He left a suicide note: what is known about Tesak's suicide

On Wednesday morning, in Chelyabinsk, in SIZO-3, the nationalist Maksim Martsinkevich, nicknamed Tesak, was found dead.

He was alone in the cell and, according to preliminary data, committed suicide. 

"I apologize for the inconvenience caused."

In the Main Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Chelyabinsk Region, RT confirmed that the body of 36-year-old Martsinkevich was found in the morning in a cell with no signs of life, after which an ambulance team was immediately called there, but resuscitation actions did not bring any result. 

“The preliminary version of death is suicide.

Now a commission from the Main Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Chelyabinsk Region, as well as representatives of the Investigative Committee, who conduct a pre-investigation check on the fact of death, are working in the institution, ”the department said.

The regional department of the IC confirmed the inspection and told about the suicide note found.

“In the morning of September 16, 2020, the body of a prisoner was found in the cell of the SIZO No. 3 of the Main Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Chelyabinsk Region (Chelyabinsk).

Investigative bodies of the RF IC in the Chelyabinsk region are conducting a pre-investigation check on this fact.

According to preliminary data, the man left a suicide note.

Currently, all the circumstances of the incident are being established, a forensic medical study is being conducted to establish the cause of death.

Based on the results of the inspection, a procedural decision will be made, ”the ministry said in a statement.

Also published is a photograph of a note allegedly written by Martsinkevich.

“Dear SIZO administration!

I apologize for the inconvenience caused.

I have a huge and last request for you: please send the FSIN letter to the address.

Here is number ***.

She is my common-law wife, she lives in Yekaterinburg.

I ask you to hand over the book "Protectionism and Communism" and the black diary to her.

All other things should be disposed of, "the note says (the author's spelling is preserved. -

).

It is dated September 15th and signed by Martsinkevich.

Tesak's lawyers believe that recently he was under pressure, in particular, he could be forced to write a confession and confess to two of his crimes in past years.

“I can't get through to the Federal Penitentiary Service and the POC since the morning - no one picks up the phone.

Maxim had one year to serve, but in March or April he told me via video link that he was forced to write a confession.

He said that these were Krasnoyarsk secret service officers and they acted on orders from Moscow.

Maxim then said that it was not yet clear whether these attendances were confirmed or not, but they would be checked.

Then we talked with him and he said that the attendance did not seem to be confirmed.

But after a while everything changed again and he had to be transferred to Moscow to check them.

They talk about two crimes in 1999 and 2001, when he was still a minor.

Why he was silent about these crimes all the time is unclear.

One episode talked about murder, and the other about grievous bodily harm.

Maxim was waiting for a transfer to Moscow and promised to tell everything about these appearances.

He has been serving a sentence for a long time and has never attempted suicide.

While in prison, Maxim wrote notes and poems, but recently he has not done anything like that - it was a stressful situation, "Tesak's Moscow lawyer Ivan Sidorov told RT.

What Cleaver is known for

Maxim Martsinkevich, nicknamed Tesak because of his love for cold steel, is considered one of the most famous and public Russian nationalists.

• RIA News

• © Maxim Blinov

In 2005, he united the radicals in the Format 18 organization (in September 2010, the organization was banned by the court for extremism).

Despite the fact that the most scandalous recordings were staged, they looked quite realistic, and Tesak became widely known in the circles of the Russian ultra-right.

In 2007, Martsinkevich first became a defendant in a criminal case, after, together with his associates, he came to political debates in the Moscow club "Bilingua" and began to ask their participants, publicist Maxim Kononenko and journalist Yulia Latynina, provocative questions of an extremist nature.

After that, a statement was written to Tesak to the prosecutor's office, in particular, one of the applicants was the moderator of this debate, Aleksey Navalny.

As a result, Martsinkevich was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison under Art.

282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Incitement to hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity).

In 2009, he was re-sentenced to the same term under the same article for a stage video where he, together with his associates, staged the execution of a “Tajik drug dealer”.

After his release in 2010, Tesak tried to go into public politics.

In 2011, he was removed from the elections to the Opposition Coordinating Council due to “insufficient opposition”.

After that, he organized the public movement "Restruct", within the framework of which he came up with the "Occupy pedophilia" project, which brought him the greatest fame.

Together with his comrades-in-arms, Tesak, through social networks, “caught live bait” of men who wanted to have sexual contact with a teenager.

After the alleged pedophile came to the indicated address, Tesak and his comrades were waiting for him there with a video camera turned on.

The newcomer was humiliated in every possible way, and then compromising videos were posted on the network for general suspicion.

In addition, Tesak came up with another similar project "Occupy the drug addict", where he "hunted" for drug dealers.

In the fall of 2013, a criminal case was opened against him again under the same Art.

282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, this time after the scandalous review of the film "Stalingrad", which he posted on YouTube and in which, as the investigation established, he showed disrespect to the veterans of the Great Patriotic War.

In addition, the prosecution charged him with publishing two more extremist videos.

Upon learning of the initiation of the case, Martsinkevich left for Cuba through Belarus, but was soon detained there and extradited to Russia in January 2014.

In August of the same year, he was sentenced to five years in a maximum security colony, but later the sentence was reduced by almost half.

In March 2015, Martsinkevich was again involved in a criminal case.

This time, more serious accusations were added to the "traditional" for him article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, in particular under the articles of "robbery" and "hooliganism", which were incriminated to him within the framework of the "Occupy drug addicts" project, when drug suspects were committed attacks with metal rods and stun guns.

In 2017, Tesak was sentenced as a repeat offender to 10 years of strict regime, but later due to the decriminalization of Art.

282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the verdict was revised.

Martsinkevich was no longer convicted as a repeat offender and the sentence was reduced.

It was assumed that he could be released in May 2021.

This spring, Martsinkevich was convoyed to serve his sentence in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Versions and reasons

Martsinkevich's Chelyabinsk lawyer Valentina Trofimchik confirmed to RT that he was under pressure recently.

“I believe that these confessions have not been confirmed by anything, even procedurally.

You never know who and what can write under pressure, but the fact that pressure was applied to him is beyond doubt.

Appearances were to be made out only with the participation of a lawyer, but I was denied access to Maxim.

I doubt very much that they were taken from him voluntarily.

Maxim said that physical pressure was not exerted on him, but psychological pressure was exerted, ”she said.

In turn, human rights activists do not exclude that pressure on Tesak, including physical, could have been exerted by other prisoners.

“I doubt that a person can commit suicide when he knows that he has a lot of fans and different perspectives at large.

I think that traces must be looked for inside the institution, and he wrote the note for a reason.

For his nationalism, other prisoners who run the show there could be persecuted.

I don’t want to return to the torture regime, but what some prisoners are doing over others, we really don’t like it, ”Oksana Trufanova, a member of the Doomed to Die in Captivity volunteer movement, told RT.

As stated in the message on the website of the Investigative Committee in the Chelyabinsk Region, employees of the regional investigation department of the Investigative Committee are interviewing witnesses, and the necessary investigations have also been assigned.

“The investigators will establish all the circumstances and reasons that preceded the incident.

If there are grounds, an assessment will be made of the actions (inaction) of the employees of the institution where the prisoner was kept, ”the department noted.

“At present, the investigation has no reason to believe that the death of the prisoner is of a criminal nature,” the UK stressed.