Fabricated Cases of Supposed Ukrainian Terrorists Highlight Broader Problems with Russian Legal System, Experts Say

Paul Goble     

            Staunton, Aug. 9 – Since February 24^th, a large number of Russians in the southern part of the country have been charged with links to the Ukrainian Right Sector and plans to engage in terrorist actions, but three Russian rights experts say these charges are falsifications and the cases themselves highlight broader problems with Russian jurisprudence.

Natalya Yudina of the SOVA Information Analytic Center says that the cases are falsified or represent the responses of police to political opposition to the war in Ukraine that has not involved any terrorist activity (kavkazr.com/a/pravogo-sektora-prakticheski-net-kak-fsb-ischet-ukrainskih-natsionalistov-na-yuge-rossii/31979833.html).

“Radically inclined young people are given to posting various comments in social networks including support of Ukrainian nationalist organizations,” she says. “Earlier, law enforcement ignored this, but now in the reports and work of the siloviki, such cases have displaced those of radical Islamists as their main focus.”

Mikhail Savva of SOVA’s Ukrainian expert group, says that the Right Sector no longer plays a big role in Ukraine and never developed a network abroad. It may have sympathizers but it doesn’t have agents, whatever the Russian siloviki says. The Russian police, he suggests, are confusing anti-war attitudes with terrorism.

For the average gendarme, he continues, the possibility that someone could honestly be against the war and not be inclined to engage in violent actions is an idea that simply doesn’t seem possible. And both the interior ministry officers and the FSB proceed on that basis and bring charges which are totally imaginary.

Savva points out that those so charged are often people who have not taken part in any protests at all and who do not have experience in dealing with the criminal justice system. They are thus easier to pressure and even extract confessions with false promises that if they confess, they will get lighter sentences, something that does not in fact happen.

And Sergey Davidis, head of Memorial’s Support for Political Prisoners project, says that in his view, the charges against Russians for involvement with the Right Sector are insupportable both in law and in fact. “It is impossible to believe the Right Sector has really formed a network of agents and carried out arson and other attacks.”

In the southern part of the country, he continues, it is easier than elsewhere to invent cases than to engage in the collection of real evidence, especially since the siloviki know that they will get credit for vigilance in such cases even if there is no real basis for bringing such charges.

            According to Davidis, those charged often plead guilty and make deals because refusing to plead guilty “is no longer a positive factor.” Instead, he says, “such stubbornness is often viewed by the courts as an aggravating circumstance;” and those who try to defend themselves receive even more draconian sentences.