"People paid any money not to go there": nationalist Dmitriy Demushkin told how he sat for extremism

Nationalist Dmitry Dyomushkin was released in late February, after spending almost two and a half years in prison on charges of publishing extremist photos from the Russian March in social networks. He was freed ahead of time due to the partial decriminalization of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Incitement of hatred or hostility, as well as humiliation of human dignity”). Now this act, committed for the first time, falls under administrative responsibility and is punishable by arrest or a fine.

In an interview with RT, he spoke about how he was serving his sentence.

- Dmitry, tell us what happened to you after the announcement of the verdict on April 25, 2017?

“I was taken to the Sailor's Silence.” Passing the usual two-week quarantine at the beginning, I was sent to a special unit. There are isolated dangerous criminals, criminal authorities, thieves in law, terrorists. There are 16 cameras, 8 on each side. This is a real prison in prison. But even there I was under special control. I was put on professional accounting as an extremist and prone to attacking employees.

- Did any of the famous people sit with you?

- We are constantly changed places so that we did not form some of their teams there. And I managed to sit there with different people. I was sitting with the guys from the so-called “GTA gang”, then they were shot in court. There were Tajiks who blew up the subway in St. Petersburg. He sat with the Chechen, the defendant in the case of the murder of Boris Nemtsov, with the leader of the Orekhov group Andy Pylev.

There were four thieves in law, was the last person involved in the terrorist attack at Nord-Ost. Deputy Governor of the Kursk Region Vasily Zubkov, deputies. When I was leaving, the deputy head of the FSIN drove there. Killers some of Kazan were sitting, they have abductions, murders. There, about half of the "for-life" was.

And when they learned that I had 2.5 years of general regime, they could not understand how Demushkin got here at all? Many simply did not believe that I was judging for this picture about the Russian government. My sentence there was like a camera, everyone looked and was surprised. They said they did not think that they had already begun to plant it. After all, even the ordinary murderers didn’t imprison this special unit, who, according to the 105th article, didn’t imprison them, they were sitting in the ordinary “Matross silence” cameras. 13 employees took us out for a walk and a check, and two dogs drove: 8 FSIN officers and 5 special forces officers for reinforcement.

- Where were you sent later?

• © Ilya Pitalyov / RIA News

- In Vladimir, but to the last they did not say that it was there.

- Why?

- There were cases when people opened their necks for themselves or caused some injuries, paid a lot of money not to get there. Everyone knew that at that time it was one of the “toughest” regions in terms of serving the sentence. And the colony in Pokrov, where I ended up, is considered one of the toughest among the general regime colonies.

- How were you transported?

“There have been over-precautions.” I was chained to a special cable. He's from the car first to the car pulling, you walk along it. And then it continues in the car. Well, on the road, the convoy, of course, mocked from the heart.

- Beaten?

- I was told that with the professional account, which was set up in the “Matrosskaya Tishina”, many people reach the destination with disabilities. That is, this label is specifically given to those who need to be treated harder. In the car all guards are masked. But, all my life in martial arts I spoke, and I knew in advance that they would be beaten, both on acceptance, and on arrival, and on the way.

- You immediately brought to Pokrov?

- No, first in the Vladimir SIZO No. 1. Upon arrival, they did not talk to me at all. I was immediately separated from all the convicts and put in a punishment cell. Moreover, this is not designed. I officially have no penalties at all. He was sitting in a detached round tower, where people who had been sentenced to death were previously sitting. There is one small, round camera, with a very low ceiling, below ground level. It is cold and so damp that if the floors are washed, they remain wet for five days. In the end, I earned pneumonia. Well at least not tuberculosis.

- How much did you spend there?

- Not for long, but for the first four or five days I was not even taken out for a walk. When I raised this question myself, they told me: we do not have enough strength. As a result, they gathered some group of employees with dogs and took me chained for a walk to the walking yard. That is, I was treated as a very dangerous criminal, although there was no reason for this - I never resisted anywhere, did not attack anyone.

- Then you were transported to Pokrov, to IC №2?

- Yes, right away from acceptance I was thrown into the barrack of the enhanced mode (BUR). There is a sector of enhanced control "A", in their official documents it is called abbreviated as BITCH.

- What he really is?

- The barrack is typical, only the people there are smaller. The maximum there was up to 50-55 people, of which 20 were activists who collaborate with the administration. And they, in fact, do all the work with the prisoners.

- What do you have in mind?

- Everything is in the complex. And in terms of surveillance and in terms of punishment of some kind. They watched everything, and already the staff of the colony directly controlled these activists.

- You were the first time convicted and sat in a colony for "first-comers"?

- Yes, but there are nuances. There were not so many people convicted there for the first time. My neighbor on shkonka served 26 years at the time, another guy 19. The fact is that Pokrov was brought in by people who had previously served large prison sentences in the CIS. They could have six convictions there, but if they did not serve their sentence in Russia, then everyone was considered a “first step”. More there on the education brought from other colonies of problem prisoners and all sorts of disorganizers.

- How did the staff treat you at the colony?

- Honestly, I was not beaten. There was no physical impact from prisoners or FSIN officers. There was a hard installation: Demushkina not beat. I understood this at the reception. I was literally walking over the bodies of beaten comrades. I was there separately deployed, set. I turned and said: “Guys, I’m kind of fully prepared.” What they said to me: “What are you ready for? Dmitry Nikolaevich, do not slander us, come through. ”

- If you didn't beat, then what was the hardest?

- Much worse than beatings content mode. You either stand 6-8 hours a day, or you sit with your back straight, legs together, handles on your knees, and nothing can be done. For any action, for example, I wanted to scratch my nose, I need to get permission from activists, who are constantly being monitored for everyone. It was possible to talk only on a walk for two minutes. But there were practically no walks and sometimes they lasted about 10 minutes. Therefore, in principle, it did not work to communicate there. If I talked about something with activists, then they must have recorded the conversation later.

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- Like this?

- There was a special notebook, it was called “Dmitry Demushkin”. And there they wrote everything that I told them, and everything that they told me. It was their duty to keep this notebook, and if someone did not write down, they would constantly hand over each other. The atmosphere of the activists was also very heavy. Friends there was no one.

- It turns out that for 8 months you were engaged only in the fact that you sat all day or stood motionless?

- Yes. In addition, it was still very cold. In general, I have not seen so much cold, although I dipped into an ice hole every year, and I consider myself to be tempered enough. But there can not be warm. In the hut we had +11 on the thermometer, sometimes it reached +13. But we were not allowed to wear warm clothes. We slept in a T-shirt and underwear, and the blanket was very thin, and the dream turned into flour. Immediately cut off due to fatigue, and after a few hours you wake up from the cold. You can not get up. The only joy is to drink hot tea in the dining room. But sometimes the tea was cold and it was very painful. It would seem a trifle. And this little thing then drove crazy.

- fed normally?

- The diet is normal, no complaints about it. They gave gruel, porridge different. In this regard, I think the menu was no different from any other zone. Different kinds of meat were added to the cereals. Although in general, of course, it was hungry. I weighed 105 kilograms to prison, and during these 8 months I reached 60 kg. When TV crews from Moscow came to shoot me, they put a thick sweater on me there to conceal a huge mass loss. But still hide the thinness could not. Later, the Moscow security services were uttered to the local officials about this and they transferred me from the sector.

- Were there any other content features in this sector?

- When our group moved around the camp, it was strictly forbidden to even look at us. All prisoners had to turn away. All my time every two hours, an employee came to me, and, no matter what I did, had to strike: Convict Dmitri Nikolayevich Demushkin, born in 1979, convicted under article 282 of part 1 for 2 years 6 months The beginning of the term is 10/21/2016, the end of the term is 04/20/2019, prone to extremism and terrorism, attacks on employees of internal organs, such and such a detachment. And every hour they came to me at night: the employee opened the blanket and shone a flashlight in the face. Some of them woke me up at the same time, so I had to sleep in fragments. But then I got used to it.

- In such conditions of conflict, or friendship with someone especially was not?

- If you do not even give to talk and look at each other, then you can not have any conflicts with anyone. You cannot make friends or unite with anyone. You run from morning to evening, all the teams are running on the run, with your head down, your hands are always behind your back, even in the barracks. Artificially creates a situation, as if you are late all the time. That is, you are given a minute and a half to make the bed, a minute and a half to get dressed, a minute and a half to build up in the local sector. All this is fast, all is running, all this is with constant shouts. And you live in such an artificially created nervous tension that you have nothing to do with anything.

Go to the toilet with a man who stands and watches as you do your business. And at night, each exit to the toilet is recorded in the log. You do not give a spoon, do not give a pen, you can not have anything of your own. Spoon is given at mealtime, and immediately taken. A pen is given for writing letters for 15 minutes. In theory, they should be given daily, but we have these 15 minutes once a week. And it took me five weeks to answer one letter.

- You, in theory, should have been visited by the prosecutor. To complain to him, apparently, is not an option?

- Yes, he came, but who will complain there? All sorts of people from the council, prosecutors, came to the barracks, all of them: Hello, Vui. Any questions? - Not. At the personal reception who wants? - Not. Is everything okay - Yes. Everything is unfolding, leaving. You can raise your hand, but where will they find you later?

- Judging by your stories, you had a harder time than those convicted for life who are on special regime.

- We have people went to the regional Olympiad for prisoners - this was done, and there were those who are kept on a special regime. They said that in Pokrov there is real hell, inhuman conditions. That is, even prisoners from the special regime were surprised how everything is arranged in IK-2.

- What has changed at liberty while you were away?

- During the imprisonment, I, of course, lost a lot, including personally. My common-law wife could not stand it and left me, a very difficult story for me. Organizationally, my school of martial arts was also undermined. Now I am trying to restore her work.