Independence punished by psychiatry in Russia (1)

In the sixth hour of the evening, the Moscow-Vorkuta train brought me to Yaroslavl. I stepped out of the car. It was dark, damp, and very cold. The first thing I saw was a young man strolling along the platform… in his underpants. As it was, I happened to be travelling to meet with a resident of Yaroslavl Oblast whom the power had called insane. That is, I was prepared for all kinds of things. But something like this, right there on the platform when I had just barely arrived?!

On the way to the hotel, I stepped into the local «McDonald’s» for a cup of tea. Two teenagers sat down at the table next to mine. I watched as during the course of ten minutes they ate… four Cheeseburger Royales® [known as Quarter Pounders® in North America–Trans.] apiece. Were they insane?

But I should be talking… What normal person would go drink tea of the Russian firm «Maysky chai» in a «McDonald’s»?

Day of the Chekist

On 20 December in Russia they celebrated the Day of the FSB. At a solemn evening dedicated to the Day of Workers of the Organs of Security (that’s what this holiday has been named in recent years), president of Russia Vladimir Putin demanded of the special services that they strictly observe the laws and protect the rights of citizens. “All actions of the organs of security must strictly rest on the norm and letter of the law, correspond to the objectives of the dynamic, advanced development of our society”, said Putin.

And right on the eve of this so-called holiday, independent journalist Andrei Novikov was released from a psychiatric hospital in Rybinsk (Yaroslavl Oblast).

Novikov is one of many in today’s Russia in relation to whom the special services have demonstrated, to speak in the language of Putin, “strict observance of the norm and letter of the law”. Or, to speak in the language of truth, they persecuted an independent person for thinking differently.

Recently, the leader of the Finnish-Russian Civic Forum, Heidi Hautala, disseminated a declaration about how forcible psychiatric treatment in Russia is becoming a common means for suppressing the opposition.

Indeed, there have already been quite a few examples in this year alone. In July, Larisa Arap, a member of the Murmansk branch of the United Civic Front, was put in the psychiatric hospital of the city of Apatity for forcible treatment after she had written in an opposition newspaper on abuses in the hospital.

In November, an activist with «The Other Russia», Artyom Basyrov, was put in a psychiatric hospital in Yoshkar-Ola, the capital of the Republic of Marii-El, a day before a planned opposition rally, one of the organizers of which he had been.

Andrei Novikov, a journalist from Rybinsk, had been locked up in the nut-house way back in December of 2006. Then they let him out, then they locked him up again. Behind the actions of the procuracy, in the words of Andrei, stands the local FSB. And this makes sense: cases concerning so-called “extremism” are within their portfolio. Oh yes, and Dzerzhinsky’s grandchildren no doubt also recalled that Rybinsk’s former name had been Andropov – in honor of the former Soviet head of the KGB of the USSR.

What was Novikov supposed to have done? From the decree of the investigator of the Rybinsk procuracy, Ye. Timofeyev, of 9 March 2007: “Novikov… in the period from 01.01.2006 through 05.12.06, being found in an apartment… with the aid of a computer created in electronic form texts of the following content…”

There then followed phrases from Novikov’s articles, torn out of context.

I found a typical article in Andre