A new article was attached to the poems – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

Poet and organizer of creative gatherings at the monument to Vladimir Mayakovsky in Moscow, Artem Kamardin, became the country’s first defendant in a criminal case on “calls for action directed against the security” of the Russian Federation (Article 280.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). This is a new article introduced into the Criminal Code last July along with amendments to the articles on espionage and “confidential cooperation” with foreign intelligence services. Lawyer Leonid Solovyov, who defends Artem Kamardin, told Kommersant that his client is charged with “organizing the recitation” of poems about mobilization – an event where third parties urged “not to take summons” and “not to go to military registration and enlistment offices.”

29-year-old poet Artem Kamardin has been in the Butyrka pre-trial detention center since September last year – he is accused of inciting hostility towards the social group “participants in hostilities in the LPR and DPR” (clause “c” part 2 of article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). As “Kommersant” said, the case was opened by the Investigative Committee after the Mayakovsky Readings (creative evenings at the monument to Mayakovsky) on September 23, 2022. The TFR considered the poetic rally an anti-war action and charged Mr. Kamardin with reciting anti-Russian speeches and poems about his sexual relations with the daughters of the warring in Donbass. After a search in the apartment of the poet and his friends Alexandra Popova and Alexander Menyukov, a video appeared on the network where young people kneel with their hands tied and apologize for what they said. Lawyers and deputies of the Moscow City Duma demanded departmental verification of the actions of law enforcement officers, which was never carried out.

On March 9, it became known that the ICR charged Artyom Kamardin with a new charge of “calls for activities directed against the security of the state” committed by an organized group (part 3 of article 280.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Recall that this article was introduced into the Criminal Code in July last year and implies up to seven years in prison if the crime is committed by a group of persons. article accepted as part of a package of amendments on state security: it was developed by a group of deputies from United Russia, proposing to expand the concept of “espionage” (Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) to “transfer, collect, steal information that can be used against the army and state bodies of Russia” and introduce another article – 275.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for 12 to 20 years in prison for “confidential cooperation” with foreign intelligence services.

Fragments of the indictment in the conscription case were published by the head of the Agora international group Pavel Chikov. He noted that the charges were filed for verses with a call to evade mobilization:

“The investigation established that Kamardin with two accomplices organized and held in September 2022 in Moscow a public reading of poems dedicated to mobilization. The investigator points out that the organization of the criminal group was manifested in a clear distribution of roles and strict subordination to Kamardin of all ordinary members of the group.

Thus, it follows from the indictment that the “orator” (Artyom Kamardin) “in his speech encourages the audience to follow the rules”: “do not take” summonses from the hands of representatives of military enlistment offices, “do not sign” documents on receipt of summonses, “do not appear” in military registration and enlistment offices and remember all of the above. “Incitement takes the form of an appeal,” the published fragments of the case say.

The poet’s lawyer, Leonid Solovyov, emphasizes that the case of Artem Kamardin about “calls against the country’s security” is the first of its kind in the Russian Federation. Mr. Solovyov also notes that the materials include an examination of the investigation, which established that the phrases imputed to Artyom Kamardin were “spoken by another person.” “I can’t give his name, he is not under investigation, but the investigators studied the video (Mayakovsky Readings on September 23, 2022.— “b”) and established that the phrases were not spoken by my principal,” said Mr. Solovyov. “This entry appears in the materials. That is, Artyom is charged with the fact that he allegedly organized the utterance of these phrases.

According to the lawyer, the investigation should be completed “in the near future”, and the defense “just needs to figure out how to work with this new article.”

Maria Starikova