Ruslan Kostylenkov

A resident of Moscow Oblast, born in 1993. An activist and unemployed. A defendant in the 'New Greatness' case.

He was detained in March 2018 and charged with creating and participating in an extremist community. In August 2020, he was sentenced to six years and nine months in a penal colony. He was released in July 2023 after serving his sentence. The European Court of Human Rights awarded Ruslan €3,300 in compensation in connection with the unjustifiably lengthy pre-trial measure imposed on him.

2020s

Reading time: 5 minutes

The Final Statement

‘If any of us receives an actual prison sentence, it will be a catastrophe.’

Dear participants in the proceedings, to be honest, I did not prepare a thorough final statement today. But we will improvise. I will try to say what is most important.

Of course, I want to say that I was very surprised by the closing arguments. I believe that the prosecution was completely defeated during the closing arguments. Thanks to our defence lawyers, we once again reinforced our position that we are innocent and once again substantiated the facts demonstrating that our criminal case was fabricated.

I think the prosecution simply . Despite this, the threat, of course, remains in the sentences requested by the prosecution for me, Vyacheslav Kryukov and Pyotr Karamzin. It is also very shocking. I consider such requests–really lengthy prison terms–to be some kind of act of revenge against the three of us.

I will name the reasons why I think such an act of revenge was committed against us. The first reason is that the three of us have been the most active in asserting our innocence over the past two and a half years.

We defended this position both through rhetorical and legal means and through fairly radical methods–with hunger strikes and self-harm. Of course, this infuriated our opponents in the criminal case, and they decided to take revenge on the three of us in this way.

Furthermore, I believe that the three of us are the least well-known in the public sphere compared with the other defendants in the criminal case. Our opponents in the criminal case believe that if we receive really lengthy sentences, the public will quietly and meekly accept them and will not be particularly outraged.

I also think that the three of us have spoken most actively about the unlawful actions taken against us by law enforcement agencies. That is, , as well as such things as criminally provocative actions.

It can also be added that Kryukov was probably given such a lengthy sentence because he simply happens to be a friend of mine. And the prosecution’s inability to prove our guilt also ended up in the same basket–the basket of anger, the basket of revenge that [the prosecution] had been building up against us.

I would like to say to everyone involved in these proceedings–the court, the Russian and international public, everyone, absolutely everyone–that they should not consider the suspended sentences given to Poletaev, Dubovik, Pavlikova and Roshchin [a victory].

Yes, it is a good thing, but I believe that if any of us receives an actual prison sentence, it will be a catastrophe. Because our innocence was confirmed during the closing arguments and, of course, there can be no question of anything other than an acquittal. And, of course, the maximum possible leniency.

What else is worth mentioning? For example, the fact that we kept discussing the possibility of opening criminal cases against Chizhov, Danilov, . There was even talk of opening a criminal case against Malyugin and against the officers who detained me and subjected me to torture.

I will put it this way. Over the past two and a half years, after spending time in prison, I have somehow started looking at such things in a less bloodthirsty way, and personally, I do not really care whether criminal cases are opened against them or not. I do not really care.

The last thing worth saying is that we are unequivocally, clearly and categorically innocent people in the entire ‘New Greatness’ criminal case. All the defendants in the ‘New Greatness’ case are innocent. This has been proven and confirmed many times over. There can be no doubt about it.

I can only ask for an acquittal, if one may put it that way–’ask’. Or for the maximum possible leniency towards me, the other defendants in the criminal case and, of course, especially towards me, Karamzin and Kryukov.

24 July 2020.
Lyublinsky District Court, Moscow, Russia.
Source: ‘Meduza‘.
For more information: ‘Memorial‘.
Photo: ‘Memorial’.