Vyacheslav Kryukov

A native of Moscow, born in 1998. A law student at the Russian State University of Justice. A defendant in the 'New Greatness' case.

He was detained in the spring of 2018. In the autumn of the same year, he went on hunger strike in protest against his arrest and criminal prosecution. In the summer of 2020, he was sentenced to six years in a penal colony on charges of creating and participating in an extremist community. He was released in the autumn of 2022 after serving his sentence. The European Court of Human Rights awarded Vyacheslav €3,300 in compensation in connection with the unjustifiably lengthy pre-trial measure imposed on him.

2020s

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The Final Statement

‘…I hold no grudge against any provocateurs or any of these unscrupulous people who imprisoned us and fabricated this case. I am not going to take revenge on anyone. I know that all the evil will return to each person and be reckoned with. We have simply had enough of all this. It is time to put an end to all of it. Freedom for all political prisoners, freedom for all of us.’

Dear ladies and gentlemen, men and women. The ‘New Greatness’ case is coming to an end. Over these two and a half years, there have been significant developments in the case. In the summer of 2018, two defendants in the case–Pavlikova and Dubovik–were transferred from detention to house arrest. In the spring of 2019, as a result of a pre-trial cooperation agreement, defendant Rustamov was sentenced under a special procedure to two years’ probation. In the autumn of 2019, defendant Rebrovsky, who had violated his pre-trial cooperation agreement, was separated into a separate proceeding and released from detention under a written undertaking not to leave the country. Also in the autumn of 2019, defendant Gavrilov fled from house arrest. He now has political asylum in Ukraine.

About two weeks ago, the prosecution requested sentences for the remaining defendants–probation for four of them. Thus, of the ten people detained in March 2018, at least seven will undoubtedly be free in the near future. But for some reason, the three remaining defendants–myself, Karamzin, and Kostylenkov–are being given sentences of six to seven and a half years in actual imprisonment. Our case is of no significance whatsoever, and no one involved in it deserves such cruel punishment. But why the three of us were chosen as scapegoats is unclear.

Thank you to the public, and thank you to everyone who stood by us and helped bring about positive changes in our case. There is only one final step left–to let us all go home without giving anyone such enormous sentences. I am counting on you and will continue to believe in the best.

I would like to draw attention to the article under which we are being tried. It is ‘organizing an extremist community’. The text of this article, and the article itself, appeared in 2004, and to this day it has not undergone any changes, apart from the most [inaudible]. From 2004 to 2014, the punishment for this offense was up to four years in prison. From 2014 to 2016–from two to eight years. And from 2016 to the present day–from six to ten years in prison. One might assume that such a serious increase in the penalty was introduced to counter some serious, real extremist criminal communities.

‘New Greatness’ was never such a community. Such a disproportionate punishment for the defendants in this case is completely inadequate. By the way, I would like to add that a sentence of six years or more is prescribed for murder. Did any of us kill anyone or commit a comparable crime? Absolutely not. Nothing even remotely like that happened. Nevertheless, the prosecution is asking that three young people–myself, Karamzin, and Kostylenkov–be given such enormous actual prison sentences. For what? You have seen and heard everything yourselves. This is simply some kind of arbitrary abuse of power. It is inconsistent both with the principle of justice–that is, with the nature and degree of public danger–and with the principle of humanism. Such punishment serves the sole purpose of causing us physical suffering and humiliating our human dignity. That is what is truly a crime, not what has been attributed to the defendants in the ‘New Greatness’ case and what they have been accused of.

Your Honour, I ask you not to give us the insane sentences requested by the prosecutor. The outcome of our case will determine not only our fate, but also, to some extent, the reputation of the entire judicial system. I am certain that over the course of all our hearings you have formed the most accurate [inaudible] opinion, unlike the position taken by the prosecution. After all, you have seen everything yourselves. Over these two and a half years, the prosecution is asking that my fellow sufferers and I be given sentences amounting to a total of twenty years in prison. Twenty years–that is, in principle, more than the amount of time I had managed to live before I was taken into custody.

Is what has already happened to us, all the suffering we have endured, really not enough for us? We all have relatives and loved ones who are suffering and waiting for us just as much. I have a beloved girlfriend who is now in the adjacent courtroom, watching the broadcast, loving me and waiting for me. I also have a family–my parents, who need me.

You know, I hold no grudge against any provocateurs or any of these unscrupulous people who imprisoned us and fabricated this case. I am not going to take revenge on anyone. I know that all the evil will return to each person and be reckoned with. We have simply had enough of all this. It is time to put an end to all of it. Freedom for all political prisoners, freedom for all of us. Thank you all.

24 July 2020.
Lyublinsky District Court, Moscow, Russia.
Source: ‘Meduza‘.
For more information: ‘Memorial‘.
Photo: Maxim Shipenkov / EPA / Scanpix / LETA.