican, and media articles about Fr Ioann Kurmoyarov (currently on trial in St Petersburg for opposing the war – see below).

State media regulator Roskomnadzor blocked Chagina's VKontakte page on 3 September 2022 at the request of the General Prosecutor's Office.

Chagina "considers herself a Christian, is interested in religious philosophy, and insists that Russian Orthodoxy has nothing to do with the Russian Orthodox Church and its support for the war with Ukraine", the media outlet Govorit Ne Moskva (which specialises in regional stories) summarised her position.

In summer 2022, Chagina had begun to notice that she was being followed. After her arrest in autumn 2022, the investigator remarked that all the local police already knew her, Govorit Ne Moskva noted in December 2022.

On 23 November 2022 (according to court documents seen by Forum 18), Tomsk Region Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Chagina.

According to Govorit Ne Moskva, the Investigative Committee's grounds for initiating the case appeared to be some of Chagina's comments on her VKontakte page, as well as her reposting of texts by Pavel Levushkan and Nikolai Karpitsky. It remains unclear exactly which social media posts form the basis of the prosecution case.

The Investigative Committee searched Chagina's home early on 30 November 2022. The investigators "behaved calmly – they did not turn the flat upside down", according to Govorit Ne Moskva, which communicated with Chagina through friends before their non-disclosure agreements. The officers "carefully examined books, sheet music, and musical literature" and confiscated electronic devices.

Investigators detained Chagina for one day after the early-morning search of her home. She has since been at home under a night-time curfew and restrictions on communication.

At her interrogation, Chagina refused to answer questions and stated that she did not plan to plead guilty. The Investigative Committee charged her the same day under Criminal Code Article 280.3, Part 1.

On 1 December 2022, Tomsk's Soviet District Court upheld the investigators' request to have Chagina placed under specific restrictions. According to the court document, seen by Forum 18, these comprise a 10pm-6am curfew and bans on sending and receiving correspondence ("including letters, telegrams, parcels, and electronic messages"), using the internet, and attending large-scale public events. She was freed from detention in the courtroom.

Forum 18 wrote to the Tomsk Region Investigative Committee to ask why expressing religion-based opinions on events in Ukraine should be considered "discreditation" of the Russian Armed Forces, and on which specific social media posts the case was based. The press office first directed Forum 18 to the federal-level Investigative Committee in Moscow, but later stated on 27 February that "Taking into account the interests of the investigation, it is not possible to answer your request". It added that all information about preliminary investigations that it is legally permissible to make public is published on the Investigative Committee's website.

Chagina's case is as yet not mentioned on either the Tomsk Region or the federal Investigative Committee's news pages.

The Investigative Committee has not explained why Chagina and witnesses in the case were required to sign non-disclosure agreements.

* * *

Tomsk: Criminal trial due to begin on 15 March

Anna Chagina is due to appear in court on 15 March on charges of repeatedly "discrediting" the Russian Armed Forces. She is the fifth person to face criminal prosecution for opposing the war on the basis of her religious beliefs, and the second to be charged under Criminal Code Article 280.3, Part 1 ("Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in order to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens, [and] maintain international peace and security").

Soviet District Court in Tomsk registered Chagina's case on 2 March 2023, according to its website, assigning it to Judge Roman Zaynulin. The court has scheduled the first hearing in her trial for 15 March. Investigators have had Chagina and witnesses in the case sign agreements not to disclose any information about the investigation.

"It was important for me to convey my position to people," Chagina told the Govorit Ne Moskva media project through friends in December 2022, before she or they signed the non-disclosure agreements. "I am mentally prepared for the fact that the state will punish me for this. As far as I understand, I face either a prison term or a huge fine. I'm not afraid of either."

If convicted, Chagina could be imprisoned for up to three years or fined up to 300,000 Roubles. Even if she receives a fine, she may not remain undisturbed thereafter, because "she is unlikely to give up on expressing her [anti-war] convictions openly", her acquaintance Maksim Yevstropov (founder of activist art project Party of the Dead) told Govorit Ne Moskva from outside Russia, adding that new charges could be brought for "the slightest reason".

Nikolai Karpitsky. November 24, 2022. Ukraine. Two hundred and seventy-fourth day of war

It's exam time. Both my students have blackouts, then I. We catch moments when we can connect. If you look at it from the outside, the situation is absurd: there's a dirty dog sitting in a bunker, doing harm to millions of people, confident he's the most important person in the world. For some reason, in books and films, villains are much more interesting than positive characters. Perhaps the artist simply has more opportunities to put his talent into the complex and controversial image of the villain. Only here in life the real villains are primitive to disgrace. Yesterday, such a villain was going to defeat NATO, threatened with a nuclear war, and today he is playing dirty tricks in impotent rage. What a petty nature! He is not even worthy of a feeling of disgust, those who believe him are disgusting.

Suddenly the lights flickered and then went out, which means that it was not just a planned shutdown, but an accident, and it could be for a long time. It's nighttime, and the only thing left to do is to meditate.  When it's dark, damp and cold outside, and you find yourself locked in the darkness of home, you discover the simple truth that you can't wait for the future, for example, like when they finally give you the light, otherwise reality will become unbearable. You can just feel alive in the present moment, whatever it may be, without waiting for anything. It's hard to do, because when you're sitting in total darkness, you can't help but wait for the light to come on, and your thoughts tend to drift off somewhere else. However, true freedom is only possible when you build such a self-sufficient state within yourself regardless of external circumstances. Because life is the present moment, and the constant preoccupation with waiting for something is the denial of the real for the sake of something that does not yet exist. It is this denial that makes life unbearable.

Still, our conditions are still tolerable, we have gas, water, electricity is regularly restored. I know from those who are under occupation that in other cities it is much harder. For instance, in the occupied Lisichansk there is no electricity or water at all, although the gas supply has been restored - it is necessary for the occupiers themselves, who have settled in other people's apartments. Only elderly people remained in the city, who were afraid to go into the unknown. The occupiers announced that they would confiscate any apartments if their owners did not present themselves with property documents within a short period of time. At the same time, it is difficult to get into Lisichansk even from the direction of Luhansk, from time to time it is completely closed for entry and exit. However, the soldiers do not even comply with these formalities - they can break into any apartment, not paying attention to the owner. Some apartments were broken into several times.

If you drive away from the frontline deep into the occupied territory, somewhere beyond Donetsk and Luhansk, it is quiet there, and the locals have no idea what the shelling looks like. The locals are mostly women, as the men are either already mobilized or hiding, afraid to go out. Unless in case of an extreme necessity early in the morning or late at night, as they can be stopped and sent to the front at any time. And it’s dangerous for women to walk around, especially for girls - there are drunken soldiers who can make sexual advances. This distinguishes the cities on the other side of the front from our frontline cities. In the summer, when the front was only ten kilometers away, there were also a lot of military men in Slavyansk, but you feel safe around them. At no time did I see drunken soldiers or hear them swearing, which is the usual thing in the occupied territories. Riding through the city on my bike, I constantly met girls walking alone or mothers with children. In the occupied cities, people don’t just walk around, they go only on business, and mostly where it’s crowded.

Life in such cities seems to have stopped in 2014 and is slowly degrading. The roads have not been repaired, in some places they have become completely impassable. Young people are infantile in their masses; a twenty-year-old is psychologically equivalent to a fourteen-year-old. There are no special places for them to meet and communicate. Many do not have the slightest idea about life in the free territories of Ukraine a few tens of kilometers away.

There are many pro-Russians among the locals, and even round-ups of men cannot change their minds. They can admit that, yes, it somehow turned out badly: people just went to work, and were caught and sent to the front, but they immediately correct themselves that they are being protected from the Nazis, therefore have to tolerate. They live in their nightmare world and are absolutely persuaded that it cannot be better. When they are told about a normal life in a free Ukraine, they simply do not believe that this is possible, being convinced that the Nazis walk the streets with swastikas there, and don't listen to eyewitnesses. I remember in the Soviet Union people also believed that there was poverty in the West, while their own life in poverty, with shortages and queues, was perceived as the only possible world, which could not be better. Back then, too, people supported the government because they believed that there was no other way.

Despite everything, there are a lot of adequate people in the occupied territories who support Ukraine. What surprised me most from the stories of those who are from there is that they can immediately see who is for Russia and who is for Ukraine. These are anthropological differences that are immediately apparent. For example, when you see a person for the first time, you immediately understand that you can say, "Glory to Ukraine!" despite the fact that for any careless word in a public place you can be arrested and thrown in the basement.

If a person is some kind of unpleasant with the seal of aloof unsociableness, behaves as if everyone owes him, then he will be for Russia anyway. In fact, this is the seal of that hellish world, which he perceives as the only possible reality. Because of this, he is unable to adequately understand normal people. At first I wanted to call it the loss of the ability for social communication that allows us to understand each other. Thanks to this communication we perceive the world adequately, distinguishing what is possible from ridiculous fakes and propaganda. However, they communicate perfectly well with each other, and it is we who seem to them to be unsociable in their perverted perception. It would be more correct to call it a loss of the ability to communicate on the basis of empathy. They can communicate, but they are incapable of feeling the interlocutor, and for this reason they become unpleasant. Instead of empathy, they have such a common emotional wave, which is produced by the mood of their hellish world. On this wave, they understand each other perfectly, but at the same time they cease to understand normal people. In contrast, normal people who are for Ukraine easily recognize each other by the empathic connection that naturally establishes between people, makes them open and inspires a sense of trust.

Nikolai Karpitsky. December 13, 2022. Ukraine. Two hundred ninety-third day of the war

Fifty-second post since the war started. I sleep or work, guided not by the time of day, but by spontaneous blackouts. We are lucky - winter is warm. While it's thawing, I rode my bike around Slavyansk. Cars on the roads as in pre-war times, now again you have to be careful when driving. Sometimes you can hear the shooting, but not to compare with how it was in the summer. There are hits to Slavyansk, but more often - to Kramatorsk. 

Now the whole burden of the war falls on Bakhmut. It is right near it where the invaders concentrated all their forces. Well, it's still very hot near Avdiivka. If Bakhmut is abandoned, the next line of defense will pass near us. But I don't believe it will be abandoned.

I thought that after fleeing from Kherson, the occupiers would throw all their forces at Ugledar, since a breakthrough in this sector would allow them to enter the rear of the Ukrainian troops near Donetsk. However, the Russian command is guided not by a strategic perspective, but by Putin's mood. They need to rehabilitate themselves for the defeat near Kherson, and now it is easier for them to attack than to explain the need to change another offensive direction.

The Bakhmut meat grinder has been going on for several months, and the occupiers are paying for every hundred meters of advance with thousands of dead. And this without any strategic perspective, solely for the ego of just one person. The battle of Bakhmut resembles the Verdun meat grinder of World War I, and will end the same way: it is here that Russia will use up its last offensive potential, after which Ukraine will be able to liberate all its lands. This will end the first stage of the war and begin the second, remote, by mutual firing of missiles and kamikaze drones. No matter how much we want the war to end as soon as possible, it will continue in any case until the total collapse of the necro-empire.

Soldiers are thrown into the attack on Bakhmut in continuous waves, regardless of losses. This is their necrophilic offensive tactics. The more people die, the more space will be freed up for the new mobilized. They are deliberately sent to death.

In 1991, the KGB allowed the democratic revolution to win in Russia in order to get rid of the control of the CPSU. Surely they already had a plan to come to power and restore the totalitarian empire. They correctly calculated that there are enough military and economic resources for this purpose. But people's consciousness is changing, becoming indifferent to the old ideologies. Therefore, the imposition of imperial ideology after the KGB coup in 1999 led to its mutation into necro-imperialism.

I think when in 1991 the chekists were making plans for revanche, they could not even imagine that in three decades their protege would go further, aiming not at conquering, but at destroying the neighboring peoples. Putin himself said that the purpose of the special military operation is the denazification of Ukraine and showed in practice that this word means the destruction of the Ukrainian cultural consciousness, the Ukrainian language and the Ukrainian ethnic group.

If for the totalitarian imperialist the main goal is power, for the necro-imperialist it is destruction. And there are three reasons why the mass consciousness in Russia accepted necro-imperialism so easily: indifference to any political ideologies other than the ideology of finding an enemy, fear of the complexity of the world, and lumpenization.

In this context, an event that I only learned about yesterday is symbolic. My friend, Maxim Evstropov, was put on the federal wanted list. I've known Maksim since he was a student, we worked in the same department with him for a while. Formally, he is being persecuted under the article on insulting the feelings of believers. Maxim expressed what he thought about Patriarch Kirill and his support for the war. This criminal article is false, because it is not used to prosecute for insulting religious feelings, but for dissent and protesting against the regime. Because if it really was used to prosecute for insulting religious feelings, then first of all they should have brought to justice Patriarch Kirill himself, Sergei Ryakhovsky, Talgat Tatjudin, Bhakti Rasayana Sagar Swami and other religious authorities. From a religious standpoint, any use of the authority of religion to justify Russia's actions in Ukraine is an insult to God and introducing their fellow believers into demonic temptation.

In fact, they want to put Maxim in jail for something completely different - for the fact that he created the Party of the Dead, known for its public actions. He created it in 2017 in response to an attempt of the authorities to appropriate the dead and use them for their political purposes, such as voter fraud or events like the Immortal Regiment.

Of course, there is epatage in the party's actions, but Maxim is not the kind of person who would joke about death. For the necro-imperialists, death is the last point of triumph of their undivided power, because they fear even their own victims, as long as they are alive. Therefore, necro-imperialists look at death from the angle of their right to kill and see it as a way to free themselves from the fear of the complexity of the world. However, Maxim, from his life experience, knows death from the opposite side - from the side of an unjustified senseless tragedy.

Maxim has his own philosophical position, different from mine; he can tell about it himself, but I will only say how I see his actions from my standpoint. I believe Maxim has the right to speak on behalf of the dead, for his existential experience allows him to remain himself both among the living and the dead. In the actions of Maxim, death ceases to be what necrophiles seek - a way to simplify the world and confirm their absolute power. Necrophiles in power want to turn people into nothing, and he let the dead refuse, at least in a symbolic form, to be victims and turn into nothingness. Therefore, even in such a symbolic demonstration, necrophiles feel danger.

Most of all, necrophiles are afraid of being among the dead themselves, and Putin is ready to send everyone to death in order to prolong his life at least a little. Thus, he has already condemned the living to death and perceives them as dead, and therefore is also afraid to be among them, fencing himself off with a giant table. It turns out that he has no place either among the living or among the dead.

Nikolai Karpitsky. We need the idea of de-imperialization. 15.06.2022

URL: https://ochevidcy.com/en/filosof-karpitskiy/

Nikolai Karpitsky is a philosopher and public figure from Tomsk. He spoke out against the wars in Chechnya. And against communist ideology. He defended the Bhagavad-Gita in court - remember that resonant trial over the book? Nikolai Karpitsky has been living in Ukraine since 2015. For the past three years he has been living in Slavyansk, on the outskirts of which he bought a small house three years ago. Since February 24, 2022, he has been conducting the "Chronicle of the People's War". Fragments of it, along with a story by Nikolai Karpitsky, are in the "Eyewitnesses" project.

Photo from the personal archive of Nikolai Karpitsky

February 24, 2022. Ukraine. The first day of the war. My first post since the war began. I wrote here on Facebook on February 9 that Russia has enough power to launch a first crushing strike against Ukraine and destroy much of its economy and military capabilities, but Ukraine has enough power to handle an invasion. So now I believe that the first crushing blow won't work either..."

- On February 24, I was in Kiev. I woke up in the morning and looked out the window: a siren was blaring. I took the train to Slavyansk. I started chronicling what was going on day by day. My first reaction was: could we withstand a blitzkrieg or not? Because the enemy always plans a blitzkrieg, not a protracted war. If we hold out, then we can talk about Ukraine's chances. After three days of war it became clear that the blitzkrieg was not successful, and the second phase of a terrible bloody war began. Which will inevitably result in the extermination of the civilian population.

"February 27, 2022. Ukraine. The fourth day of the war. The spring thaw. Huge losses of Russian equipment are also due to the fact that it is impossible to advance in the fields now - abnormal heat, the equipment will simply sink in the mud. We have to drive on the highways, getting into ambushes. The Ukrainian army withstood the first blow and now the initiative slowly begins to pass to it...".

- When the offensive began, a picture of the world began to take shape. For the first three days, the Russians wanted to surgically remove the government. There had been no targeted bombing of residential areas yet... But when they had to evacuate refugees from Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, Izyum, and Lisichansk, it became clear that buses with refugees were being deliberately shelled. Then the nature of the war became clear. Wars can be civilized and waged to destroy. It is clear that the war in Chechnya and the war in Syria were uncivilized. Cities were destroyed there. But here the hope was that this invasion was purely political. That they would block cities, military units, but there would be no targeted destruction of the population. I had such hope for three days... Now people in general understand who they are dealing with. They understand that this is a war of annihilation. Even those who used to support the separatists are horrified by what is happening.

"March 1, 2022. Ukraine. The sixth day of the war. The situation can be imagined as if a huge boogeyman had attacked a teenager, who, though badly beaten, managed to resist. The big guy realizes that he can't win by leaps and bounds, and now, having evaluated the situation, he's going to attack again. He is in fact a berserker, and can feel no pain, and is incapable of reasoning. If we were talking about an ordinary dictator, albeit a sadist and a scoundrel, but a pragmatic one, then after inflicting substantial losses on the invading army, it would be possible to negotiate peace with him. But we are dealing with Putin, who proceeds from a holistic picture of the world, in which everything is reversed - evil is perceived as good and good as evil. This is a worldview for which I do not know the scientific name, but in Christianity it is called Satanism..."

- I stayed in Slaviansk to describe the situation from the inside. I try to write not so much about events, because everyone writes about events. I try to explain their context. And to write about people's experiences. How to experience it, how to relate to it. When you are involved in events, you awaken a special historical intuition, allowing you to feel what is real and what is impossible... I decided to stay in Slaviansk in order to be able to feel how events are happening. Right now, as we were talking, there was a bang.

«March 14, 2022. Ukraine. Nineteenth Day of War. There were more than a hundred people at the service, four times less than usual. The preacher compared the struggling Ukraine to the exodus of Jews, who were persecuted by the Pharaoh. Faith in God greatly strengthens faith in the victory of Ukraine. Then the refugees from Severodonetsk were brought - many students, children, elderly. The oldest woman was 82 years old. Fed, arranged and the next morning taken to evacuation trains. Everyday a hundred people. <…> Today the holidays ended and I was giving a lecture «Philosophy of human communication». At the beginning, we exchanged information, who is where and in what conditions. A student from Lisichansk listened to a lecture from a bomb shelter, so communication with her was interrupted. I devoted the lecture to the topic of lies, including the one that led to the war. While I was working with my students, I’ve got an information that one of the buses of the church I was in yesterday was shot at on its way from Izyum.…».

- I live among Ukrainians, I am emotionally connected to them. I walk the streets, I go to meetings. There is a Protestant church here that deals with refugee removal. I meet with them, look at their sentiments. Of course, in Kiev the start of the war was a shock, people couldn't understand and accept the reality. It took them some time. And some reactions were naive and strange. They could sit in the subway all day long. But clearly, if the war is for a long time, you're not going to sit in the subway all the time. You would have to get used to it and live a normal life. Despite the bombings and rockets. When I came to Slavyansk, I found that people here were already used to it. They had already seen the war and had a calm attitude. Pragmatically.

"March 24, 2022. Ukraine. Twenty-ninth day of war. When war broke out, the world collapsed. The inevitable happened. It was as if an asteroid had crashed into the earth, and overnight the whole familiar world disappeared, along with daily communication, work, problems, and little joys. Only emptiness lies ahead. After a while, a new shock. It turns out that it is not just emptiness, but destruction, suffering and death. After all, it is not only the army that is at war with the occupiers...".

- As for medications, you can buy simple drugs, but not every pharmacy has them. There is always something missing. The assortment in the stores has decreased by three times. But everything you need is there. At the bazaar, the number of people has decreased by 5-10 times, but people are there and trade. In addition, there are various humanitarian missions. They bring aid. There is a problem with public utilities. Since the water intake is in Mayak settlement, which is on Northern Donets, where Russians are advancing, it is impossible to repair it. The city has been without water for the second week. Some have wells, somewhere water is brought. But there is no opportunity to use water freely now. As for electricity, the high-voltage wires get broken and have to be repaired. Sometimes you are without light for a day or two. The most difficult thing is the uncertainty, because there is no Internet, no communication, and you don't know what kind of danger threatens you.

"March 29, 2022. Ukraine. Thirty-fourth day of war. The Moscow Tsardom, and later the Russian Empire, constantly waged wars of conquest, justifying it with the super-valuable idea of gathering lands. This idea was inculcated in school, and many still accept it by default. The essence of this idea is the denial of the value of independent life outside of Russia. History has often seen empires, dictatorships, tyrannies, which, like Russia, waged wars of conquest. Of course, this is an evil, but an evil that is social, human, but not yet religious or metaphysical. When the military and Chekist coup took place in Russia in 1999, the ideology of gathering land mutated. If before the independent life of the peoples was devalued, but was not considered evil, now the entire surrounding world, which resists inclusion in the sphere of influence of Russia, is perceived as hostile and subject to destruction ...

- I try to assess the danger. And I assess it this way: I just ignore rocket attacks, I don't pay attention to sirens at all. I have a basement in my yard, but it is not equipped. Sitting there is not an option at all. Being hit by a missile is like being hit by a car in a city with a lot of traffic. There's no getting away from it.

"April 6, 2022. Ukraine. Forty-second day of the war. There came a time when the cannonade began to calm me down. I can already distinguish by ear when ours are beating the occupiers. Judging from what I heard yesterday, the fighting on the way to Slavyansk is desperate...".

- Ukraine's victory in the war depends on Western weapons. The Soviet weapons, which were there, have unfortunately run out. The first victories of the Ukrainians were due to the fact that there were still enough weapons. Now they are used up. But the Russian reserves are not limited... If there is a lend-lease, everything we need is here. The Ukrainian army is mobilized, it is superior to the Russian army, it is not surrounded. And no one will throw soldiers as cannon fodder. In the event of a Russian takeover of the whole of Ukraine, this entire army would go to the partisans. Of course, Russia would lose, but at a huge cost to Ukraine. If weapons came, there would be no need to pay such a price.

"May 28, 2022. Ukraine. Ninety-fourth day of the war. Yesterday there was no light, wrote until the laptop battery died, today finished the work. Therefore, the first part relates to yesterday. This week the Donetsk region was finally cut off from gas. In the morning we got water, so we could take a shower. At first it feels strange to be in the shower during shelling or the roar of a siren, but then it becomes indifferent. The lights are still out. I write until the battery runs out. I drove around the city. There are not many people, the stores are out without lights. I like to ride my bike out of town, it's the most beautiful places there, you can't give them up to orcs. But you can't go there now, there's a war going on. There's a lot of banging going on. I cooked potatoes on the fire in the yard - the first time, no experience yet, but I think I'll get used to it...".

- I know that in Russia there were calls to go to rallies - it's the same as in the Soviet Union to rally against the Afghan war ... But everyone in their place can sabotage unconstitutional decisions. And the second point. Without a clear idea of what to strive for, the goal cannot be achieved. This idea has not yet been formulated. Replacing a bad president with a good one will not change anything. We need the idea of de-imperialization. A rejection of the imperial form of government. This idea needs to be communicated. It is quite possible and realistic.