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Photo: Alexandra Astakhova \/ Mediazona<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Thursday, May 23, the 2nd Western District Military Court sentenced Vladimir Malina, a bartender from Moscow, to 25 years in prison for setting fire to a relay cabinet, with the damage estimated at 9,000 roubles (approximately $100). Malina was found guilty under ten articles of the Criminal Code\u2014ranging from treason to terrorism. Prosecutors had requested a 28-year sentence for the defendant. Mediazona<\/em> spoke with his mother, who said that after his arrest, FSB officers beat her son, threatening to send him to the Wagner Group or plant explosives on him. During a search of their apartment, they confiscated all Ukrainian language textbooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u0427\u0438\u0442\u0430\u0442\u044c \u043d\u0430 \u0440\u0443\u0441\u0441\u043a\u043e\u043c<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n In early June 2023, Vladimir Malina left the apartment in northern Moscow, where he lived with his 63-year-old mother Irina Sokolova, and disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 35-year-old Malina worked as a bartender at the Italian-style restaurant Basilico<\/em> on Novorizhskoye Highway and often returned home late at night, but he usually warned his mother if he was delayed. This time, there was no news from him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI had already, you could say, said goodbye to my son. Because it had never happened before that he didn\u2019t at least let me know where he was, that he wouldn\u2019t come home,\u201d Sokolova recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two days later, she was awakened by an early morning ring at the door. A \u201cwhole brigade\u201d of police officers with dogs and FSB investigators entered the flat. They showed the woman a court order for a search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey found a three-litre plastic canister of petrol\u2014but that\u2019s my petrol, I have a car, I just didn\u2019t take it to the boot. They found the remains of paint thinner\u2014Vovka used to create art. And most importantly, what impressed and excited them\u2014they found a tent, tourist gear\u2014a shovel to dig a fire pit, a sleeping bag. They asked what he needs it for. I said, look, I have videos and photos on my phone\u2014I can show you\u2014he went to Karelia [in northwestern Russia] before Covid, stayed in a tent, bought everything for that, and was going to go to Altai [in Siberia] too. It\u2019s just tourist equipment! And they also took a Ukrainian language textbook that was left over from his father, who is Ukrainian,\u201d says Sokolova.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after, a second search was conducted in the apartment, and the investigator seized two more Ukrainian textbooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since then, Sokolova has seen her son only twice\u2014when the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow extended his arrest and when she was questioned there as a witness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe prosecutor asked me if I was sure he went to Karelia with the tent, and also why we needed textbooks. I offered to show the photos he sent from Karelia. And about the textbook, I said: \u2018We have three more of these textbooks lying around, these are textbooks of his dad, who is Ukrainian. We can fill your whole department with them.\u2019 Vovka, it turns out, is half Ukrainian, but he never opened that textbook once, it\u2019s lying there in your evidence, brand new. Do you understand that I speak Ukrainian much better than Vovka, because my mother-in-law spoke only Ukrainian? So what, should I be arrested now too?\u201d Sokolova recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On May 23, Malina was sentenced to 25 years in prison\u2014three years less than the prosecution had requested. Sokolova does not believe she will live to see her son\u2019s release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sokolova has not seen the materials of the criminal case against her son. Lawyer Maxim Vasyukhin, who represents Malina by court appointment, refused to tell Mediazona<\/em> the details of the case. He left the last hearing at the 2nd Western District Military Court before the judge announced the sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Malina was found guilty under ten articles of the Criminal Code: sabotage, attempted sabotage, preparation for sabotage, preparation for a terrorist act, training in terrorist activities, participation in a terrorist community, participation in a terrorist organisation, treason, training in sabotage activities and participation in a sabotage community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Initially the court arrested Malina under a single article that was not in the final version of the charges\u2014bringing means of communication into an inoperable state, Article 267 of the Criminal Code, which provides for no more than a year of imprisonment. This is confirmed by the record of the hearing<\/a> on the extension of the arrest on the website of the Meshchansky Court of Moscow. Irina Sokolova drew attention to this in her complaint to the prosecutor\u2019s office, which Mediazona<\/em> has reviewed. Charges of terrorism appeared<\/a> in the case no later than last December, and the remaining articles no later than February<\/a> 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before lawyer Vasyukhin took over the case, Malina was represented by other defenders\u2014Yevgeny Kirillin and Vadim Rodin, says Sokolova.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She terminated the agreement with Kirillin in December last year, having paid more than 800,000 roubles ($9,000), deciding that the defender was inactive\u2014he refused to show the mother the case materials, suggesting to wait until the formal stage of familiarisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rodin, according to her, requested 350,000 roubles (approximately $3,900) and took up the case, but in early April he suddenly disappeared. Sokolova cannot contact him, and she has run out of money to pay for lawyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The woman can only judge what her son is accused of by snippets of conversations with investigators. However, she is certain of one thing\u2014after his arrest, Vladimir was beaten. Both paid lawyers filed statements about torture with the Investigative Committee, which is also confirmed by the current court-appointed defender Vasyukhin\u2014according to him, the complaints were \u201cinvestigated by law enforcement agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When lawyer Kirillin first met with Malina, he said that three police officers had detained him on the evening of June 5, 2023 at Barybino station in the southern Moscow region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First they demanded that he unlock his mobile phone (the bartender refused), and then they opened his backpack and found a crowbar. Malina was pushed into a police car and taken to a department unknown to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the office, the detainee was interrogated by a senior operative, and there was also a person who introduced himself as an FSB officer. He beat Malina with his hands and feet on his arms, sides and knees, demanding that he unlock his phone and \u201cadmit guilt in committing crimes\u201d, according to the lawyer\u2019s survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the beating, Malina was taken, presumably, to the Ministry of Internal Affairs Department for the Domodedovo city district, and taken to an office where he was spoken to by an FSB investigator and two more special service officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey offered me three options. The first is that I am sent to fight in the Wagner private military company, the second is that they find explosives on me that were used to blow up power lines, as I closely match the suspect, the third is that I confess to all the arsons they have. After that, one of the FSB officers, following the orders of his superior, repeatedly struck me forcefully in the chest area. Then they took me to the Podolsk FSB office, where they threatened to kill me and repeatedly struck me forcefully with the palms of their hands in the face, back of the head, head and cheeks area in order for me to confess to collaborating with terrorist organisations and setting fire to relay cabinets,\u201d Malina said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The account of the beating is confirmed by a medical examination certificate of Malina upon admission to the temporary detention facility of the police department at the Moscow-Leningradskaya station, the lawyer wrote in the complaint. Sokolova was unable to provide Mediazona<\/em> with the original certificate. The lawyer filed a complaint about the beating immediately after Malina\u2019s arrest, but according to his mother, no investigation followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sokolova claims that in conversations with the lawyer, the FSB investigator did not hide the fact that her son had been beaten. \u201cThe lawyer talked to the investigator. He directly said that Vovka was all blue when he was arrested. They beat him up and forced him to sign papers\u2014protocols stating where he set the fire,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Baza, <\/em>a Telegram<\/em> channel, reported<\/a> that the bartender \u201con his own accord\u201d set fire to a relay cabinet at the \u201cPozhitkovo\u2014Greater Ring of the Moscow Railway\u201d leg of the railroad at the end of April last year. The arson did not cause any disruptions in train traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The publication Vot Tak<\/em> added<\/a> in November, citing a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, that Malina, according to the prosecution, joined the \u201cFreedom of Russia\u201d legion comprised of Russians fighting for Ukraine and \u201cparticipated\u201d in its activities, committing \u201csabotage and terrorist acts by setting fire to relay cabinets at railway transport facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nLawyers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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