Jenya Kulakova: A New Year of Sorts

“January 17: Room 33, City Court. Viktor, 12:00 p.m., Yuli, 2:00 p.m. January 19: Open Space. Exhibition, reading, 7:00 p.m.” Image courtesy of Jenya Kulakova

Jenya Kulakova
Facebook
January 15, 2019

Viktor and Yuli, 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m., January 17, Room 33, Petersburg City Court.

I have been getting into the “New Year’s mood” only now. What I mean is that is only now I have realized it will soon be a year since news a friend had been detained by the cops marked the start of a new life that has been going on in my head nonstop since then: care packages, remand prison, torture, parcels, remand prison, transfers, letters, remand prison, court hearings, remand prison.

I have been corresponding with nearly all the suspects in the so-called Network case. I have no idea how they manage to keep fighting, making jokes, and drawing goofy pictures.

The main question I tried out on myself during the past year was how you can endure having to support a loved one who is in jail by yourself or even as a part of a single family.

To put it bluntly, how do you make sure he has food to eat, clothes to wear, books to read, and medical care?

My opinion is that you cannot do it, no way, no how. There are a lot more than one of us trying to take care of the Network suspects, but there are so many things to do, an endless list of daily chores.

I am amazed my job still puts up with it.

The approach of this “new year” makes me really sad.

Actually, this has been my attempt to write a post about the upcoming custody extension hearings of Viktor Filinkov and Yuli Boyarshinov.

Since a “new year” in remand prison is just around the corner for them, the Petersburg City Court will decide whether extend their police custody.

There is a glass-enclosed statue of Themis at the city court. There is also a chance we won’t be herded into the basement, as happened during their last hearing at the Dzerzhinsky District Court. Maybe we will even be permitted to wave at the guys as they are marched past us by the guards and bailiffs.

Anyone who has the time and energy should come to the hearings. It would be great if there were tons of us there, so the guys could see us and have cause to rejoice. It would also be great if we were admitted into the courtroom before the hearing was once again declared closed to the public.

Such are the paltry and huge hopes you foster.

Viktor, Yuli and us, 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m., January 17, Room 33, Petersburg City Court.

January 19 is the tenth anniversary of the murders of Anastasia Baburova and Stanislav Markelov. The authorities in Petersburg have refused to authorize any rallies or marches on the occasion. In the afternoon, people will lay flowers in their memory at Mikhail Shemyakin’s sphinxes, the monument to victims of political terror directly across the Neva River from the old Crosses prison.  (Why go there all of sudden? I have no could.)

In the evening, an exhibition dealing with both the Network case, and Baburova and Markelov opens at seven o’clock at Open Space. It will feature prison drawings and poems, pieces by artists who are in solidarity with the Network suspects, and a group reading of antifascist texts, as well as of letters sent by the guys from remand prison.

You should come to that, too.

This was how Dmitry Pchelintsev signed his final letter of 2018 to me: “Here’s wishing you a good 2019, the last episode of the season.”

My thanks to Ms. Kulakova for her permission to translate and publish this text here. 

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Viktor Filinkov. Photo by Jenya Kulakova. Courtesy of Mediazona

Court Extends Police Custody of Penza Case Suspects Viktor Filinkov and Yuli Boyarshinov
Mediazona
January 17, 2018

St. Petersburg City Court extended the police custody of Viktor Filinkov, accused of involvement in the so-called terrorist community known as the Network, reports the Petersburg Judicial Press Service.

During the hearing, the case investigator argued Filinkov’s police custody should be extended because he needed to review the final eight volumes of the seventeen-volume case file. Besides, the investigator noted, Filinkov had refused to give testimony in the case and admit his guilt.

Filinkov’s defense attorney asked the judge to put him under house arrest, but, allegedly, had failed to file papers confirming this would be possible. The defense attorney also told the that his client was a law-abiding national of another country [Kazakhstan] who would be willing to give testimony, but not to investigators who had tortured him.

Later the same day, St. Petersburg City Court extended the police custody of another suspect in the Penza Case, Yuli Boyarshinov, for two months.

Earlier in the week, a court in Penza concurred with similar arguments made by the investigator there and extended the police custody of the other suspects in the case until April 18.

Translated by the Russian Reader

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What can you do to support the Penza and Petersburg antifascists and anarchists who have been tortured and imprisoned by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)?

• If you are in London or can get to London on January 19, join the solidarity demo at the Cable Street Mural at 2 p.m. The demonstration is supported by Anarchist Communist Group, Anarchist Federation, Brighton Antifascists, Bristol Anti-Fascists, Brazilian Women against Fascism, Feminist Fightback, London Antifascists, London Anarchist Black Cross, North London Anti-Fascists, Plan C LDN, RS21, and Labour Briefing. Please email london19jan(at)riseup.net to add your organization to the list of supporters. More information about the Cable Street Mural and its location can be found on its Facebook page.
• Donate money to the Anarchist Black Cross via PayPal (abc-msk@riseup.net). Make sure to specify your donation is earmarked for “Rupression.”
• Spread the word about the Network Case aka the Penza-Petersburg “terrorism” case. You can find more information about the case and in-depth articles translated into English on this website (see below), rupression.com, and openDemocracyRussia.
• Organize solidarity events where you live to raise money and publicize the plight of the tortured Penza and Petersburg antifascists. Go to the website It’s Going Down to find printable posters and flyers you can download. You can also read more about the case there.
• If you have the time and means to design, produce, and sell solidarity merchandise, please write to rupression@protonmail.com.
• Write letters and postcards to the prisoners. Letters and postcards must be written in Russian or translated into Russian. You can find the addresses of the prisoners here.
• Design a solidarity postcard that can be printed and used by others to send messages of support to the prisoners. Send your ideas to rupression@protonmail.com.
• Write letters of support to the prisoners’ loved ones via rupression@protonmail.com.
• Translate the articles and information at rupression.com and this website into languages other than Russian and English, and publish your translations on social media and your own websites and blogs.
• If you know someone famous, ask them to record a solidarity video, write an op-ed piece for a mainstream newspaper or write letters to the prisoners.
• If you know someone who is a print, internet, TV or radio journalist, encourage them to write an article or broadcast a report about the case. Write to rupression@protonmail.com or the email listed on this website, and we will be happy to arrange interviews and provide additional information.
• It is extremely important this case break into the mainstream media both in Russia and abroad. Despite their apparent brashness, the FSB and their ilk do not like publicity. The more publicity the case receives, the safer our comrades will be in remand prison from violence at the hands of prison stooges and torture at the hands of the FSB, and the more likely the Russian authorities will be to drop the case altogether or release the defendants for time served if the case ever does go to trial.
• Why? Because the case is a complete frame-up, based on testimony obtained under torture and mental duress. When the complaints filed by the accused reach the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and are examined by actual judges, the Russian government will again be forced to pay heavy fines for its cruel mockery of justice.

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If you have not been following the Penza-Petersburg “terrorism” case and other recent cases involving frame-ups, torture, and violent intimidation by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and other arms of the Russian security state, read and share the articles the Russian Reader has posted on these subjects.

• “Jenya Kulakova: A New Year of Sorts,” 18 January 2019
• “No Amnesty for ‘Terrorists,’” 15 January 2019
• “Relentless Repression in Russia: Why Londoners Are Demonstrating on January 19,” 14 January 2019
• “Solo,” 12 January 2019
• “Convoyed,” 31 October 2018
• “How the FSB Tortures Detainees: Stories of the Victims,” 28 October 2018
• “No Justice, No Peace: Petersburg’s Kangaroo Courts Revisited,” 21 October 2018
• “Shakursky and Pchelintsev Indicted for Organizing ‘Terrorist Community,’” 11 September 2018
• “Arman Sagynbayev: I Was Tortured by the FSB,” 8 September 2018
• “Yana Teplitskaya: Wonderland,” 6 September 2018
• “Network: Parents versus the FSB,” 2 August 2018
• “Is Maxim Shulgin an ‘Extremist’?” 26 July 2018
• “Moscow City Court Affirms Anna Pavlikova’s Remand in Custody,” 26 July 2018
• “Is Lydia Bainova an ‘Extremist’?” 24 July 2018
• “Anna Pavlikova: Enemy of the Putinist State?” 22 July 2018
• “A Funny Thing Happened in Pryamukhino,” 20 July 2018
• “Two More Suspects Detained in Network Case,” 6 July 2018
• “Petersburg Court Bailiffs Attack Reporter at Network Case Hearing,” 20 June 2018
• “Anna Tereshkina: At the Court Hearing,” 20 June 2018
• “Nikolai Boyarshinov: I Hope One Day We Can Say the FSB Has Been Banned,” 12 June 2018
• “Lemmy Kilmister vs. Vladimir Putin,” 19 May 2018
• “Brazil,” 18 May 2018
• “This Is What Antifascism Looks Like,” 13 May 2018
• “May Day in Petersburg: ‘Your Torture Won’t Kill Our Ideas,’” 2 May 2018
• “Riot Cops Raid Punk Rock in Barnaul: ‘Freaks, Not Patriots,” 29 April 2018
• “Hug Your Son and We’ll Open Fire,” 27 April 2018
• “Denis Lebedev’s Suicide Note,” 26 April 2018
• “‘Are You a Bitch Yet?’ FSB Makes New Threats to Framed and Tortured Antifascist Viktor Filinkov,” 26 April 2018
• “Suicide Invoice,” 25 April 2018
• “Zoya Svetova: Interview with Petersburg Public Monitoring Commission Members Yana Teplitskaya and Yekaterina Kosarevskaya,” 23 April 2018
• “TV Party Tonight!” 21 April 2018
• “Valery Pshenichny: Tortured, Then Murdered,” 19 April 2018
• “They Are Not Terrorists! The Terrorists at the FSB Torture People,” 16 April 2018
• “FSB and NTV Pressure Mother of Man Accused in ‘Terrorist’ Frame-Up,” 12 April 2018
• “A New Face in Hell: Yuli Boyarshinov,” 12 April 2018
• “Wife of Tortured Antifascist Seeks Asylum in Finland,” 11 April 2018
• “The FSB’s Tall Tales,” 10 April 2018
• “Families of Penza-Petersburg Terrorists Form Committee,” 9 April 2018
• “Extremism Inside Out,” 30 March 2018
• “Search and Intimidate,” 29 March 2018
• “Solidarity? (The Case of the Penza and Petersburg Antifascists),” 24 March 2018
• “Anna Tereshkina: At Viktor Filinkov’s Remand Extension Hearing,” 23 March 2018
• “Ping, Ping, Ping: The Remand Extension Hearing of the Penza ‘Terrorists,’” 20 March 2018
• “Tortured Petersburg Antifascist Viktor Filinkov Transferred to Remand Prison in Leningrad Region,” 17 March 2018
• “Svyatoslav Rechkalov: ‘They Proceeded to Pull Down My Trousers, Threatening to Shock Me in the Groin,’” 15 March 2018
• “They Jump on Anything That Moves, Part 3: The Case of the New Greatness Movement,” 15 March 2018
• “The Horrorshow Continues: Svyatoslav Rechkalov Tortured in Moscow,” 15 March 2018
• “The Rowdies Have to Be Apprehended Legally, So We Can Have a Celebration in the City on March 18, not Bedlam,” 15 March 2018
• “Ilya Kapustin: ‘When the Stamp Thudded in My Passport, It Was Like a Huge Weight Had Been Lifted from My Shoulders,’” 13 March 2018
• “Your Husband Safely Made the Flight to Minsk after We Abducted Him in Petersburg,” 2 March 2018
• “‘FSB Officers Always Get Their Way!’” 28 February 2018
• ‘The Case of the Anarchists: Disappearances, Torture, Frame-Up (11 AM, February 15, 2018, Moscow),” 14 February 2018
• “The Strange Investigation of a Strange Subway Attack,” 12 February 2018
• “Arrested Penza Antifascists Talk about Torture in Remand Prison,” 10 February 2018
• “Solidarity with Persecuted Russian Antifascists and Anarchists in NYC and Minneapolis,” 7 February 2018
• “Ilya Kapustin: ‘They Said They Could Break My Legs and Dump Me in the Woods,’” 31 January 2018
• “The Penza ‘Terrorism’ Case,” 30 January 2018
• “Breaking Bad with the FSB,” 29 January 2018
• “How ‘Stability’ Has Really Been Achieved in Russia,” 29 January 2018