Dissatisfied with the increase in the Platon tariff, Krasnodar farmers joined the wave of protest. Farmers were going to organize a second “tractor march” on Moscow against local officials. However, the organizers of the action were detained by the police, and in the village of Kazanskaya the Cossacks came out against the participants of the run.
Farmers first gathered for a “tractor march” in August 2016. Then 50 people on 17 tractors and several passenger cars moved towards Moscow. The farmers hoped to tell President Vladimir Putin about raider takeovers and the corrupt judicial system of the Krasnodar Territory, which resolved all issues in favor of large agricultural holdings. Then the march was stopped near the Rostov region, the police detained the protesters. Farmers were fined and placed under administrative arrest. Some march participants still made it to Moscow, but returned home with nothing.
Preventive measures
The second “tractor march” was scheduled for March 28. The farmers agreed to meet in the village of Kazanskaya, but a few days before, the march participants began to notice that the police were following them. On March 24, in Krasnodar, one of the organizers of the march, Alexei Volchenko, was arrested for 12 days, allegedly for non-payment of alimony. He himself admits that he was one month behind on payments, but was ready to repay the debt.
On the same day, another organizer, Oleg Petrov, had his passport taken away at the moment when he was paying a fine for violating traffic rules, and they refused to return it.
The police also followed another organizer of the march, Nikolai Maslov, and then on March 27, his car was stopped on the Kropotkin-Kavkazskaya highway. The police conducted a search and then stated that the car was allegedly stolen. Maslov himself assured that he bought the car quite recently at the factory.
Attack on journalists and missing camera footage
On the morning of March 28, four participants in the “tractor march” set out for Kropotkin to meet with the vice-governor of the Krasnodar Territory. At the traffic police post in Tikhoretsk they were blocked by a traffic police squad. Two farmers were left at the post, the rest were taken to the Investigative Committee in the village of Novopokrovskaya.
At the same time, Nikolai Maslov’s car was stopped again in Kropotkin, allegedly to check documents. After this, he was taken to the police station to give an explanation as to why he did not appear on the summons to the Investigative Committee. Strangely, the order to come to the Investigative Committee was issued on the very day the “march” began.
Sergey Khazov-Kassia and Andrey Kostyanov. Photo: Sergey Khazov-Kassia / Facebook
That same morning, Radio Liberty journalists Sergei Khazov-Kassia and Andrei Kostyanov left the hotel in Kropotkin. They were about to go on a “tractor march”, but the journalists approaching the taxi were stopped by a dozen unknown men in masks. Having sprayed gas canisters in the journalists' faces, they knocked them to the ground and began kicking them. The attackers fled after taking the computers and filming equipment. Doctors confirmed Kostyanov's condition. Journalists contacted the police, but then the fun began. There are many CCTV cameras around the hotel, the recordings from which, of course, have not been preserved. After the interrogation, the police took Khazov-Kassia to a hotel. Having opened the door to his room, the journalist, together with the police, suddenly
Today the second “tractor march” was supposed to start from the Caucasus region of the Krasnodar Territory. Farmers from all over Kuban unhappy because they cannot exercise their land ownership rights. Large agricultural holdings, according to protesters, are seizing land from local residents, while the police, prosecutor's office and the Investigative Committee are inactive.
The first time farmers tried to drive tractors to Moscow was in August last year. Then they managed to get to the Rostov region. This time, local authorities did not allow the event participants to even move. One of the organizers, Alexey Volchenko, a few days before the march, was put in a special detention center for 12 days for a month’s delay in paying alimony. Other leaders of the movement were not allowed into the meeting place under various pretexts. In addition, in Kropotkin beat up Radio Liberty journalists who came to cover the event. The Secret learned the details from the march participants, who have not yet been detained.
Elena Dryukova
Head of a peasant farm in the village of Mirsky, Caucasus region
In the morning I was called to the tax office, but I still managed to get to the collection point. All roads leading to it were blocked, and the railway crossing was dismantled. We had to travel along goat paths and washed out roads. In the end, 60 people arrived - they all live nearby. Everyone who was traveling from afar was detained. In fact, we weren't going anywhere today on tractors. We have sowing season, we need to be in the field. We just wanted to show our authorities that there are much more of us: instead of 17 tractors, like last year, there are 60. And we also wanted to say that we are giving the authorities two months to solve our problems, otherwise we will replace economic demands with political ones and we will already fight differently. How? Punch me in the face. In Rus', this is the only way to solve problems. But, apparently, there is no point in talking to our authorities at all. They will hold on to what they grabbed until the end. The governor is an oligarch, the head of the district is an oligarch, the head of the settlement is an oligarch. Tkachev (Alexander Tkachev, Minister of Agriculture, ex-governor of the Krasnodar Territory. - Note from “Sekret”) lies that grains were sold for trillions of rubles. Medvedev repeats after him, like Cheburashka. At the same time, there is no money in the budget of my settlement - everything was stolen. With 16,000 hectares, we should receive 8 million rubles in land tax, but we receive only 5 million. As a result, the budget allows us to spend only 5,000 rubles per day on the life of the village. And our water pipelines are worn out - 80%. Thank God, my water is only turned off at night. But in some other areas it never exists at all. We have no new plans yet. It seems there should be a meeting with Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, behind whose back our former prosecutor Leonid Korzhinek [hid](https://chaika.navalny.com/). He did some business here and disappeared into Moscow. Instead, we were sent a prosecutor from the Kaliningrad region, who for some reason has not been able to take up his duties for two months. Although a week ago we were received by Alexander Bastrykin. He very quickly delved into all our problems, looked menacingly at his subordinates, and promised that he would force them to pay all compensation for illegally initiated cases. We, joyful, return to ourselves - but nothing has changed here. Investigators tell us: “Did Bastrykin promise you something? Well, go to him again and ask.”
Nikolay Maslov
Head of a peasant farm in the village of Dmitrievskaya, Caucasus region
This is the second day in a row that I am sitting at the police department. Yesterday I was stopped at a traffic police checkpoint - supposedly my car matched the pattern of a car that fled the scene of an accident. They harassed me for several hours until journalists from Radio Liberty arrived and were beaten today. The police saw the cameras, lost interest and let him go. Today the gathering for the march was scheduled for 10 am. But at 9:30 I was detained again at the traffic police post. First, they searched the car, then took it to the Kavkazsky district police department. There one employee talked to me, then another. I took the 51st article (refusal to testify. - Note from The Secret) and am waiting for the third. In 2013, I unauthorizedly used an abandoned plot of land on which I planted wheat. Then it turned out that it belonged to a local military unit. They opened an administrative case against me and issued two fines, which I paid. Now they are trying to reopen that case and reclassify it as a criminal case. They say it was “poorly investigated.” I’m still in the police and don’t know what’s happening at the farmers’ gathering place. But there is a feeling that the march was disrupted. Volchenko has been in prison for four days now. Another organizer, Oleg Petrov, was also detained allegedly for large-scale fraud. Lyudmila Kushnareva from Psekhako was blocked from leaving the village. The guys from Novopokrovskaya and Pavlovskaya were detained in Tikhoretsk. Almost all potential participants in the tractor march are involved in various investigative activities. The police officers were given the command to detain us by any means. We have not made any new plans yet. To do this, we will all need to get together, if we are allowed to do so. But, to be honest, I am already worried not only about my freedom, but also about the life and safety of my family. In recent weeks, two or three people in civilian clothes have been constantly on duty near my yard - either police officers or bandits. They walk around, looking into the yard, which is not fenced. I even called the presidential administration and asked for protection - they can arrange any provocations. I approached one of the duty officers and asked what he was doing here. He replied: yes, I came to see my uncle, he lives in the house on the corner. Only in the house he pointed to no one has lived for a long time. I apologize, the police are calling me here, I have to say goodbye.
Nina Karpenko
Head of a peasant farm in the village of Privolnaya, Kanevsky district
I am now far from Kavkazskaya. The police did not allow me to go to the march. They blocked the car and called. I don't want to talk about it. It's not a matter of whether I went or not. Our goal is not to hold a march, but to achieve compliance with the law in the Krasnodar region and stop raider takeovers. And the march is a forced measure, since in Kuban the rights of the population are systematically violated. I am a law-abiding person, I don’t want to be the opposition. But I want my rights to be protected state level, and did not rob the entire people. Ex-governor Alexander Tkachev built up a farm of 700,000 hectares during his reign. How is this even possible? At the same time, one farmer from the village of Chelbasskaya has not been able to allocate his and his parents’ land for several years. But the regional administration does not deal with our problems. The prosecutor's office and the Investigative Committee do not consider our complaints, they only unsubscribe. They only protect the property rights of moneybags. We are trying to change the situation not only through marches. I have already written to the State Duma and the Federation Council about changes in legislation. Now I will write to the Constitutional Court. The rights of large, vertically integrated enterprises need to be limited, because they only bring destruction to the indigenous population of the villages. For them agriculture- it's just business. It's personal for us. For example, the work of the hospital depends on the success of our work. Until the 2000s, we had 10–15 doctors living with us, but now we only have nursing care left.
Cover photo: Alina Desyatnichenko / “Secret of the Company”
In the Rostov region, riot police and the National Guard detained several dozen protesting farmers - they were traveling on tractors to Moscow to meet with the federal authorities and tell them about corruption and raider takeovers in the region. Moreover, the action was even coordinated with the traffic police. Earlier there was information that the farmers decided to stop the protest, but later they themselves denied this. Evgenia Voskoboinikova and Konstantin Eggert talked to the farmer in more detail about this “tractor march” Andrey Shandakov.
Eggert: In the Rostov region, riot police and the National Guard detained several dozen protesting farmers. They rode on tractors to Moscow to meet with federal authorities and tell them about corruption and raider takeovers in the regions. Moreover, the action was even coordinated with the traffic police.
Voskoboinikova: Well, earlier today there was information that it seemed that the farmers had decided to stop this protest. However, they themselves later denied this information. Farmer Andrei Shandakov is now in direct contact by phone. Andrey, good evening.
Shandakov: Good evening.
Voskoboynikova: Andrey, tell us what’s going on with you now? And most importantly, where are you now?
Shandakov: We are now in Aksaisky, near the police department, where our comrades were detained. The following situation turned out: the plenipotentiary representative of the Southern Federal District, a deputy, came to us, gathered us and persuaded us to return to the governor and resolve our issues. But since everything had already been collected in a bag of evidence, criminal cases that people lost due to the fault of corrupt officials and officials. No arguments to let us pass further worked. A man from our movement was beaten. Then the riot police arrived.
Voskoboynikova: Andrey, tell me, is there any information on how many people were detained?
Shandakov: 15 people were detained.
Eggert: Detained and released? Or are they still in the departments somewhere?
Shandakov: No, they are still in the police department building. They are being questioned. A man came out of one of them, he was invited to come to the police tomorrow, and a report would be drawn up against him according to 22.2.
Eggert: Remind me, what kind of article is this? Disobedience?
Shandakov: This is an article about the illegal holding of a rally. This was not any kind of rally. The farmers were fraudulently lured to the territory of the hotel, hotel complex, and there they began to talk to them, try to persuade them in every possible way to stop moving towards Moscow, and people simply said that we have documents, evidence, we want to meet with the president and report on the state of affairs to Krasnodar region.
Eggert: You think the president doesn’t know about this, right, Andrey? About the situation in the Krasnodar region.
Shandakov: Most people who represent the tractor movement believe that the president does not know.
Eggert: Tell me, what arguments did those who tried to stop you use? What kind of people were these? Were these the same riot police who stopped you?
Shandakov: There was a deputy plenipotentiary representative for the Southern Federal District, who said: “I’m not stopping you, you will pass. But you will meet with the governor of the Krasnodar Territory, who will consider your questions and look at them objectively. But people said that we have been asking these questions for a long time... Some have had it for 10 years, 20 years, they have had a beard for a long time. And they lost all the courts they went to. He said: “I’m not holding you.” People had one demand - to let them pass further, because the movement was coordinated, including with the traffic police, and with Voronezh. Then riot police arrived and surrounded us. The head of the police department said that Rosavtodor issued a statement saying that they were interfering with traffic. And on their initiative they suggested that we disperse. When people started coming out, they just started snatching people and putting them in special vehicles.
Eggert: Are you following the column? Are you really creating any problems for the movement or not?
Shandakov: Oh no, the column is moving like a tractor. It does not fall under any kind of rally, it is a convoy of agricultural machinery.
Voskoboynikova: Andrey, tell me, what do you want to achieve with your actions? Even if, say, you manage to convey your demands to the president, what do you think he should do in this situation? How should he help you?
Shandakov: Put things in order. To restore order in the Krasnodar region, the same consonant stories about raider takeovers by large agricultural holdings were also heard from Rostov.
Voskoboynikova: Andrey, why do you think that it is the president who can help you in this situation, and let’s say, not someone, I don’t know, the governor of the Krasnodar Territory, for example?
Shandakov: The governor, he is the executive branch.
Eggert: But the president is also an executive branch.
Shandakov: And the president is the guarantor of the Constitution.
Eggert: Okay, government?
Shandakov: And here all constitutional human rights are violated.
Eggert: Andrey, why are you, probably, knowing the increased attention to your activities, knowing that there is new law regarding car rallies, which equates them to demonstrations. I understand that you believe that you did not do a rally, but you probably understood that the authorities could interpret this in their own way. Why didn’t you just, I don’t know, fly to Moscow, as an initiative group, go to the Kremlin reception or to the government reception, to the White House, and try to convey your complaints there? That is, why did you go for such a demonstrative action, knowing that this could cause an appropriate reaction from the authorities?
Shandakov: This is not the first attempt to reach the president. The first tractor run was undertaken, but the Uhlans came to the people and put the brakes on everything.
Eggert: Have you decided to go a second time?
Shandakov: Decided. The initiative group decided to go. We came to support because on the 21st we handed over our documents. I represent 2,000 shareholders who were simply deprived of their land by raider seizure. Fraudulent raider takeover, fraudulent actions.
Eggert: So you have a whole range of problems there?
Shandakov: And here we heard a lot in which our problems are similar. And we came to support this run and saw this situation.
Eggert: Thank you very much.
Photo: Vasily Deryugin/Kommersant
The names of all the arrested farmers, truck drivers and tractor drivers (hired workers) - participants in the “tractor march” - have become known.
A column of Kuban farmers moving on tractors towards Moscow in order to tell Putin about the conflict with local authorities and the land problem. At first they were stopped every now and then along the way. On August 22, the convoy was blocked in the Rostov region. Two truck drivers who came to support the farmers and filmed the video were detained and beaten. On August 23, all participants in the “tractor march” were detained in the village of Dorozhny, Aksay district, Rostov region, in the Stagecoach cafe. Truckers from other regions who planned to join the march were prevented from doing so in various ways: they were not allowed out of the Moscow region, and two were detained in Voronezh.
According to the Association of Carriers of Russia, which its activist Olga Reznikova shared with OVD-Info, in total sixteen people were found guilty and arrested under Part 6.1 of Art. 20.2 Code of Administrative Offenses (at Participation in an unauthorized meeting, meeting, demonstration, procession or picketing that resulted in interference with the functioning of life support facilities, transport or social infrastructure, communications, pedestrian movement and (or) vehicles or access of citizens to residential premises or transport or social infrastructure facilities ). The “unauthorized rally,” according to police reports, was held on the territory of the Stagecoach cafe.
On the night of August 24-25, the Aksai District Court arrested farmers for ten days Oleg Petrov And Nikolai Maslov as well as a truck driver Sergei Vladimirov(the meetings lasted until four in the morning). All of them are in a special detention center in the city of Novocherkassk. Nine more people were fined: leader of the Polite Farmers movement, organizer of the “tractor march” Alexey Volchenko - 30 thousand rubles, truck drivers Sergei Ovchinnikov, Vasily Laptev, Alexander Cherevko, farmer Nikolai Borodin and others - for 10 thousand rubles.
On August 26, the same court arrested the truck driver in absentia for the same term Rustam Mallamagomedov, who was detained and beaten on August 22 (after the arrest he was taken to the Aksai hospital).
Rustam Mallamagomedov. Photo: Association of Carriers of Russia
Mentioned above Alexey Volchenko On August 25, he was detained at his home by FSB officers, and over the next day, human rights defenders and activists were unable to obtain accurate information about his whereabouts. Later it became known that on August 26, the Kavkazsky District Court of the Krasnodar Territory arrested him for ten days - this time for a rally at a field camp peasant-farmer farm "Romashka" IP Petrov in the village of Kazanskaya. Volchenko is in a special detention center in Ust-Labinsk.
Alexey Volchenko
On August 27, the same court sentenced eight other march participants to arrest: Oleg Lunev, Andrey Pezin And Vyacheslav Petrovsky were arrested for three days, Semyon Smykov- for four days, Sergey Gorbachev, Sergey Gerasimenko And N. Miroshnikov- for five days, N. Svetlichny- for ten days.
August 28 in the same court Victor Zelensky was arrested for three days, Vladimir Pavlov And S. Vatulin- for five days.
All those arrested by the Caucasian District Court were sent to Ust-Labinsk.
“The judge’s punishment was “distributed” piecemeal and arbitrarily, depending on the “loyalty” of the defendant: if, for example, he demanded a lawyer, he was “given” five days, but if he did not demand it, then “cut down” to three,” reports Olga Reznikova according to farmers of the Kalininsky district of the Krasnodar Territory. Most of the cases were considered by judge Olga Voloshina.
Reznikova also reported that the assistant to the chairman of the Caucasus District Court promised that on the evening of August 29, all information on the cases of those arrested would be available on the court’s website. At the time of publication (11:20 on August 30), OVD-Info could not find information about any of them on the court’s website.
UPD: According to the latest data, on August 24 he was sentenced to a day of arrest and a fine of ten thousand rubles Sergey Zemtsov.
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