Throughout Russia there are a considerable number of pre-trial detention centers in which a certain number of suspects accused of committing a particular crime are kept. They take into custody those arrested whose cases have been accepted by the investigative and inquiry bodies, as well as those convicted under various criminal articles, the convictions in respect of which have not yet entered into force. The task of such institutions is to create conditions under which it will not be possible for an accused or suspected person to escape from trial and investigation, and for those who have already been convicted to avoid their punishment.
Isolator number one
One of these institutions is the nationwide pre-trial detention center “Matrosskaya Tishina”, which is located in the capital on the street of the same name. The old building appeared at the end of the eighteenth century. It housed a restraining house, and almost a hundred years later it became known as the Moscow Correctional Prison. At that time, one hundred and fifty women and three hundred men were kept there. At the beginning of the twentieth century, new prison buildings were built. After the revolution, juvenile convicts were kept there. After the Great Patriotic War until 1953, war criminals were housed in one of the buildings. Already in 1956, the building was renamed a pre-trial detention center.
In order to improve
In the eighties of the last century, reconstruction was carried out in the “Matrosskaya Tishina” pre-trial detention center; a hospital was located in the converted buildings. In it, prisoners from all pre-trial detention centers located in the capital receive treatment in many areas. The institution also has one room for psychological relief in the entire city. Its lining is made of the shungite mineral, which has healing properties. With its help, a person is relieved of physical and psychological stress. In the nineties, its own dining room was built.
Escapes from the institution
During the entire existence of the facility of pre-trial detention center 1 “Matrosskaya Tishina”, three successful attempts to escape were made from it. The first case was noted in 1995; it was associated with Solonik, a member of the Kurgan criminal group. The second escape was made in 2004 by Ukrainian citizen Ershov, who was a drug addict. And in 2013, Topalov, convicted of double murder and theft, escaped. But everyone who decided to escape was soon detained and returned to prison.
The pre-trial detention center housed many criminals involved in the most high-profile cases.
Topalov managed to make an amazing escape. Using an ordinary spoon, he was able to enlarge the hole for ventilation of the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center in the cell. Photos of his escape were taken using CCTV footage. Later they were distributed in open sources. Having climbed onto the roof and using a homemade rope from sheets, Topalov climbed onto the wall and escaped. True, his stay at large was short-lived; within 24 hours the criminal was caught.
Sailor's Silence. Acquaintance
Illustration: GettyImages
I sit handcuffed in the back seat of a car and look sadly at the pedestrians hurrying about their business. I look at the faces of the drivers, at the cars passing by, I look at Moscow preparing for the New Year, at the recently fallen snow. We are going to Matrosskaya Tishina prison. Could I have ever thought that I would end up in this place?! It was easier for me to imagine myself as an astronaut going on an expedition to Mars. With a roar, a huge metal gate opens, the so-called settling tank, where my guards hand over their weapons. Dogs are heard barking. We are entering the territory.
Prison makes a heavy, depressing impression. The jailers are clearly not happy about my arrival. After some arguing, some papers are signed, and I am handed over. The prison accepts me. A strange and sinister place. A place of grief and sorrow, evil, despair and pain. A place where all human vices are woven together. I have always been surprised by the dubious holidays of FSIN employees. Not so long ago, the anniversary of the Vladimir Central, which turned one hundred years old, was celebrated with pomp. Having invited numerous guests and journalists, the jailers boasted that they had Daniil Andreev, Ruslanova and other illegally convicted famous people in prison. Here we should be ashamed, but they are quite seriously proud of it. What can I say?
They take me into the courtyard of the prison, where I wait for something for a long time. I don’t know what time it is anymore—he’s lost count. The watch, which for some unknown reason is a prohibited item in prison, was confiscated from me back in Butyrka and “forgot” to return it. It seems to me that an eternity has passed. They take me inside the prison and lock me in a “glass” - a small dark room where you can only stand. No, there is a kind of bench there - a board about ten centimeters wide, attached to the wall and, obviously, intended not for sitting, but for mockery. I am sure that some specialist from the Research Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service (and one actually exists!) wrote at least a Ph.D. thesis on a topic like this: “The influence of inhuman conditions of detention on the detection of crimes.” Indeed, many people dream of leaving prison as quickly as possible to go to the zone. I was no exception, but more on that later.
I stay in the glass for a very long time. I am taken for a medical examination, where a gloomy orderly uses a huge syringe with a blunt needle to take blood from a vein to test for HIV. Looking at me carefully, for some reason he shares his misfortune with me.
“I don’t like working here, the aura is bad,” he suddenly turns to me thoughtfully.
“Where did you work before?” - I’m interested.
“In the morgue,” he replies and sighs heavily.
From our cell, along the prison road, a run goes through the entire prison - a little thing: they say, the first mover, Volodya Pereverzin from Chertanovo, who had not previously been imprisoned, came to see us
They take a photo of me “as a souvenir,” for my personal file, and again they take my fingerprints. They give you a beat-up mattress, linen, a spoon, a mug, a bowl and lead you to a cell. Small specialist, cell 412. I remember this moment well - it is firmly etched in my memory. It was already a real prison. The brakes opened - the door - and I entered the cell. Dim light, ropes stretched lengthwise and crosswise, on which things are dried, which, by definition, cannot dry due to the overcrowding of the chamber and are only saturated with a specific smell. Broken walls. People are everywhere, they fill all the space. The tightness is incredible. It was as if I had boarded a crowded bus at rush hour. Some are standing, some are sitting, some are lying. The devastation is complete. I have never seen anything like this even in a movie.
The cell contains eight bunk iron beds, standing close to each other, for forty people. There are not enough places, they sleep in turns. I enter, say hello, and ask who is watching. This is a prisoner who is responsible for maintaining the prison way of life - not established by the administration, that is, not the Musorsky regime, but human order. We are getting acquainted. Zhenya - Artist - a prisoner with experience, a drug addict, he has HIV. When he was free, he worked as a restorer after graduating from a specialized school. Arrested under Article 158 (theft). Having learned that I went to prison for the first time, he conducts an educational program. Do not shake hands with the offended (there is such a caste of untouchables among the prisoners), do not take anything from their hands, do not use the toilet (dalnyak) when someone is eating. The rules, in general, are simple and clear.
I tell you about myself - who and where I come from. From our cell, along the prison road, a procession goes through the entire prison - a little thing: they say, Volodya Pereverzin from Chertanovo, who had not previously been imprisoned, came to see us, under Articles 160 and 174.1. This is done everywhere and always in order to question and punish prisoners for past misdeeds and sins. The prison community lives by its own, sometimes fairer - human - rules of life. Nothing can be hidden here. Being under the close attention of fellow inmates twenty-four hours a day, you become completely understandable to those around you. I'm getting into prison life. They give me a bunk where I can rest. I don’t want to sleep, although I’m already on my fourth day of being awake. We talk with Zhenya for a long time. I find him attractive and interesting. Here he draws postcards for the entire prison. He is respected and in demand. Grateful prisoners send him tea and cigarettes via cable cars. Everyone has their own role here. There is a road worker - a person who stands on the prison road and is responsible for the prison's unofficial logistics. Gradually I get to know the other inhabitants of the cell.
My other cellmate, Victor, claimed that he graduated from VGIK, the directing department. He is an erudite and an alcoholic, arrested under Article 319 (disobedience to a police officer) - here this is one of the most respected articles. In other words, he punched the local police officer in the face, for which he was arrested. Victor is a master of artistic expression and writes ornate letters for his cellmates, which they send to their loved ones on their own behalf.
The camera is missing everything. There is not enough air, food, free space, tea, cigarettes. There are no books, no newspapers, no television, radio is prohibited. But there is a lot of free time. Everyone is trying to occupy themselves with something, to pass the time. Endless conversations, sometimes completely meaningless and empty, and sometimes very interesting. I got into a conversation with a young guy, he was just like me, a first-timer. Student, Faculty of Law, Moscow State University. I came from Ivanovo and entered the budget department. He is a Limonovite. He was arrested for seizing an office in the Presidential Administration building. The guys entered the building using a construction pistol, barricaded themselves in one of the rooms and hung a “Down with Putin” poster from the window. They sent them an article about “an attempt at an armed seizure of power.” They faced up to twenty-five years in prison! What is this? The special zeal of an investigator suffering from mental illness, or the desire of a complete idiot to curry favor? I didn’t yet know about my charges, about the stolen thirteen and a half billion dollars and the laundered eight and a half, and I couldn’t give an intelligible answer to the question why I was closed. Later I learn that the story of the armed seizure of power ended relatively well. These guys were convicted of “hooliganism” and given short sentences.
I watch with amazement and incomprehension as my cellmates struggle with a scourge unknown to me - lice.
I'm starting to settle into my cell. Finally a lawyer finds me. On the same day they bring me a package with everything I need. Soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, change of underwear, tea, coffee, sweets. While sorting through these treasures, I catch the envious glances of my cellmates and feel an extraordinary sense of pride and joy, a sense of confidence in the future. I understand that I am not alone, I realize that I am supported and cared for. I will carry this feeling through all these years.
Life is starting to get better. In prison it is customary to share. If you receive a transfer, give it to everyone. And the general stuff will be redistributed by those looking at the camera among those in need, who are the majority. For the first time I get enough sleep, falling into complete oblivion. I sleep once every three days. There is noise and din in the cell, which merges into a constant hum that prevents you from falling asleep. Until you reach a state of complete exhaustion, you will not fall asleep. I don’t pay any attention to the bedbugs and cockroaches that infest everything. But I watch with amazement and incomprehension as my cellmates struggle with a scourge unknown to me - lice. They use a homemade boiler to boil laundry in a basin, and use matches to burn the seams on things where these insects accumulate. I watch for a short time, until the very moment I feel that someone is crawling on me. I take off my T-shirt and am horrified to see dozens of insects peacefully grazing in my underwear, as well as many laid eggs. I am enthusiastically joining this fight. It is impossible to defeat lice under those conditions, but inflicting serious damage on the enemy in a local conflict is a completely feasible task.
The New Year is approaching - 2005. The camera lives its own life. Once a week we are taken to a shower, which for some reason is persistently called a bathhouse. There is incredible dirt in the shower, the walls are covered in some kind of mucus, there are puddles on the floor. Some prisoners do not leave the cell at all: it is unknown what is better - dirt or some kind of infection from the shower. I miraculously manage to avoid both. The prison requires a daily one-hour walk. The prison sleeps during the day, so two or three people go out for walks. I rejoice at any opportunity to leave the cell. At least for an hour, but a change of scenery. See the sky, even if only through the bars, breathe in a breath of fresh frosty air. I am no longer embarrassed by the guards walking along the perimeter of the fence surrounding the exercise yard. A female overseer with a bizarre design on her head catches your eye: black hair is half covered by a fiery red wig pulled to one side, which, in turn, is covered by a uniform cap. As a rule, residents of other regions work here, coming for shifts or living in departmental dormitories.
We are walking with Denis O. He is an ideological Limonovite and is ready to sit down. I am already familiar with his colleague in the attempt to “seize power.” Denis is a young, good, educated guy who graduated from Kaliningrad State University with a degree in history teacher, and his position inspires my respect. While walking, he does push-ups and pull-ups, preparing for the trials that befell him: then he faced up to twenty-five years in prison! We are talking. I'm interested in what and how they want to achieve. Clearly, a change of power. What next? There is no program, only slogans: “Destroy everything to the ground,” “Whoever was nothing will become everything...” Everything is clear, we have already been through this. The walk ends and we return to the cell. Tomorrow is New Year! First New Year in captivity. Several people in the cell receive transmissions. My relatives paid for delivery from the prison store, and they bring me juice, candy, chocolate, gingerbread, and sausage. I can’t eat prison gruel yet, I’m sitting on bread and tea, I feel how my weight is rapidly decreasing. “Great, I’ll lose weight,” I say to myself, trying to find the positive aspects of being here.
The shelves, lovingly glued together by the prisoner in order to somehow embellish the miserable life, are mercilessly torn off and thrown outside the cell
The camera is getting ready for the holiday. The food was divided into parts, chifir was brewed, and sweets and chocolate were divided. Everyone is slightly nervous. Everyone hopes that this new year will bring good luck and will be the last one in prison. I still consider my stay here to be a misunderstanding. I am still confident that I will be free in a few months. I cannot imagine that I will have as many as seven such holidays. Frivolity saves me, but hope helps me live.
Time passes very slowly. Through the broken window and the tails (lattice) we hear the New Year! The distant sounds of fireworks reach us, and if you look closely, you can see its reflections behind the bars. We rejoice. After the New Year there are ten days of silence. Dead days here, as I called them, and weekends there, in freedom. At this time, they will not bring you a package, nor will the lawyer come with the good news that you always expect.
Suddenly a riot broke out. The brakes open and the guards jump into the cell. We are all taken out into the corridor (into the corridor) and put in a cage. I watch in amazement as the simple belongings of the arrested, which are considered illegal, fly out of the door, some things fly, and homemade cards fall out. The shelves, lovingly glued together by the prisoner in order to somehow embellish the miserable life, are mercilessly torn off and thrown outside the cell. The search ends just as suddenly, and we return to the cell. There's a pogrom there. Everything is upside down. There is a mountain of things on the floor - the jailers shook out the contents of our bags into one big pile and mixed everything up. “Oh, bitches,” I say, and I begin to sincerely hate trash. We spend a long time sorting things out, silently looking for our things. There is silence in the cell. A little time passes and everything returns to normal. Life goes on.
I will survive hundreds of similar troubles. There were cases when guards simply stole my things, not hesitating to appropriate T-shirts, pens and cigarettes. It happened that the searches took place quite civilly, within the bounds of decency. But I could never get used to it, accept it. Until the last day, this procedure always bothered me and made me feel disgusted.
* * *
Despite the unsanitary conditions and everyday inconveniences, I was not morally depressed. We were all very different, an abyss separated us. If I were free, I would never meet the people in the same cell with me. But here, in prison, we lived in harmony, with a common interest, united by one misfortune.
The sound of iron on iron. Longitudinal calls my last name. “Without things,” he says. I leave the cell, and we walk along the long and confusing corridors of Sailor's Silence. Close it in a glass again. You don't have to wait long. Soon the door opens and they lead me somewhere again. I see other prisoners nearby. I ask the guard: “Where are we going?” “For a short date,” he snaps. We are taken into a small, shabby room with a long table on which telephones are placed. There is a chair in front of each telephone. I sit down on one of them and see in front of me a grate and a window with dirty glass. Outside the window is the same room, the same table, the same telephones. The door opens and I see people running into the room and starting to rush around desperately, trying to find their loved ones. Time is limited. I see my wife, I see my father, who rushes to the phone standing in front of me. Almost nothing can be heard. There is noise, everyone is trying to shout over each other. I don’t hear, but rather read on my lips the question: “How are you?” I try my best to smile, but I probably look lost. I have a lump in my throat, I can’t speak. The date ends. It seems to me that not even five minutes have passed, although it lasted a full thirty. I am in a lot of pain and difficulty, physically ill. “The main thing is that everyone is alive and well,” I reassure myself. This was the last time I saw my father close. He died during the trial without waiting for me.
Bullying and humiliation accompany loved ones throughout our entire term - from the first to the last day. The queue to hand over the package, the queue to go on a date, searches and a huge number of contrived inconveniences that they are forced to put up with.
Like me, Lebedev did not yet know that he was my “accomplice”
* * *
It takes me a long time to come to my senses after a first date. Not even a few days pass before they call me somewhere again. This time with things. Evening. Transferred to another cell. They give you time to get ready. My heart aches, I don’t want to leave these walls, these people with whom I have already become close. But there is no other way out. I roll up the mattress and collect my things. I say goodbye to the guys with whom I literally lived side by side for more than a month.
Again, endless corridors with dim lighting. We go down into some kind of underground tunnel connecting the buildings. We are going to the sixth building of Sailor's Silence. Cell 601, sixth floor. My escort cannot find the longitudinal one who has the key to the cell. I put my things on the floor and sit down on the mattress. Suddenly I see Platon Lebedev walking down the corridor, accompanied by a warden. He is taken to the next cell. He is dressed in a tracksuit and is very haggard. I look at him, trying to say something. Once upon a time, even before my work at YUKOS, we knew each other. I haven't seen him for five years. He didn't recognize me. Like me, Lebedev did not yet know that he was my “accomplice”. I will learn about this only in August 2010, when he and Khodorkovsky will be tried by the Khamovnichesky Court.
They find the key to the camera. The door opens and I walk into a spacious, half-empty six-person cell. There are two people there. I already know one of them - Seryozha was sitting with me in the minor when he was transferred here. Here he is already serving another prisoner of about fifty-five - Misha Dashevsky. He washes the floors, makes tea - in a prison word, he's a snoop around here. Misha was already waiting for me. He is an obvious bitch and knows from the operatives about my arrival. Before me, he was sitting in the next cell with Lebedev. He talks about it a lot, watching my reaction. He asks even more. He does not hide the fact that he communicates with operatives. He offers to bring a mobile phone, vodka, and whatever delicacies your heart desires for money. He boasts about how well he sat here with some deputy minister and celebrated the New Year. He's not lying. But I’m not very interested in all this, and I’m content with the assortment of the prison store. The cell has an unheard of luxury - a shower. I wash and wash all my clothes thoroughly, getting rid of lice.
I have been in this cell for several days. We pass the time by playing cards. In the evening the warden informs me that the next morning I must be ready for the season. This means that they will take me somewhere. After getting up, I get dressed and they take me out of the cell. Again - into the glass. It's six o'clock in the morning. I stand for a long time, I can’t find a place for myself. You can't sit down, you can't walk around. You can only stand. I'm trying to squat down. It's also inconvenient. I want to go to the toilet, I knock on the door - first with my palm, then with my fist, then with my foot. The door is already shaking from my blows. Useless. You can’t reach either them or their conscience—absolute indifference reigns here. At eleven in the morning a convoy comes for me and takes me for interrogation to the Prosecutor General's Office. Hurray, I see white snow from the car window, I see the sky and the sun!
The idyll ends in the prosecutor's office building. In the corridor I meet Sveta Bakhmina. No, she doesn't walk, but moves slowly. Her face is white as chalk, her gaze is fixed on one point. Obviously, she sees nothing and no one around. Two policemen support her by the arms so she doesn’t fall. Sveta, at that time the mother of two young children, was actually tortured. They take me for interrogation to an already familiar office, to already familiar investigators. Conversation again. Again empty talk. They ask me strange questions: have I ever been to Samara or Nefteyugansk?
Not understanding where they are leading, I honestly say that I was not there. I'm lucky. Otherwise, this would serve as “proof” of a prior criminal conspiracy. They convince me to testify and admit guilt. It seems like such a trifle, just say: “Yes, I knew you, received instructions, followed orders, which I deeply regret,” and this whole nightmare will end, everyone will leave you behind. But the issue was not on my agenda; I did not accept their promises. I don’t know how I would behave if I were guilty of something, if I knew someone and received instructions. Here there was neither the first, nor the second, nor the third. They offer me a lawyer, whose services I stubbornly refuse. I ask to be given the opportunity to call, which I am also denied. The conversation begins. Someone comes in and out, someone plays the role of an evil investigator, and someone is a good one. They again recommend that I confess and testify before it’s too late. Friendly conversation is clearly not possible. One investigator, a small, frail man, dressed in a gray suit, tie and white socks, breaks down. He squeals and sputters: “Ivanovich! You are Russian! What do you need these Jews, these Borisovichs?!” He is clearly mentally ill and a danger to society.
I don’t feel threatened, I don’t realize the reality of what’s happening. It seems to me that I am in a madhouse. The investigators clearly do not like my stories, and they are disappointed. I was taken to another office, to the already familiar “kind” investigator for especially important cases, Mr. Khatypov. He makes a formal proposal to say something that did not happen. It seems like a bad dream or a scene from a cheap movie to me.
I really didn't understand what I was being accused of. The “kind” investigator Khatypov politely offers me tea, Bashkir honey, horse sausage and draws prospects for a speedy release. I don't feel like eating at all. Sleep too. I also didn’t want to invent something that didn’t exist, just as I didn’t want horse sausage. The conversation clearly didn't go well.
Having never tasted Bashkir honey, I return to prison. The journey continues.
Vladimir Pereverzin: Sunderlay Endelay. How to go into trance in a Russian colony
During his imprisonment, Vladimir Pereverzin, who served 7 years in the YUKOS case, illegally kept records about life in captivity. "Snob" presents the first story - "Sunderlai Endelay"
Stuff happened
During the entire existence of the “Matrosskaya Tishina” pre-trial detention center, many different events took place there. So in 2006, on April 28, a fire occurred in the detention center, where two prisoners died and one of the guards, who was leading the supervised people out of the premises, was injured, as well as three firefighters who took part in the extinguishing. In total, fifteen crews fought the fire.
Many famous people who committed not only criminal crimes served their sentences in the detention center. Thus, at one time, Khodorkovsky and Mavrodi, the former mayor of Yaroslavl Urlashov and the Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, through whose fault two Russian correspondents were killed, were held here.
Everyday life in a Kremlin prison - a look from the inside
Photo: Alexander Vilf / RIA Novosti Revenge of the offended Prosecutor General, deep “freezing” in a privileged isolation ward, a space landing attack, disclosure of medical confidentiality and interception of secret correspondence. All this, as well as how the FSB general put pressure on the Prosecutor General’s Office and why ex-Minister Kuznetsov, near Moscow, does not lose his mood and appetite - in the prison stories of the ex-head of the Serpukhov region.
“My publications that the Prosecutor General’s Office is taking revenge on me for the case of gambling prosecutors and the arrest of Prosecutor General’s Office employee Sergei Abrosimov , as well as a detailed breakdown of fictitious charges and mythical ten billion, caused an inadequate reaction from the supervisory department headed by Yuri Chaika .
Offended, among other things, by his sons (let me remind you that Artem Chaika was called the leader of the prosecutor’s gang in a criminal gambling case, and Igor Chaika was not happy with my fight against the Lesnaya landfill), he intervened to turn my already difficult situation into behind bars in a living hell. As it became known, Chaika’s deputy complained to the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation about my lawyers, allegedly they were passing on to me some information that was not relevant to the case.
Everyone knows very well that 99% of prisoners have mobile phones in prisons and transmit any amount of any information. Why Chaika is indifferent to this fact, and he is only concerned about Shestun, although I have always been in special units with a particularly strict regime, including the Lefortovo prison, and have never held a phone in my hands in 8 months, is quite understandable.
The son of the Prosecutor General, Igor Chaika, when he was an adviser to the governor of the Moscow region in the government building of the Moscow region, personally told me: “You are the enemy of the family” and ordered me not to approach him. No matter how hard the blue uniforms try to prove with foam at the mouth and false theatricality that Shestun is an ordinary citizen, with all their actions they only confirm the opposite.
After the prosecutor’s complaint to the Ministry of Justice, in the 6th special block of “Matrosskaya Tishina”, daily harsh searches began in the cells with the turning over of all things, and the detention center employees began to take away papers constituting attorney-client privilege from my defenders.
Moreover, I am still denied hospitalization for my main illness, and let me remind you, I have diabetes, tortuosity of the carotid artery with 64% stenosis, loss of consciousness and, as a result, a high risk of ischemic stroke.
On February 6, I, together with two cellmates, went on a second hunger strike demanding that the lawlessness be stopped and that I be hospitalized in the Bakulev Center. A whole group of doctors came to me and offered to send me to the “Cat House” - a psychiatric hospital in Butyrka prison. I wondered why I needed “Cat House”; I needed treatment for stenosis, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. I often lose consciousness and my condition worsens.
However, the next day, instead of being transferred to a hospital, I was imprisoned in pre-trial detention center 99/1 of the FSIN, or “Kremlin Central”. I am sure that the heroes of my publications contributed to this, because they get here solely by order from the very top.
This Lefortovo branch is widely known for its “freezing” - a complete lack of communication with the outside world. On top of that, investigator Roman Vidyukov has been prohibiting me from seeing my family for two months now, and the staff of pre-trial detention center 99/1 is deliberately preventing me from meeting with my lawyers; Despite the fact that they line up at 9 am, they are launched only at the end of the working day, 10 minutes before the closing of lawyers' offices.
At the same time, the FSI officers take away documents related to the case from the defenders and stand with a video recorder a meter from the table while I communicate with the lawyers.
There are not even letters in this prison, because as soon as I arrived at the Kremlin Central, the censor went on vacation for almost two months! Coincidence?
Let me remind you that in November, when I was being transferred from pre-trial detention center-2, the management of the Kremlin Central refused to take me, saying that “Shestun is a scoundrel.” They know how many complaints I wrote about corruption violations at Lefortovo, and they did not want to accommodate such a rebel.
However, there are also advantages here. The living conditions in pre-trial detention center 99/1 are very tolerable; I now have a large cell that I can even walk around. True, because of the hunger strike, I don’t play sports - I save my strength. The cell has a refrigerator and a TV. But, as usual, they took away my glucometer and will not give it back, which, given my diabetes, is a direct threat to life and health.
This detention center, like Lefortovo, is famous for its VIP prisoners, so now new heroes will appear in my notes.
Nikolai Pavlinov , a famous resident of the city of Chekhov, is in cell 601 He is charged with the most terrible article of the criminal code - organizing a criminal community for the allegedly illegal acquisition of land and buildings, but in his freedom Nikolai built churches, an ice palace in Chekhov, financed the Vityaz hockey club, boxers Povetkin and Lebedev.
Pavlinov’s neighbor, Sergei Shchipantsev (Malysh), became famous after a scandal with beatings and extortion in the Moscow pre-trial detention center-4 Medvedkovo, after which even the head of the prison, Alexei Khorev, . The kid, as part of the Lyubertsy organized crime group, received a sentence for robbery - eight years of maximum security and was transferred to a correctional colony in Vladimir.
Taking into account the time spent in the pre-trial detention center, which is 6.5 years, Malysh did not stay in the colony for long and after three months he was preparing for parole. However, two days before his freedom, he was transferred to the Kremlin Central and a new criminal case was opened regarding the events in Medvedkovo.
I am sitting in cell 506, and next door, in cell 501, lives the mayor of Vladivostok, Igor Pushkarev . The head of the “K” department of the FSB, General Ivan Tkachev , urging me to write a letter of resignation, boasted about how he “rolled up” the “tsar and god of Vladivostok.”
“He was the coolest, they carried him in their arms!” - Ivan Ivanovich spoke about the attitude of the residents of the Far Eastern capital towards the head, but this did not stop Pushkarev from being arrested out of nowhere and slapped with a whole bunch of articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - 201, 204, 285, 290, 291, 327 - abuse of power, commercial bribery, bribery ...
According to the law, the consideration of the merits of the case of Igor Pushkarev should have taken place in the Primorsky Territory, at the place of the crime charged, however, General Tkachev, well aware that the judges of Vladivostok may not follow the lead of the central apparatus of the FSB and pass an objective verdict, personally, with his signature , wrote a petition to Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Viktor Grin to change the territorial jurisdiction of the case. Grin, of course, could not disobey Tkachev, so the hearings on the case of the mayor of Vladivostok are held in the Tverskoy Court of Moscow, which in terms of the quality of crooked justice can compete with Basmanny.
Former Minister of Finance of the Moscow Region Alexey Kuznetsov was in cell 609. He ate everything - both gruel and food from additional nutrition, he had an excellent appetite, he was very clean and modest. Alexey Viktorovich slept on the second tier, wrote poetry all the time and read the works of Nietzsche and Freud, taken from the prison library, and wrote out their quotes in his notebook.
The ex-Minister of Finance of the Moscow Region has a 30-year-old girlfriend in Paris, whom he wants to marry as soon as he is released. He has four children, one daughter with Jeanne Bullock , she works in the United States for Hillary Clinton's . There is also a 32-year-old eldest son and two daughters from his previous wife, they also live abroad.
Ten years ago, Kuznetsov quarreled with his mother and still does not speak to her. The conflict arose over his sister, who was imprisoned for 7 years in his criminal case. She is serving her sentence in the Kostroma colony - the same one where my deputy Elena Bazanova , who was arrested in the midst of my fight against the Moscow prosecutor’s gang that was protecting the casino.
Elena Yuryevna was detained by the GUEBiPK, the entire top of which, a few years later, ended up in prison on charges of fabricating criminal cases and organizing a criminal community, and the head of this elite unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Denis Sugrobov, received 12 years in prison.
Before being transferred to the Kremlin Central, Alexey Kuznetsov had already served six years in France, including two years under house arrest. He was promised the most comfortable pre-trial detention center in Moscow - pre-trial detention center 99/1, here there really are the best living conditions. He was also guaranteed that he would sit in the Bryansk colony after the verdict, and his criminal case of 150 volumes would not change in any way, he would simply be announced a sentence and sent to a zone, taking into account the time he served abroad. Kuznetsov is very optimistic.
In France, it was comfortable in a pre-trial detention center, alone in a cell with an area of 20 square meters, where there was a TV, a refrigerator, unlimited phone calls, video game consoles, and so on. There were few Russians in prison, mostly Arabs, but there were also Ukrainians and Armenians.
Many remember how in 2009, unofficially, on the eve of the New Year holidays, Vladimir Putin strongly discouraged Russian officials from appearing at fashionable Alpine resorts. However, in the French Courchevel, journalists caught the president of the Olympic Committee Leonid Tyagachev , and the director of the FSO Evgeny Murov , and the fugitive Minister of Finance of the Moscow Region Alexei Kuznetsov , and the head of the Central Election Commission of United Russia Andrei Vorobyov , who, seeing that he was recognized, tried to hide in order to avoid a scandal .
Moreover, in a narrow circle it was rumored that Vorobiev, together with Tyagachev and Murov, celebrated the New Year together with Kuznetsov and even negotiated on how to solve the problems of the ex-Minister of Finance.
I had another court hearing scheduled for February 12 to extend my arrest. As always, I prepared a diatribe on several pages to deliver in the presence of my associates and a large number of journalists, and took it with me along with other necessary documents.
But it was not there! The guards tried to take my papers away. In the eight months of my journey through Moscow prisons, and I have already changed six isolation wards and several dozen cells, this was the first time I encountered such impudence and lawlessness. Of course, no one had the right to take away my court documents on any legal basis, and I refused to give them up.
The guards, without thinking twice, decided to use space landing forces against me. About twenty FSIN officers in pressure helmets came at me, threw me onto the asphalt in front of the paddy wagon and beat me for a long time with rubber batons, jumping on me. I was barely alive, my whole body ached, it hurt to breathe. These cosmonauts worked very skillfully, leaving virtually no external damage, only small hematomas, but they knocked out my kidneys. A little later, a severe headache and vomiting developed. I couldn’t even really walk on my own.
In this state, I was loaded into a paddy wagon, where other prisoners of pre-trial detention center 99/1 were already sitting, who heard me being beaten. I personally met the mayor of Vladivostok, Igor Pushkarev, . He treats me with respect. I promised to testify at his trial about the threats of FSB General Tkachev and the political nature of the persecution of Pushkarev.
As soon as we got to the Basmanny Court, I asked to call an ambulance. The paramedics arrived and said that I needed to be taken to the emergency room, but the guards forbade me to do this, and I was not provided with medical assistance.
A huge number of journalists with television cameras gathered to extend the arrest. Basically, these were federal TV channels - Channel One, Ren, Zvezda - which exclusively gave reports denigrating me. To be honest, I thought that the arrest of Senator Rauf Arashukov had completely interrupted my story, and interest in me should subside, but since the television people had gathered so closely together, nothing good should have been expected. I was not mistaken.
Representative of the Prosecutor General's Office Stepan Tyukavkin , who sat almost inaudibly for half the meeting, in the second part unexpectedly gave an awkward theatrical speech, which, apparently, should have been intended to be a sensation, but it turned out like an unfunny joke.
The representative of the General Prosecutor's Office of Russia, like an offended child, began to complain that Shestun was trying to discredit law enforcement agencies, said that the blue uniforms were not taking revenge on me at all, and that Shestun for them was an ordinary citizen, while comparing me with the not at all ordinary Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko and Governor of Sakhalin Alexander Khoroshavin .
Then for some reason Tyukavkin, divulging medical confidentiality, read out publicly the results of my psychiatric examination at the Serbsky Institute, which established my full sanity. At the same time, he voiced exclusively negative excerpts from the description of my personality. Tyukavkin concluded his fables by reading a certain “intercepted” letter, the authenticity of which can be judged by the fact that he refused to show it to the judge, lawyers and generally attach it to the case.
It all looked like a cheap, artless clownery with a faded actor. I easily smashed this 100% slander with the inversion of meaning with facts in my response speech at the trial.
What kind of an ordinary person am I, if I am the only citizen in the history of Russia over the past 10 or 20 years, on the basis of whose statement an employee of the Prosecutor General’s Office in a general’s position was sent to prison! I was also a complainant in the case of the gambling prosecutor’s mafia, in which 10 high-ranking employees went to prison. In the testimony of the Deputy Prosecutor of the Moscow Region, Stanislav Buyansky called the son of the Prosecutor General the leader of the gang, and Artem Yuryevich Chaika has already become the object of developments by the FSB Internal Security Service and the FSB Directorate “M”.
Yuri Yakovlevich’s direct subordinates were concerned about shutting me up, which is why they transferred me to conditions of complete isolation at the Kremlin Central, and even beat me, taking away documents for the court.
If I am an ordinary person, then why did the Prosecutor General’s Office put together an entire briefing with the participation of the federal media dedicated to me, and came up with 10 billion? There is nothing on the list of my property except a house and one car! But I earned my house, I was the president of the Serpukhov Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the largest entrepreneur in Serpukhov, I paid huge taxes and submitted income declarations, where every nail, every board, every brick of my house was taken into account.
Investigator Vidyukov back in August, when I was in the hospital after a 26-day hunger strike in Lefortovo, said that the Prosecutor General’s Office had already decided that I would follow the path of Zakharchenko and Khoroshavin, and everything would be confiscated from me.
I'm not even talking about the fact that FSB General Tkachev, who detained all the governors, said back in 2022, before the initiation of a criminal case, that we will take everything from you, from your relatives, from your acquaintances, from businessmen who are even related to you Dont Have. When I objected that this was illegal, Tkachev only chuckled, declaring that “the courts and prosecutors are under us.” Now all of Russia sees that this is happening.
In response to Mr. Tyukavkin’s retort that I wanted to discredit law enforcement agencies, I stated directly to the faces of everyone present that many prosecutors, investigators, FSB officers and judges need to be tried. Where did the same Yuri Chaika get the castle on Rublyovka? The Prosecutor General has never been involved in business and had no income like me.
That is why the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation did not ratify Article 20 of the UN Convention on Illicit Enrichment, because in this case all these generals and colonels of justice and, first of all, Chaika will go to prison.
Investigator Roman Vidyukov did not bring any new arguments about the need to extend my arrest, to which Judge Karpov reprimanded him. Moreover, at every extension of the arrest, I ask for confrontations with those who say something against me in order to express their arguments. And the investigators always promise the judge that next time they will immediately start investigating them, but in eight months this never happened!
Thus, the investigation is deliberately procrastinating, the necessary investigative actions are not carried out, instead Vidyukov interrogates dozens of random witnesses who have absolutely nothing to do with the case and cannot explain anything, and also orders lengthy, meaningless examinations. I'm not even talking about the pressure that FSB officers and Investigative Committee investigators put on witnesses, intimidating them with arrests, threatening them with damage to property and problems for relatives.
The main argument for extending the arrest was the initiation of another criminal case under Article 290 of the Criminal Code - “bribe” based on the unfounded testimony of Tatyana Grishina , the head of the district administration unit that oversaw sports.
Of course, I didn’t take any bribes from Grishina. This slander was knocked out of her in the classic way: a 63-year-old seriously ill woman, who had recently buried her daughter, husband and mother, was thrown behind bars in another criminal case under Article 159 of the Criminal Code, and then according to a familiar scenario: slander Shestun and you will be released.
This is the whole job of investigators today. They don't look for evidence, like in TV shows or textbooks, they just detain someone and give an ultimatum. As soon as Tatyana Nikolaevna gave the “necessary” testimony, she was immediately released from prison.
In addition to all this, Grishina’s lawyer - a former employee of the Serpukhov City Prosecutor’s Office Mikhail Zhdanovich , a defendant in the case of underground casinos, who spent a year under arrest at my request - obviously influenced Tatyana Nikolaevna in order to take revenge on me.
At the same time, the “defender” was not at all worried about the fate of Grishina herself, because if before this she was charged with a “lighter” crime, then having incriminated herself under the especially serious 290th, she can hardly count on remaining free. Nightmarish by the horrors of prison and the “good” advice of Zhdanovich, she hardly realized that she had only worsened her situation. By the way, Zhdanovich’s wife at the time of his arrest was the personal secretary of Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika.
Further more. According to testimony, a certain Krivova brought money to my office. However, I immediately stated, what kind of Krivova? I don't even know who she is. She never came into my office. What did the investigator magicians do? Realizing their mistake, they immediately concocted a protocol for the additional interrogation, and now it was not Krivova, but Grishina, who came into the office with the money. This is just some kind of game of thimbles and swindlers from the highway!
Apart from Grishina’s words, the investigation has no evidence: neither voice recordings, nor the money itself. Tatyana Nikolaevna does not remember the dates when she allegedly gave bribes, or the amounts. Moreover, she allegedly gave money at a time when I was the chairman of the Council of Deputies and was not her boss and did not have the appropriate powers.
It’s strange that in those years when I was its leader and headed the administration, until 2013, she did not give me any gifts. Complete inconsistencies that confirm the falseness of the accusation.
As for the very first accusation based on the resolution 9 years ago, it is just as fake. There is no crime in the fact that the district administration gave entrepreneurs plots at a preferential tenfold rate. The land is used for its intended purpose, shopping centers are built on it, taxes are paid to the budget.
All factories, all hotels, and a lot of them were built over 15 years in the Serpukhov region, were provided with land at a reduced price. The Serpukhov district is remote from the Moscow Ring Road and borders the Tula and Kaluga regions, which determines the market price of land.
I have done a lot of work with investors, attracted dozens of the most modern enterprises with Russian and foreign capital to the region, including unique ones for our country - the only company in Russia that produces insulin from substance to capsule according to European and American standards. CJSC FP Obolenskoye is the leader of the domestic market in the production of solid form drugs (tablets).
The largest elevator building plant in the village of Ivanovskoye was visited by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and held a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers there. The Mareven Food Central enterprise is Vietnam's largest investment in Russia, for which I received the Vietnamese state award - the Order of Friendship and the title of honorary citizen of Hanoi.
A billion in private investment has been invested in the Absolut boarding school under an Austrian project for orphans with disabilities. Next to it is a cottage community for foster families, built with private money from Lukoil. Both objects were transferred free of charge to the government of the Moscow region.
All of them received land at a preferential rate of 10 times, because otherwise no one would buy this land. There are no transactions at all based on cadastral value, since it does not correspond to the market value.
Governors of other regions came to me and sent the heads of their municipalities so that I could share my experience with them. The fact that I raised the area is confirmed by both my friends and my enemies. Judge Artur Karpov reread my awards for about half an hour, but almost all of them were given for economic development - exactly what I am now being judged for...”
Details of the confrontation between the ex-head of the district and Governor Andrei Vorobyov and FSB General Ivan Tkachev are in the PASMI collection “Who is Alexander Shestun, and why was he imprisoned.”
Innovations in the isolation ward
“Matrosskaya Tishina” is a pre-trial detention center where the problem of overcrowding remains one of the main ones. A lot of new things have happened here in the last year. The security system in the detention center was completely replaced. High-quality video surveillance and a good alarm system will help you better maintain order in the establishment. By the New Year, repairs had been made, and now the living conditions in the cells have become much better. Updated and well-refurbished cells now look more like hostel rooms. Thanks to the reconstruction, the cells of the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center have become more spacious, because previously they were designed for twenty-five beds, but now they house eight prisoners. The isolation ward now has closed toilet stalls and sinks.
Another innovation pleased the prisoners: “Matrosskaya Tishina” (SIZO) will now give everyone the opportunity to watch TV during the allotted period. Now the renovated cells have special shelves for this purpose. But they will bring the TV for a strictly limited time.
Also on the territory of the detention center they bake excellent quality bread, which can be compared with the products of the best bakeries. The prisoners themselves work here. In the near future, it is planned that a medical center will be built next to the pre-trial detention center, which, naturally, will help better monitor the health of those in it.
Containment regime in Matrosskaya Tishina
The cells in Matrosskaya Tishina are designed for 3-4 persons under investigation. Almost every cell has a refrigerator and a TV. Cells, designed by law for 3-4 people, according to the latest data, are overcrowded, and prisoners have to sleep in two or even three shifts.
The over-limit of persons under investigation is 87%, which forces the head of the pre-trial detention center to take drastic measures: repeated appeals to the courts, which in 2015 bore fruit and helped get rid of 100 prisoners.
Hope for the future
“Matrosskaya Tishina” (pre-trial detention center) has varied reviews. Most often, the quality of medical care provided here is not very flattering. According to many people whose relatives are in isolation, medical care is either not provided in a timely manner or is not provided at all. There is often talk about overcrowding in cells, that is, they contain more prisoners than they should be. This also affects personnel who guard those serving sentences or awaiting their sentence. According to the rules, one guard should accompany no more than four prisoners, but in reality there are between seven and nine of them. The head of the pre-trial detention center is trying his best to change the situation for the better.
