Boris Stomakhin

Boris Vladimirovich Stomakhin (Russian: Борис Владимирович Стомахин), (born August 24, 1974, Moscow), is a Russian radical political activist, journalist, and editor of dissident periodicals. He was one of a few journalists in Russia who openly challenged policies of Putin's administration with respect to Chechnya. He was sentenced to five years of prison for inciting religious and ethnic hatred, promoting violent change of constitutional regime, calls for violation of terriorial integrity of Russian Federation, defamatory statements(articles 280 and 282 of the Russian Criminal Code)..

Journalism and political activism

Boris Stomakhin was an editor of monthly newspaper "Radical Politics" since 2000. Besides, he contributed numerous materials to Kavkaz Center, the Islamic internet agency that promotes independence of Chechnya and is maintained by Chechen separatists.

Stomakhin in his articles advocated terrorist attacks on Russian civilians, called to overthrow violently current government of Russian Federation, advocated extermination of all Russians, claimed that Russian troops in Chechnya are "occupiers" and compared President Vladimir Putin to Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milošević. Stomakhin also stated that modern Russia is Evil empire and therefore must be destroyed, and considered terrorists Shamil Basaev and Salman Raduev as heroes of Chechen resistance whose terrorist activities are legitimate . Stomakhin criticized Russian government in defamatory and obscene statements. However, some human rights activists like Valeria Novodvorskaya and Yakov Krotov did not believe that he actually promoted any terrorist activities

Some journalists like M. Smolin from Komsomolskaya Pravda described his views as extremely russophobic, and suggested that Stomakhin is mentally ill. . Prominent Izvestia journalist Maksim Sokolov, described Stomakhin political views as worse than those published in Mein Kampf.

Orthodox religion, according to Stomakhin opinion, should be liquidated and he called not to recognize such religion.

Stomakhin was a leader of a radical political group "Revolutionary Contact Association" (RCA). Other members of this organization are Pavel Kantor, Dmitry Tarasov, Ludmila Evstifeeva, and Pavel Luzakov. They organized a number of pickets against Russian foreign policy in Ukraine, Estonia, Belarus, Chechnya.

According to the Russian newspaper Utro Stomakhin's organization might be involved with Chechen hostage-takers, based on information provided by FSB. Utro alleged that during the Moscow theater hostage crisis, terrorists had "contacted with activists of Revolutionary Contact Association" and they "may be involved in supplying terrorists with ammunition and its storing at Moscow"

Stomakhin was accused of hate speech in December 2003 . His home was raided in April 2004 and his computers and books were confiscated for the expertise. Stomakhin was interrogated. The Psychiatric expertise at Moscow Serbsky Institute found that Stomakhin is competent for the trial. Stomakhin escaped to the Ukraine seeking political asylum status, which was eventually denied, despite his claims that he is a political prisoner.

Arrest and trial

Having returned to Moscow, Stomakhin was arrested on March 21 2006. Stomakhin again tried to escape during his arrest and fell down from fourth floor of his building, according to his lawyer Alexei Golubev and news reports His spine and bones were broken as a result.

He was sentenced to five years of prison for inciting religious and ethnic hatred, promoting violent change of constitutional regime, calls for violation of terriorial integrity of Russian Federation, defamatory statements(articles 280 and 282 of the Russian Criminal Code).

Below are some excerpts from Stomakhin's articles cited as incriminating evidence in the court sentence:

• "Let tens of new Chechen snipers take their positions in the mountain ridges and the city ruins and let hundreds, thousands of aggressors fall under righteous bullets! No mercy! Death to the Russian occupiers!" (the article was written in response to rape and murder of Chechen women Elza Kungaeva by Yuri Budanov)
• "We, 'Revolutionary Contact Association' and 'Radical Politics' are united with the Committee 2008 and are ready to cooperate with it. However we [are] a lot more radical. We are for not waiting until 2008 and bothering ourselves particularly with the Constitution, but we are for calling people to overthrow the Putin's regime as soon as possible. And we do not see any possibility of preserving Russian Federation as a single state. But we are ready to unite with all allies, even those that are more moderate".
• "Bombing in Moscow subway was justified, natural and legal... The Chechens have full moral right to blow up anything they want in Russia after all that Russia and Russians did to them, none objections on humanism and philanthropy could be accepted."
• "All Chechnya is currently filled up with the same Budanovs, maniacs, blood lusting sadists, murderers and degenerates with epaulets . The entire Russian occupation army consists of such Budanovs".
• "In Chechnya Russian army ceased to exist as a military structure of state, being transformed into a devilish gang of marauders and killers, the gang intoxicated from narcotics".

Stomakhin pleaded not guilty. According to RIA Novosti, news agency, cited by the Committee to Protect Journalists he said he was "tried for his views and not for any real crime. ... In the articles, I expressed my opinion, with which people were free to agree or disagree." He said an opinion was not a “call to action.”[1].

Commentaries

ARTICLE 19 international organization, which protects free speech, stated that "we do not believe Mr. Stomakhin’s comments can be interpreted as incitement to ethnic hatred." He is currently one of two political prisoners in Russia listed by Committee to Protect Journalists [2], a member of International Freedom of Expression Exchange.

Valeria Novodvorskaya, government opposition figure, leader of the Democratic Union, claimed that the prosecution of Stomakhin was the start of a wider campaign, "because together with him, the entire human rights sector and the entire democratic movement will be put on trial for disagreeing with the majority, for not accepting the state policy of the Russian Federation, for sympathizing with the Chechen people, for anti-war demonstrations and pickets."

However, Gannushkina in the same interview acknowledged that some Stomakhin's articles were 'absolutely outrageous' and she 'categorically disagrees with what was written or told by Stomakhin'.

Valeria Novodvorskaya, responded to mother of Boris Stomakhin that her part Democratic Union wouldn't be protecting Boris Stomakhin.

According to Micah H. Naftalin, Director of Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, "Bogus charges aimed at stifling dissent, cruel police tactics, ethnic bias, and blatant disregard for criminal procedural statutes are all on open display. We hope that others will join us in condemning this travesty of justice" . He noted "ethic bias" because Stomakhin was prosecuted as a "Jewish activist", according to him. Mr. Naftalin acknowledged that Stomakhin's statements were radical, but emphasized that Stomakhin did not do anything violent, whereas many other real hate crime cases were not prosecuted by Russian authorities.

According to the statement of Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, Stomakhin 'was probably pushed from the window', however this accusation contradicts to numerous mass media and NGO reports and statements by Stomakhin's lawyer Alexei Golubev according to which Stomakhin jumped out of the window voluntarily.

A group of individuals including Vladimir Bukovsky condemned the conviction of Stomakhin as prosecution of free speech. They noted that many famous Russian writers were very critical of Russian nation and cited Nikolai Chernyshevsky who said that Russians are "a pitiful nation of slaves. We are all slaves, from the top to the bottom [of society]"

Former FSB officer, writer, and dissident Aleksander Litvinenko praised Stomakhin as "last conscience of Russia" . Litvinenko also stated the he fully supports the following Stomakhin's citation: "Not pacifist wails of 'human rights activists', not agreements and 'negotiations' with executioners and sadists - but only an armed strike!", compromising his alleged status as a prisoner of conscience. Even such vocal supporters of Stomakhin as Valeria Novodvorskaya agree that Stomakhin is not a "prisoner of conscience" since he supported violence .

Widow of Andrei Sakharov Elena Bonner compared Stomakhin with Soviet dissidents who were prosecuted for their writings by Yuri Andropov. Human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina and politician Valeria Novodvorskaya argued that Stomakhin's writings while "outrageous" had not been a public threat: they were very unlikely to incite anybody

Journalist Vladimir Abarinov criticized court proceedings as an example of Kangaroo court He noted that the criminal case against Stomakhin was opened based on an article about Russian Orthodox Church that was not written by Stomakhin. It was decided by the court that Stomakhin actually copied this article from the Live Journal entry, as well as other publications of numerous news agencies . The authors of the original article were not ever accused of hate crimes. The authors of the original work disagree to share their responsibility with Stomakhin citing that he had reproduced their works without permission and distorted the original meaning

Critics of the court decision were strongly censured by Russian publicist Maxim Sokolov. In his newspaper article published after the conviction of Stomakhin he argued that unlimited hate speech should be prosecuted according to the article 282 of the criminal code. He cited Stomakhin's article Death to Russia published on the website of the Revolutionary Contact Association . The article was written in response to elimination of last elected president of unrecognized by the world community Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov by Russian forces.

The Stomakhin's article contained the following passages written by Stomakhin: Kill, Kill, Kill! To flood all Russia with blood, to not give a quarter to anyone, to try to make at least one atomic explosion on the territory of Russian Federation -- this is like the program of radical Resistance should be, and Russian's, and Chechen's, and anyone's! Let the Russians, according to their deserts, reap as they has sown . Russians should be killed, and only killed, for there is no one among them who is normal, intelligent, or who can be talked with and for understanding of whom we could rely. Harsh collective responsibility of all Russians should be introduced, of all loyal Russian citizens for the actions of the government elected by them -- for the genocide, executions, ordeals, trade with corpses... From that moment there should be no division of killers on combatant and non-combatant, wilful or forced. According to Sokolov the cited passages made application of the article 282 completely appropriate.

External links

• Official Court Sentence on Russian language dated 20.11.2006
• Web site in support of Boris Stomakhin
• Articles by Boris Stomakhin
• The article 'Death to Russia' by Boris Stomkahin in Google cache
• Revolutionary Contact Association website
• Revolutionary Contact Association website
• Another website of Revolutionary Contact Association