Then our lawyer Vitaly Varivod spoke. Vitaly’s speech was short and clear. Then I spoke. I got up and read out a text I have written the night before. I cite it, omitting the beginning: ‘The prosecution’s demand should not be satisfied for the following motives: 1. From 2001 the Prosecutor General made several attempts to liquidate the NBP. It was the head of FSB’s department of investigation, general-lieutenant S. D. Balashov who gave the first impulse to these attempts. His letter, addressed to the first deputy Prosecutor General U. S. Biryukov with a demand to organize the liquidation of the National Bolshevik Party is contained in the criminal case Number 171 (accusing me and five of my comrades on four articles of the criminal code: 205th, 208th, 222nd and 280th), volume 1, pages 76-78, document number 6/3-2770 on 07.23.01. It is significant that the liquidation demand was declared on the first stage of the investigation. The trial over case Number 171 began only a year later – on 07.04.02, while the sentence was made only on 04.15.03. The court’s sentence freed my comrades and me from the accusations on the articles completely and thus completely refuted the accusations made by Balashov, when he demanded the liquidation of the NBP. However, despite the fact that the investigation was only beginning then, the Prosecutor General obediently made a report to the FSB. I cite page 79 of the first volume of this criminal case. V. Y. Golishev, deputy chief of the Prosecutor General’s surveillance department is answering Balashov. The date is 09.03.01. the document’s number is 7/2-2053-01: ‘Your message about the illegal activities of the NBP was examined. Moscow’s department of the justice ministry has filed a suit against this association on 07.11.01. demanding to exclude this association from the state registry of juridical persons. The civil case is in the production of the Moscow district court and a hearing is fixed for 09.18.01. Moscow’s prosecutor has to direct a demand about the liquidation of the NBP to the court before 09.11.01. The execution is taken under control.’
As you can see from these sources, the FSB and the Prosecutor General have taken an unlawful, prejudiced stance towards the NBP from the start; they tried to force the liquidation of a political party, using the administrative resource. The Prosecutor General and the justice ministry did everything the FSB ordered them. However the district court did not rule in favor of the FSB then. The suit of Moscow’s department of the justice ministry was declined by the district court. And the Supreme Court confirmed the decision of Moscow’s district court back in 2001.
I will not linger on all the episodes and vicissitudes of the attempts of Moscow’s Prosecutor General and Moscow’s department of the justice ministry to execute the demand of the FSB and liquidate the NBP. I will only note that the decision about the liquidation of the NBP, taken on 06.29.05. by Moscow’s district court was made under the enormous pressure of the same forces that initiated the first attempts of the NBP liquidation back in July 2001. These forces, namely the FSB and the Prosecutor General are not popular among our people today and are justly considered to be the instruments of political violence against differently thinking individuals and parties. The Supreme Court took a just decision on August 16th 2005 and the RF judicial corporation can be proud of it. It has ceased the abuse.
2. Presently there are 35 thousand members in the NBP. Thus, the deputy Prosecutor General Zvyagintzev demands to take away the right to create and participate in a public association from 35 thousand people, i.e. he demands to the Supreme Court to violate the Constitution.
3. Zvyagintzev points out in his handing-in: ‘After the organization stops its activities it must remove the violations of the legislation. The NBP did not do that.’ As the NBP chairman I declare that we fulfilled all the demands, in particular we changed the name of our organization, excluding the word ‘party’ from it and we also changed our legal address; we excluded the right to advance deputies from our Code. Three times we made attempts to register the changes in documents. These changes were not registered by Moscow’s department of the justice ministry, as demonstrated by the written refusals on 09.16.03, 07.14.04. and 07.07.05. These decisions were made on such insignificant grounds that there could be no other conclusion than to ascertain: Moscow’s department of the justice ministry refuses to register the changes made by the NBP on purpose. By the hands of the Prosecutor General Zvyagintzev is trying to make the Supreme Court join the political violence, the repressions that are constantly used against the NBP.
4. The Russian society has noticed the excessive cruelty of the power (because the FSB, the Prosecutor General and the justice ministry are all instruments of the power) towards the NBP members. I will cite here the testimony of the Izvestia newspaper on December 3rd of this year. The ‘editor’s opinion’ is stated in the following words: ‘For those who follow the trials of the Limonovists, nothing surprising happened. The Russian legal machine has been grinding the lives of this youth organization’s members with a special cruelty since a long time.’ And further: ‘Someone doesn’t like the Limonovists very much. Someone wants them to receive the maximum punishment.’ And also: ‘It’s been a long time that the power is excessively harsh towards the Limonovists. Only now everybody has noticed this.’ I ask you to note that this is not the opinion of a single journalist, but a whole journalistic collectivity. This is also how the society of the Russian Federation thinks.
5. Let’s call a spade a spade, casting aside the euphemism ‘liquidation’. We have a disgusting result: the ban on a political organization is being forced. This ban, if the Surpeme Court will support it will expose Russia and present it as a country of State repressions against differently thinking political parties. Doubtlessly this ban will make a bad impression on Russia and other countries’ public. And such a decision, if the Supreme Court decides to initiate it and, God forbid, support the prosecutor General in its striving to liquidate the NBP, will damage the reputation of Russia’s legal corporation in general and the reputation of the Supreme Court in particular. I have studied both the Roman law and Napoleon’s Code; I respect the notion of ‘Law’. This is a high and honorable notion, the best in humanity’s organization; this is a Law that limits brutality and bestial instincts. I would have liked that the Russian courts and in particular the Supreme Court were a mighty and self-sufficient corporation. The people believe that the Prosecutor General is not self-sufficient today. I beg you not to yield to the pressure of the Prosecutor General.
6. The decision about the liquidation of the NBP will lead to unpredictable consequences. It will force it to go underground. On party conferences that were just held in July and September the secretaries of the executive committees of the NBP regional organizations have unanimously spoke in favor of continuing the activities of the National-Bolshevik Party even after the decision to liquidate it.