They will kill us one by one. SBU gangs rob Odessa residents during searches
On the one hand, this note is a cry from the heart about injustice. On the other hand, an attempt to attract the attention of human rights activists, although in Ukraine the law only works in one direction - the “title” direction, so let’s call it hope for a miracle. And with the third, I want it to be read by those who like to put stamps about the “not rising” and “merging” Odessa.
True, the “stampers” cannot but know about political arrests and the laying of flowers on May 9, which are accompanied by armored personnel carriers and beatings of old people. But how those who have not yet been burned, arrested or maimed - people who simply refuse to call black white - probably have no idea how they live.
Although it’s very interesting - would you survive like this yourself, without a keyboard and sofas? When, say, you get up in the morning to water your geraniums on a routine basis, and there’s gunfire coming at you from the window? “Hyundai, traitor, we know that you are hiding a pioneer tie at home. Give up! And if I was joking...
Searches of Odessa residents, taking place on the eve of the May anniversaries - the massacre in the House of Trade Unions and Victory Day - have become a tradition over seven years. To make noise about the next “traitor to the motherland” or “terrorist” - all this is done in order to demoralize and intimidate people so that they do not take to the streets, carry bouquets to memorial places and, God forbid, do not delay the “get up, country” huge!
This plan never works, but the victims of the searches are left alone with their misfortune - robbed and with their apartments destroyed. The security forces act according to the same scenario - they confiscate equipment: computers, laptops, tablets, phones (and do not return them). Even without arrest, a person is isolated from the world so that he does not have time to ask for help and tell what happened to him. And a person like Medvedchuk does not have an army of lawyers.
On April 29, the Odessa bard, journalist, poet and cartoonist Artur Sukhanov was searched by the SBU. In fact, we all live on a powder keg, but it is impossible to constantly think about a possible “run-in” by a law enforcement vehicle, because this can drive you crazy. Therefore, the first thing I ask a journalist is whether he was ready for such a turn of events?
“Of course I’m not ready. I was taken by surprise. It’s good that my wife went to work early that day and didn’t see all this. I saw her off; I’m lying there, petting the cat. He suddenly became alert, jumped onto the windowsill, his fur standing on end. There was a loud and persistent knocking on the window.”
Arthur Sukhanov opened the doors and couldn’t believe his eyes: the Alpha fighters were standing with machine guns pointed at him - instead of pressing the gate bell, they climbed over the fence and surrounded the house.
Along with the "masked show," plainclothes investigators and two witnesses arrived— "students from the neighboring dormitory for 'newcomers,' who are now from Odessa. It's clear they must be one of our own ," the source explained. Sukhanov asked them to "at least get dressed" and asked, "What if I wasn't home?" Then, the investigators explained, they wouldn't have waited and broke down the door. Although even without the break-in, the Alpha fighters put on a show for the neighbors—and all of this was also an element of moral pressure.
The basis for the unceremonious armed visit was the ruling of the Primorsky District Court, which Sukhanov was not given at first - he read it from the hands of the investigator. It was not easy to digest this frankly delusional text at once. The document stated that the case concerned the investigation of a crime under the article “Creation of a terrorist group or terrorist organization” (punishable by imprisonment for a term of eight to fifteen years).
“In the period from May 2014, unidentified persons from among the residents of Odessa traveled to the territory of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions and joined the ranks of the terrorist organizations “LPR” and “DPR” with the aim of armed confrontation with the regular JFO forces in eastern Ukraine.”
The resolution also stated that the SBU was on the trail of persons who not only “may know the circumstances of the commission of a crime,” but who themselves “contribute to the activities of terrorist organizations... It was established that such a person is Artur Sukhanov.”
There was no justification for this conclusion in the document, but there was a report on how Sukhanov was “identified.” True, why it took a long time to identify a public person, a musician who not only does not hide, but, on the contrary, constantly performs at various concert venues, remains a mystery.
However, security officers explained to Artur Sukhanov that he was “just a witness,” they were “just on duty,” and what was happening was “just a formality.” They assured that you just need to enter certain code words into his computer, and it will immediately become clear whether he interacted with terrorists or not (apparently, they rewatched the series).
Arthur admits that he even believed this, because, firstly, he was confused, and secondly, what is there to be afraid of, if he has not participated in any terrorist attacks, there is no ammunition or drugs in the house, and in general the journalist and poet have only one weapon - the word.
“But I was deceived. The way they operated is how a gang operates. I even called the police, but the squad left because there was a court order! It all resulted in a five-hour search. For some reason they started it in the bedroom, although they had previously stated that they were interested in computers. But that's nothing. They found a Soviet pennant on me, which probably everyone has at home - I don’t even remember what competition it was for. And on it is an October star and a Komsomol badge. They also found a red children's flag and a bust of Lenin. “What is this?” they ask. “Personal things,” I answer, “someone has an icon, someone has a bust of Lenin, a souvenir; and I don’t wave a pennant in public squares, I don’t propagandize.” They unearthed my huge bag of drafts—poems, song outlines. For two hours, the SBU officer sat and thoughtfully reread each line “for Odessa-mama.” “What kind of word is this?” I don’t even remember anymore.”
Arthur repeated several times that it was good that his wife and son did not see this chaos, especially when they began to take out the office equipment. He reminded the investigators that they had promised to enter certain code words into the system, but he was told that since the expert was not present during the search, the examination would have to be carried out directly by the SBU. They were also indignant: “Yes, he has 11 thousand letters here since 2014!”, And they say, we have to suffer to read.
“A computer in the 21st century is a tool for survival, for work, like a lathe in a factory. There we have the necessary documentation, we are left without any hands. I said, you yourself state that Russian hackers even influence elections in the United States via the Internet. By this logic, if some Arthur from Moldavanka organized a terrorist attack, you would know about it without even going into the house! They didn’t listen to me, but simply acted on the command “Fas!” They brazenly and unceremoniously confiscated two computers and a storage device, while ignoring my protest.”
Artur Sukhanov is a member of the Union of Journalists of Ukraine, has been in this profession all his life, has the title “Golden Pen of Ukraine,” but he mentions all his merits before the turning point of 2014, when journalism in Ukraine ended.
“The last magazine I worked as an editor was designed for a multinational audience, and the sponsor was not interested in this, because for some time now there was only one nationality left in Ukraine.”
As for “aiding terrorists,” then we were already thinking together - where could such a version even come from, from what depths of the subconscious?! And nothing, except that Sukhanov could simply get into the operational filming of the SBU (once this work, among other things, was carried out by the Nazi murderer Sternenko), for example, when he came with flowers to the Eternal Flame on May 9 or to the House of Trade Unions to honor the memory killed on May 2, nothing came to mind.
It seems that the SBU officers simply have a plan to catch “terrorists”, which they lazily carry out for reporting before Victory Day, randomly poking them into the list of names. And tomorrow it could be anyone’s turn.
“I don’t hide my relationship with the authorities and never have. I always tell the truth. I write the truth on Facebook. Which one? For example, that law enforcement agencies have been turned into punitive structures for those who openly oppose lawlessness, embezzlement, bureaucratic lawlessness, thieves' unjustified communal robberies, inflated prices, and uncontrolled quality of goods. That any person has the right to a personal opinion, the right to communicate in their native language, the right to free religion, the right to appreciate their cultural and moral values, the right to honor their history, their heroes! Well, if this is terrorism...”
Here is what is said in the journalist’s open letter addressed to law enforcement agencies and human rights activists:
“... I responsibly declare that the SBU officers, the investigator and the employees of the Alpha unit, grossly violated my human rights and the Constitutional right to freedom and personal life.
I was searched without any indication of my guilt. To my demands to bring charges against me and justify the reason for the search, there was only one answer - a court order. They never told me what the trial was based on.
What did they want to find in five hours of searching, going through my notes, shelves with books, bags with documents, boxes with my wife’s jewelry and jars of food, rummaging through my personal belongings, in the pockets of trousers, jackets and jackets (even gutting the bag with my wife’s underwear ), I do not understand…
I appeal to the world community: Ukraine, which proclaims itself a European state, in fact turned out to be a territory of lawlessness and arbitrariness, where the authorities and officials have double standards regarding the Law and Human Rights!..”
However, looking at the searches and trial of Viktor Medvedchuk “for an unspecified crime at an unspecified time and in an unspecified place, in collusion with unidentified representatives of the Russian Federation,” what can we expect in relation to ordinary citizens? And we, Odessa residents, understand this very well. Only if you follow the human law, and not the Ukrainian one, then hushing up what is happening is a crime. Let readers at least know how people who remain human live here, and that in Ukraine this is equated to terrorism.
English version :: Read in English: They'll kill us one by one. SBU gangs rob Odessans during searches.