Jenya Kulakova
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July 28, 2020
I exit the remand prison on Shpalernaya Street—and find myself in a sunny downpour. From inside, the storm seemed much darker. (Many things probably seem much darker inside the prison.). I stand under the awning of Center “E” and look across the road at the prison, dazzling in silver drops from the sky, in the spray made by the wheels of passing cars. I’m under the awning and safe, but my feet are getting a little wet. For a short time the street is quiet, there are no people or cars. A small rainbow falls directly on Shpalernaya from the sky, vanishing in a few minutes.
I will tell Vitya [Viktor Filinkov] about this when we meet, just I told him about the bat that flies at night in the courtyard near the prison. And he told me how a pigeon had flown into their prison cell and landed on his trousers, and how he and his cellmate had caught it by donning plastic bags. They had chased it out of the window and fed it prison bread.
About the verdict.* Vitya had received it on Thursday and immediately read it, but he hadn’t looked at it again. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, he plans to write and send an appeal. When I asked him to comment on the verdict, he could not say anything printable—he cursed loudly and waved his hands. When I asked him one more time to make a publishable statement on the matter, he slumped his head on the table. That was when I realized that it was his verdict and his seven years in prison, and he could comment or not comment on them as he wished.
He will write an appeal, of course, there is no doubt about it. Although he doesn’t feel like doing it at all: he says that he is always busy with something, and there is not enough time. He reads a lot about math (I only remember something about graph theory, but there are a lot of other topics), devises assignments for a training course on “pogromming,” and studies English. He’s apparently in good health, and his mood is also cheerful. However, the last couple of weeks he has had increased problems with sleep. He falls asleep in the morning, when it is already time to get up. (And this is despite the fact that since February, he has been taking drugs that should also level out his sleep.)
The censor is on vacation, and for three weeks, Vitya has received no letters from the outside world. (I don’t think he is able to send letters, either). But he gets Novaya Gazeta once a week, so Vitya is more or less aware of all the news. The library has been undergoing repairs of some kind, so a month ago, Vitya and his cellmate had to return all their library books, but they cannot take out new ones yet.
Update (added here from the comments). The coronavirus restrictions, imposed in early April, have almost all been lifted: the receipt of care packages and parcels has resumed, as well as visits with relatives. Meetings with lawyers no longer take place through glass, but all visitors must still wear masks and gloves. The mysterious “cleaning day” on Friday, when lawyers cannot visit clients, is also still in place.
*The verdict has been mailed to Vitaly [Cherkasov] and me by mail, and is still on its way, but Olga Krivonos has posted it here, so you can read it.
Photo by and courtesy of Jenya Kulakova. Translated by the Russian Reader. Please read my previous posts on Viktor Filinkov and the Network Case (see below), and go to Rupression.com to find out how you can show your solidarity with him and the other defendants in the case. All of them now face long terms in prison unless their guilty verdicts are reversed on appeal, which is not going to happen as long as the current regime remains in power, unfortunately.
#NetworkCase
- “Viktor Filinkov: The Big Picture,” 4 July 2020
- “We Can Dance If We Want To,” 22 June 2020
- “Come As You Are,” 21 June 2020
- “The Network Trial in Petersburg: Closing Statements by Defendants,” 18 June 2020
- “Parents Demand Release of Netfwork Defendants Due to Coronavirus,” 1 April 2020
- “Pornofilmy, ‘This Will Pass,’” 1 March 2020
- “At the Network Trial in Petersburg,” 25 February 2020
- “Yevgenia Litvinova: Stop the Crackdown in Crimea,” 18 February 2020
- “The Network Case in Context,” 12 February 2020
- “86 Years in Prison for 7 Defendants in Network Case,” 10 February 2020
- “Two Network Case Defendants Married in Prison,” 29 January 2020
- “Viktor Filinkov: ‘It’s As If You Disappear—Only the Pain Remains,’” 21 January 2019
- “David Graeber on the Network Case,” 20 January 2020
- “‘My Statement Has Been Recorded Accurately (February 1–3, 2020),” 28 December 2019
- “18 Years in Prison for Being Tortured by the FSB,” 26 December 2019
- “The Second Anniversary,” 20 October 2019
- “‘Hi, I’m Married,’” 14 August 2019
- “Ivan Davydov: The New Greatness Trial,” 12 July 2019
- “Guided Tour of a Torture Chamber,” 11 July 2019
- “They Are Who They Are,” 10 June 2019
- “Vocalese (The Network Trials),” 6 June 2019
- “Yana Teplitskaya: Can Torture Be Endured?” 3 June 2019
- “The Network Trials: Pinning the ‘Code’ on the Defendants,” 22 May 2019
- “My Generation,” 6 May 2019
- “Lie Still, Bitch!” 26 April 2019
- “Crossing Jordan: Day Three of the Network Trial,” 17 April 2019
- “Network Trial Begins in Petersburg,” 9 April 2019
- “FSB May Haved Used Neo-Nazi Provocateur to Frame Network Suspects,” 1 February 2019
- “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
“10.19.2017: Ilya Shakursky and Vasily Kuksov are detained in Penza. Both of them are brutally beaten. Two years is already a sentence. 
“What the Chekists from the FSB do: they abduct, they torture, they murder. This is terror! #NetworkCase #NewGreatness #StopFSB.”
The Russian Reader 