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In December of 2004 Vladimir Pereverzin, former manager at the famed oil company Yukos, landed behind bars just as suddenly as Estonian security police officer Eston Kohver three months ago. In an interview to Postimees, Mr Pereverzin shares the feelings of one finding himself in such a situation, and explains his lessons while in prison regarding lawyers appointed by the Russian state. Mr Kohver, likewise, is defended by state appointed lawyer Yevgeni Aksyonov.
Summarising your story: ten years ago, in mid-December and totally at peace, you were having lunch at a Moscow restaurant and making plans for the winter holidays as the phone rang and a man introducing himself as an investigator asked you to drop by for a moment, some 20 minutes, at the investigative committee. Suspecting no harm, you did go and when you finally got back home, after seven years, your son had grown up.
Yes, putting it briefly that’s how it was.
In such a helpless situation, what does one feel the first few days?
It all just seems unreal. It felt like I was imagining it. Because you are living your life and abiding by the law, and that’s different from those who are in intentional crime considering the risk of getting caught. Then, you’re still somewhat prepared psychically to land in jail. In Russia, regrettably, anyone can land in jail and that’s what happened to me. The investigator, of course, told me right away I would be behind bars for a long time. Naturally, I could not believe it as I wasn’t guilty of anything.
How did you try to explain to yourself what was happening?
Initially, I took it as an adventure and a mistake. That tomorrow I’d surely be released, or the day after tomorrow. And if not the day after tomorrow, then next week for sure. That this is some misunderstanding! But the time just keeps passing by. A month goes by, another one, the third, and the fourth – and still you keep up the hope. Till the very court session I kept on hoping I‘d be judged not guilty and released. But by then I had already been jailed for 2 years and 8 months. It’s hope and the conviction you’re innocent that helps one survive, though it sounds banal.
What do a prisoner’s conditions depend on, while in Moscow prison for preliminary investigations?
In Russia, in prison and in colony each person’s conditions directly depend on the prison manager. If the one under arrest is a public figure, enjoys at least a degree of public support, media attention, and has a lawyer visiting him constantly, then naturally he will not be pressed and subjected to (impossible) conditions. A lot depends on who you are sitting with, and that will be decided by the prison management and investigators. You may share the cell with someone accused in economic crime, or some utmost murderer and maniac. For me, for instance, it was set up to sit with people jailed for 25 years for murder. In Lefortovo, where your countryman is sitting, the conditions are the best of course. There, the cells are for two and they are under constant control and monitoring. There, they feed you the best; there, they have a definite regimen, the cells may not be overcrowded.
Why is it good or bad that, in Lefortovo, the guards are very attentively watching what is going on in the cell?
There, they do not even switch off the lights in a cell for the night (for night-time, they switch to a dimmer light – J. P.) and while sleeping one is not allowed to pull the blanket over one’s head. Obviously, a regimen like that is more stressful in some ways, but then it is safer to sit there. To be kept in Lefortovo, in the context of your man, is a great advantage. It is a great advantage even if to meet the lawyer. For, in a usual overcrowded isolator, like Matrosskaya Tishina (a Moscow investigative isolator – edit), a lawyer needs to come as early as 5 or 6 in the morning to take a place in the waiting line, as the meeting rooms are few but they have over a thousand people sitting there. At times, lawyers stand there for four or five hours to meet their clients. Likewise, one has to wait in line for hours to deliver a parcel. In Lefortovo, however, there’s enough of such meeting rooms and, basically, a lawyer may always come and meet you immediately.
Clearly, in the current conditions in Russia, even a good and decent lawyer cannot affect investigation in any way. But what is the psychological role of a lawyer for a prisoner?
Let’s say, till the European Court of Human Rights still exists, the lawyers do not let investigators feel at total liberty still. But what counts the most is that the lawyer is your contact with the family, with those closest to your. I was always waiting for the lawyer’s visit like a breath of fresh air, as it meant news from home.
How often did the lawyer come?
I had several lawyers. One only dealt with the criminal case materials and came when it was necessary in the sense of the investigation or the process. The other lawyer visited me once a week and he dealt purely with the so-called everyday issues. He came to see if I was okay, if I needed anything.
What is the difference between a lawyer hired by the prisoner or his family, and a lawyer appointed by the state?
As a rule, a state appointed lawyer will be a lawyer on the investigator’s side. (When talking about investigators, Mr Pereverzin is using the word «musor». In the Russian prison slang, «musor» means the militia or cops and is actually the word for «trash, rubbish» – J. P.) He always works in the interests of the investigation and is simply deceiving the one he (supposedly) protects. He tells him you’re all entangled, better for you to cooperate, and the poor guy agrees. Even if he does get the minimal punishment, it cannot for instance be appealed any more. They just cheat you. A lawyer of one’s own means securing yourself against being cheated.
Is a state appointed lawyer always cooperating with the investigators?
99.99 percent! Well, why should he toil for your sake, to defend you, this for him is too much strain for the little money they get. They just do their job for the appearances. Many such lawyers do nothing but play the «problem solver» role i.e. for money they mediate agreements between the accused and the investigator.
Am I getting it right: the vital role for a state lawyer on an investigation is that he needs to explain to the one he «defends» that it is in the latter’s interests to cooperate with the investigation and to enter into an agreement with the investigation whereby he admits his guilt but will, in return, get a milder punishment?
Exactly.
And do they really get a much milder punishment, afterwards?
Of course not, they are deceived. The best thing to do is to give no testimonies at all. If I were in the shoes of Mr Kohver, with media, public and embassy attention, I’d give no testimony whatsoever. Because whatever he says will be reversed afterwards and interpreted against him. I am quite positive it has been offered to him that he’d better write a sincere confession at once.
What do you think, will he be let go after being convicted or kept on in prison?
I think they will let him go, for who will need him any longer after that? For FSB, it was surely important to make the noise that, see: we caught a spy. This is a good thing to report and somebody will get extra stars (on shoulder patches).
How else would you describe tactics by investigators that Mr Kohver should be prepared for?
Vileness, deceit, what other tactics could they have! They have no human feelings. I do not consider the investigators as humans. Knowingly, they send innocent people to jail. In my estimation, about 20 percent in Russian prisons are innocent. On top of that, lots of people are behind bars for other crimes that what they actually committed. These are things that were heaped upon them for the sake of statistics.
How hard, psychically, is it to meet one’s spouse, one’s family in prison? Mr Kohver, for instance, has not requested up to now to meet his wife.
I understand him. I sat with a man who also refused meeting his wife and family. His explanation was he did not want to humiliate his wife and children. I did meet my wife during preliminary investigations. It is very hard, morally! (Here, Vladimir falls silent for a moment and it is obviously difficult for him to proceed – J. P.) You do have to put up a front that you are okay, so they would not worry. First and foremost, such meetings are hard on the one who is in prison. Even now, recalling it, I have to fight back the tears...
Kremlin’s political prisoner
When, ten years ago, the Kremlin decided to jail Russia’s richest man Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in the process of destroying his oil company Yukos several middle managers thereof landed long-term jail sentences as well. Essentially, they were accused in embezzlement of all the money earned by sales of Yukos subsidiaries’ oil.
Among the others, Vladimir Pereverzin was also jailed with such absurd accusations. Specifically, he was accused in embezzlement of $13bn. Initially, he was sentenced for 11 years, but during Dmitri Medvedev as president punishments for economic crimes were diminished, he was set at liberty in February 2012. Last year, he published a book, «Hostage», about his years in prison. By the Russian opposition, Mr Pereverzin has been called a political prisoner.