“When faced with stupidity, it is not clear what to do about it.” Valentina Melnikova on the new rules of the FSB and the work of “Soldiers’ Mothers”

The new FSB rules contain a list of information in the military and military-technical sphere that is not state secret, but which “can be used against the security of Russia” “when it is received by a foreign state, its state bodies, an international or foreign organization or stateless persons.”

There are 60 points in the document. It includes information on the assessment and forecasts of the development of the military-political situation in Russia, on the deployment and size of the armed forces, on the material, technical and financial support of the troops, on the procurement of goods for the needs of the troops, information on the observance of the rule of law and the moral and psychological climate in the army. …

According to Melnikova, immediately after the approval of the new FSB rules, they wrote a letter to the military prosecutor. “We got acquainted with the order of the FSB. We are alarmed by such and such points, and we ask for clarification about international organizations such as the Council of Europe and the UN Human Rights Committee. How are we going to work in the future? ”They wrote such a request, – said the human rights activist. – The fact is that the data that are listed there concerning military personnel are necessary for us to form appeals or complaints to the military prosecutor’s office, or to the court, or to the military command and so on. Here, we are waiting for an answer. “

Melnikova stressed that the human rights organization will continue to work. “People address, write and call. Now we need to decide what we are doing, and on this basis we will continue to negotiate with the military structure, ”she said.

According to her, now the fund has about 30 wards, mostly conscripts, there are also soldiers. “We can’t hospitalize one of them, one of them seems to have managed. There are contractors who have not been paid for the travel allowances, since the summer we have not been able to figure it out. The bulk are conscripts. The soldiers mostly have health problems, because the covid is now, the hospital is in quarantine and it is very difficult through the prosecutor’s office and district medical services. We have to call and contact so that the fighter is taken somewhere for treatment. Everything is hard with this covid. If I were the commander-in-chief, then I would have suspended the draft, because the conscripts have poor health, and they cannot be admitted to the hospital and everyone is tormented. And junior officers cling to them, assholes, ”Melnikova said.

80% of complaints from the troops from Soldiers’ Mothers are health complaints, not hazing, says the human rights activist: “They have exacerbations there, they need to be treated, but no one is lucky and nobody needs them. Since 2012, with the arrival of Comrade Shoigu, everything is bad with us. Lost control over service relations in the troops of the Ministry of Defense. The officers do not follow the unit commanders, the unit commanders do not follow the inferior commanders, the inferior ones, all these frostbitten ones – warrant officers, lieutenants and captains – this is, of course, ATAS. There is no hot water again, food is bad again. This means that regimental commanders and division commanders are not interested in what they have with the soldiers in their units, because as soon as they start to take an interest, everything becomes fine, the hierarchical structure should have end-to-end control. “

Human rights defenders themselves do not yet know how the new rules will affect their work. In particular, according to Melnikova, it is not clear what to do with the news groups where they post the news. “We talked in this news about the army and about conscription. I want to understand what the people with whom we have worked for 32 years will answer me. – she notes. – If the prosecutor’s office decides that everything that goes to public organizations is prohibited, we will think about what to do with it. We will ask for some kind of round-the-clock contacts in these military structures so that people can be reliably sent there. “

“I don’t understand why this was done. For the sake of Roskosmos, I guess. And how are they going to apply it? And what does “transmit” mean? I do not understand. My colleagues in Volgograd are carrying out the presidential grant. They were given in a previous competition. When faced with stupidity, it is not clear what to do about it. Let the prosecutor tell us, ”says the human rights activist.