{"id":55651,"date":"2016-06-18T00:04:43","date_gmt":"2016-06-18T00:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uacrisis.org\/?p=44322"},"modified":"2017-03-08T14:13:41","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T12:13:41","slug":"44322-ucmc-explainer-soloshenko-afanasiev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/44322-ucmc-explainer-soloshenko-afanasiev","title":{"rendered":"UCMC Explainer. Not a single chance. Released Afanasiev and Soloshenko on Federal Security Service of Russia breaking captives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ukrainian citizens Afanasiev and Soloshenko released on June 14 gave their first interview after imprisonment, telling Ukrainska Pravda journalists<\/a> about tortures and abuse they had to suffer in Russia<\/em><\/p>\n

UCMC is publishing an excerpt of the interview in English.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hennadiy Afanasiev<\/strong><\/p>\n

Afanasiev was born in November 1990 in Simferopol. He graduated from Tavria National University with a degree in law and worked as a photographer.\u00a0 When Russia annexed Crimea, Hennadiy was helping Ukrainian troops located on the peninsula and participated in acts of protest. He was only 23\u00a0in 2014 when he got arrested<\/a>. Now Hennadiy is 25 and he is telling the journalists his story.<\/p>\n

How he was arrested.<\/strong> \u201cI walked on Victory Day Parade in Simferopol carrying a photo of my great-grandfather. After that I went to visit a girl I knew who lived nearby, in the city centre. However, as I was going along the road, some guys in civilian clothes with assault rifles rounded upon me and shoved me into a car\u201d.<\/p>\n

How and what he was made to \u201cconfess\u201d<\/strong>. \u201cThey were talking to me and threatening me at first and I said nothing. They only beat me on the first day. Then I was taken upstairs to the second floor where special people and investigator sat. I was asked different questions again. When they understood I knew no facts they were interested in, they started demanding that I should give evidence against myself. I had to confess I wanted to blast the Eternal Light monument during the May 9 Parade. This is absurd, for I myself was among the people marching towards the monument. It\u2019s were they detained me, a great many people saw it. On the second floor they put on boxing gloves and punched me on the head, to avoid bruising me. Then serious torture began. They put a gas mask on my head, opened lower valve and sprayed some substance inside the mask. It caused vomiting and I started choking with my own puke, for I was wearing a gas mask. When you start suffocating, they take off the mask, use smelling salts on you and start over.<\/p>\n

They continued by connecting electric wire to the genitals and striking by electricity. If it was possible to endure the suffocation, this was absolutely new level of pain. It was the way they made people sign documents. Just put their signatures, and that was it. I understood what was there. I could see what was written. I didn\u2019t write it myself, everything had been prepared in advance, the entire evidence.<\/p>\n

In the end, when they demanded to make an agreement with us, I was stripped naked and laid on the floor. Some people were holding me, passing a soldering tool along my body, telling me what would happen when this tool would touch me. The most important thing \u2013 I have a mother and they threatened to get her. It worked… I am blaming and punishing myself now for not being stronger. I recanted by statement, but\u2026 I signed the documents (evidence against Sentsov and Kolchenko) and was transported to Moscow. Using the same threats, they made me appear on TV and say what they needed. I remember what they were doing to me these last days and I didn\u2019t believe anyone could protect me and not let it happen again. So I just said what they wanted me to say\u201d.<\/p>\n

Afanasiev gave testimony against Sentsov and Kolchenko.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How Afanasiev withdrew his testimony against Sentsov and Kolchenko \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart was in turmoil for the first twelve or eighteen months, because I gave testimony against innocent people. I kept quiet until their trial, because I believed if I betray myself, they will not let me appear in court at all.<\/p>\n

I wanted my speech \u00a0in court to be unexpected. I waited<\/a>. I already decided that was it and everything was over. I wrote letters to all my friends and my mother, asking their forgiveness for all my sins \u2013 I went to the trial\u201d.<\/p>\n

What was his punishment for withdrawing the testimony against Sentsov and Kolchenko \u00a0\u00a0\u201cRussians fulfilled their promise. They took me to the present-day Gulag in the Komi Republic<\/a>, the only penal colony of this type in Russia. It was not even a colony, but a rough barrack. I won\u2019t be able to describe it, for people who weren\u2019t there can\u2019t understand it.<\/p>\n

The transportation itself was severe, the outside temperature rose to 40-45\u2070C and railway cars were so hot that they needed to be cooled by a fire-engine. There is neither water nor toilets. These are usual conditions for a Russian prisoner. It\u2019s the way they live, like animals; it\u2019s the only way to put it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge barrack with iron bars 1-1.5 meters from the walls, and the guard is going to and from. It\u2019s like a zoo cage, there are people around and they can see you. There are 100 prisoners per 150 square meters. There is no place to sit, lying is prohibited, everything is prohibited. It\u2019s the first barrack of reinforced regime in entire Russia. Nevertheless, I was complaining of the conditions, I was complaining all the time. You know, after I appeared in court and said that Kolchenko and Sentsov were innocent, something changed inside me and I was not afraid anymore\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yuriy Soloshenko<\/strong><\/p>\n

Soloshenko comes from Poltava region. He is a graduate of Kharkiv National University and worked at \u201cZnamia\u201d defense plant for 48 years. Yuriy retired in 2010, but despite the fact that the plant was closed down he used his acquaintances to held Kyiv and Moscow trade special equipment. He is married snd has one son. Yuriy was arrested when he was 72, and he turned 74 now.<\/p>\n

How he was arrested.<\/strong> Yuriy Soloshenko was detained in Moscow<\/a> in August 2014 when he came to the city for one day for a business meeting. He was accused of espionage.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lieutenant colonel comes running to me, pushing me against a wall, my hands on the wall and feet shoulder width apart. I don\u2019t understand what is happening. They searched me, took two mobile telephones, put them in a plastic bag and gave them to me. \u201cHere, take your phones\u201d. I saw there were some papers inside the bag. I said: \u201cIt\u2019s not mine\u201d. \u2013 \u201cNo, it\u2019s yours. You had it on you\u201d.<\/p>\n

It turned out they prepared some seemingly classified documents and said I came to Russia to steal them. Those telephones with documents they shoved in were the only \u201cproof\u201d. There were no fingerprints of mine on those papers, I didn\u2019t read them and I still don\u2019t know what they contained. I took no interest in them whatsoever\u201d.<\/p>\n

How the trial took place.<\/strong> \u00a0\u201cAs soon as my lawyer received the money, he said: \u201cThere are two options. If you plead guilty, you\u2019ll get minimum prison term, 10 years. If you don\u2019t, you\u2019ll get 20 years\u201d. I told him: \u201cLook at me. Do you think it matters for me whether it\u2019s 10 years or 20? Of course I won\u2019t plead guilty\u201d. Altogether, I was 10 months without a lawyer and 8 months without the consul\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was tried in closed judicial session, no one was admitted, neither television, nor the consul. I spoke to defend myself during the third session and the judge was listening to me. Nevertheless, the sentence read that \u201cthe judge treated the defendant\u2019s words critically\u201d. Judgment was pronounced on the 14th. Everyone was admitted to that session, both legal advocates and the consul.<\/p>\n

Punishment.<\/strong> \u201cA letter came \u2013 to execute a sentence and transport me to the place of serving the punishment. I was in hospital of \u201cMatrosskaia tishyna\u201d prison at that time.<\/p>\n

So the put me in a detention place and convoyed to a penal colony.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Those were railway cars of Stolypin\u2019s times. It looks like a usual car, a corridor with compartments, but there are bars everywhere. There are no windows in compartments. Three berths on each side, 12 people in a compartment and all of them are smoking. I asked the convoy: \u201cIf fire starts in a compartment, will you open the bars to let us out?\u201d He said: \u201cNo, I won\u2019t. It\u2019s simpler to write you off than to report that you escaped\u201d.<\/p>\n

Before the colony I was admitted to remand prison hospital in Nizhniy Novgorod for two weeks and then they planned to convoy me. When I was really sick, they put me in regional prison hospital on the territory of the 5th colony. I spent ten weeks there and then was transferred to colony\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t beat me, only tried to break me morally. I had nothing to lose\u2026 Of course I wanted to see my grandchildren\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t count on any humanism in Russia. This monster, Russia, has one authority, the sole ruler of all Russia and his life-guardsmen from the Federal Security Service\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ukrainian citizens Afanasiev and Soloshenko released on June 14 gave their first interview after imprisonment, telling Ukrainska Pravda journalists about tortures and abuse they had to suffer in Russia UCMC is publishing an excerpt of the interview in English. Hennadiy Afanasiev Afanasiev was born in November 1990 in Simferopol. He graduated from Tavria National University […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":55652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[705,748],"tags":[],"section":[743],"form":[],"yoast_head":"\nUCMC Explainer. Not a single chance. 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