Posts Tagged ‘kozlov’
Trudy Rubin: Russian justice often depends upon a bribe
Two weeks ago, during a trip to Moscow, I visited an amazing family that symbolized the dynamism of the new Russia. On Thursday the husband, Alexei Kozlov, was sentenced to five years in prison.
The story of Kozlov and his journalist wife, Olga Romanova, is one of hope that Russia can change, and of despair that the old order will crush reformers. His case is a grim reminder that Russia will never reach its full potential as a developed nation until it institutes the rule of law.
We met in the couple’s comfortable Moscow apartment, where china cabinets and bookshelves lined the walls. As we sat at the kitchen table, the tall, boyish Alexei (who spent a month at Penn State in 1994) pored over legal papers while the short, vivacious Olga told me their story, interrupted by frequent phone calls from supporters.
In 2007 she published an unflattering newspaper article about a Russian oligarch who was close to the Kremlin and also knew her husband’s business partner. The partner argued with her husband about the article. Shortly afterward, Alexei was arrested and jailed on charges of money laundering and fraud; he believes the business partner paid someone to have charges brought against him.
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Fighting the ‘Mafia State’
Russian businessman Alexei Kozlov was arrested and sentenced to eight years after falling out with his business partner, former Federation Council Senator Vladimir Slutsker. The villains in this case, alleges Kozlov’s wife, Olga Romanova, were prosecutors who were paid to trump up charges.
Romanova, an energetic and resourceful television reporter, was able to get her husband’s conviction overturned. In the process, she formed a human rights organization, Russia Behind Bars (rus-sidyashaya.org), to defend others railroaded by crooked law enforcement officials and combat abuses in the penal system. Russia Behind Bars has also become a resource to publicize miscarriages of justice and for mothers, wives and children of convicts simply to state their case, often for the first time.
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A Lone Voice Tries To Reform Russia’s Prisons From Within
Senior Lieutenant Aleksei Kozlov has a difficult, thankless job. He is in charge of educational work among prisoners at Moscow’s notorious Butyrka remand prison (SIZO).
He informs prisoners of their rights and responsibilities and fields their complaints. He writes reports that are requested by lawyers, prosecutors, and lawmakers about conditions in the prison.
For nearly two years now, Kozlov has filed his reports and urged reform from within a system that seems stonily impervious to change. “I haven’t met with understanding on the part of [Butyrka’s] administration,” he says. “The violations are perfectly evident to anyone, but no one is doing anything about them.”
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