“What from a scientific point of view is understood . . .” or The Academic Community and “Humanitarian” Forensic Expert Testimony on Extremism in Russia Today

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Notes

¹ F.A. Hayek, The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason, 1979.

² E. Chebankova (2016), “Contemporary Russian conservatism,” Post-Soviet Affairs, 32:1, 28-54; doi:Liukaitis, Dmitrii. “Delo pogromnoi vazhnosti [A case as important as a pogrom],” October 5,1999, https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/15990.

³ D. Dubrovskiy, “Akademicheskie prava i svobody: konservativnyi povorot kak anti-zapadnyi proekt [Academic rights and freedoms: the conservative turn as an anti-Western project].” Eurasianet.org, Feb. 13, 2020 https://russian.eurasianet.org/академические-права-и-свободы-консервативный-поворот-как-антизападный-проект

⁴ D. Dubrovskiy, “Escape from Freedom: The Russian Academic Community and the Problem of Academic Rights and Freedoms.” Interdisciplinary Political Studies, 2017, no. 3 (1), pp. 171–199.

⁵ M. Sokolov and K. Titaev, “Provintsial’naia i tuzemnaia nauka [Provincial and indigenous science].” Antropologicheskii forum, 2013, no. 19, pp. 239–275.

http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/019/sokolov_titaev.pdf

⁶ Samuel R. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, 2011.

⁷ M. Sokolov and K. Titaev, ibid., pp. 249–205.

⁸ ibid. Translator’s note: Two notable places in Moscow; Bolotnaia Ploshchad’ was famously the site of anti-government protests between 2011 and 2013, while Poklonnaia Gora is a hilltop park designed as a memorial to the Soviet victory against foreign aggressors in World War II where pro-Putin rallies were taking place.

⁹ For more about the evolution of Russian antifascism, see, for example, A. Vinnikov, “Evoliutsiia antifashistskogo dvizheniia v Rossii: ot sovetskogo antifashizma k intellektual’nomu i gumanitarnomu antifashizmu [Evolution of the antifascism movement in Russia: From Soviet antifascism to intellectual and humanitarian antifascism].” Antropologicheskii forum, no. 14-online, 2011, pp. 310–320. http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/014online/vinnikov.pdf

¹⁰ RSFSR Criminal Code, 1960. Konsul’tant database http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_2950/a1c6dc8d5d1c64dfde052f2ec6cddf1ab2fb1fe8/

¹¹ M.V. Kroz and N.A. Ratinova, “Istoriia i sovremennoe sostoianie ekspertnykh issledovanii ekstremistskikh materialov [History and current state of expert examinations of extremist materials].” Teoriia i praktika sudebnoi ekspertizy 0, vyp. 3(43), April 12, 2017, pp. 146–54, https://www.tipse.ru/jour/article/view/60

¹² I. Duel’, A. Zlobin, and A. Putko. “Aprel’” protiv “Pamiati.” Khronika odnogo sudebnogo protsessa v dokumentakh i litsakh [“Aprel’” v. “Pamiati.” Chronicle of a court trial in documents and people]. Moscow: Pik, 1993. vol. 1, “My obviniaem” [“We accuse”], p. 159.

¹³ ibid.

¹⁴ I. Duel’; A. Zlobin; and A. Putko. “Aprel’” protiv “Pamiati”: Khronika odnogo sudebnogo protsessa v dokumentakh i litsakh [“Aprel’” v. “Pamiat’”: Chronicle of a court trial in documents and people]. Moscow: Pik, 1993. Vyp. 3, “Bol’shaia tragediia malen’kogo fiurera [A big tragedy for a little führer],” pp 139–140. Expert testimony was used in the case, but only concerning either the mental capacity of the defendant or the authenticity of the recording made of the events at the Central Writers’ House.

¹⁵ D. Liukaitis, “Delo pogromnoi vazhnosti [A case as important as a pogrom],” October 5, 1999, https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/15990.

¹⁶ A.N. Baranov, and Iu.A. Safonova. “Zakliuchenie ekspertov. Miting 04 oktiabria 1998 g. v Moskve na Smolenskoi-Sennoi ploshchadi [Expert findings. The October 4, 1998 demonstration in Moscow on Smolensk-Sennaia Square].” In M.V. Gorbanevskii (ed.), Tsena slova: Iz praktiki lingvisticheskikh ekspertiz tekstov SMI v sudebnykh protsessakh po zashchite chesti, dostoinstva i delovoi reputatsii [The price of a word: From the practice of the linguistic analysis of mass media texts in court proceedings in protection of honor, dignity and professional reputation], 3rd ed., corrected and enhanced. Moscow: Galeriia, 2002, pp. 73–83.

¹⁷ Here we mean the following publications: V.N. Bezverkhii, “Antropologiia [Anthropology]” // Volkhv, no. 3 (6) 1992; “Filosofiia istorii [Philosophy of history],” Volkhv, no. 1 (7), 1993. For more about this case, see Informatsionno-Analiticheskii biulleten’ OF Antifashist [Antifascist Informational and Analytical Bulletin], no. 12, http://aha.ru/~ofa/12-1.htm

¹⁸ V.I. Kozlov and N.M. Lebedeva. Zakliuchenie ekspertizy po delu no. 211717 [Expert findings on case no. 211717]. Signed Aug. 2, 1994. Announced Jan. 20, 1995. This seems a good time to express my gratitude to V.G. Uzunova, a researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, for allowing me to use materials from her personal archive.

¹⁹ Here and henceforth, the styles of the analyses’ authors have been preserved.

²⁰ ibid., p. 4.

²¹ ibid., p. 7.

²² Remember that these were events of 1994 and 1995.

²³ D. Dubrovskiy. “What from a scientific point of view is called … ”

²⁴ M. Deich, Korichnevye [Brown Shirts], 2003. https://www.e-reading.club/chapter.php/18632/86/Deiich_-_Korichnevye.html.

²⁵ Ibid.

²⁶ Sotsial’no-politicheskaia ekspertiza [Sociopolitical expert analysis]. E.I. Stepanov and A.N. Samarin. Center for Conflict Studies at the Sociology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

http://conflictolog2.isras.ru/docs/expertiza_korchagin.htm

²⁷ K. Kobrin, “Redaktoru zhurnala Rusich vynesen prigovor v razzhiganii mezhnatsional’noi i religioznoi rozni [Editor of Rusich convicted of inciting interethnic and religious strife].” Radio Svoboda, November 24, 2004 https://www.svoboda.org/a/24192357.html

²⁸ “Korchagina vse sudiat [Everyone judges Korchagin].” Zavtra, May 5, 2004 https://zavtra.ru/blogs/2004-05-0561

²⁹ “Vynesen prigovor glavnomu redaktoru ‘Rusi Pravoslavnoi’ [Orthodox Rus’ Editor-in-Chief Sentenced].” Sova Information and Analytics Center, February 3, 2010. https://www.sova-center.ru/religion/news/extremism/counter-extremism/2010/02/d17914/

³⁰ “Zh_dovskaia svoloch’ vnov’ proschitalas’ Rus’ Pravoslavnaia [Rus’ Pravoslavnaia again miscalculates y_d bastard]” http://web.archive.org/web/20060706183012/http://www.rusprav.org/2006/new/60.htm

³¹ D.I. Raskin, Zakliuchenie eksperta [Expert findings]: http://web.archive.org/web/20090106000938/http://rusprav.org/DeloDushenova/Addendum/ExpertiseOfProsecution_1.html

³² I.A. Levinskaia, Sotsiogumanitarnaia sudebnaia ekspertiza [Forensic expert testimony in the social sciences and humanities]: http://web.archive.org/web/20090106001214/http://rusprav.org/DeloDushenova/Addendum/ExpertiseOfProsecution_2.html and

I.A. Levinskaia, Vtoraia sotsiogumanitarnaia sudebnaia ekspertiza [Second forensic expert testimony in the social sciences and humanities]: http://web.archive.org/web/20090106023937/http://rusprav.org/DeloDushenova/Addendum/ExpertiseOfProsecution_3.html

³³ The analysis was published in: E.I. Galiashina. Lingvistika vs Ekstremizm [Linguistics vs Extremism]. Moscow, 2006, pp. 81–95. http://library.khpg.org/files/docs/1361543274.pdf

³⁴ M.V. Gorbanevskii (ed.), Tsena slova: Iz praktiki lingvisticheskikh ekspertiz tekstov SMI v sudebnykh protsessakh po zashchite chesti, dostoinstva i delovoi reputatsii [The price of a word: From the practice of the linguistic analysis of mass media texts in court proceedings in protection of honor, dignity and professional reputation], 3rd ed., corrected and enhanced. Moscow: Galeriia, 2002.

³⁵ E.I. Galiashina, Lingvistika vs ekstremizma: V pomosh’ sud’iam, sledovateliam, ekspertam [Linguistics vs extremism: Aid for judges, investigators, and experts], M.V. Gorbanevskii (ed.). Moscow: Iuridicheskii Mir, 2006.

³⁶ E.R. Rossinskaia, and E.I. Galiashina (ed.), Sudebnaia ekspertologiia: istoriia i sovremennost’ (nauchanaia shkola, ekspertnaia praktika, kompetentnostnyi podkhod) [Expert analysis in court: history and modernity (school of scholarship, expert practice, competencies approach)]. Moscow: MGIuA, 2007, pp. 53–58.

³⁷ For more details, see, T.N. Sekerazh, and V.O. Kuznetsov, “Kompleksnaia sudebnaia psikhologo-lingvisticheskaia ekspertiza: formy, vidy, perspektivy razvitiia [Comprehensive psycho-linguistic forensic expert analysis: forms, types, prospects for development],” Teoriia i praktika sudebnoi ekspertizy, no. 4 (44), 2016, pp. 98–106; M.V. Kroz, and N.A. Ratinova, “Istoriia i sovremennoe sostoianie ekspertnykh issledovanii ekstremistskikh materialov [History and current state of expert examinations of extremist materials], Teoriia i praktika sudebnoi ekspertizy, no. 3 (43), 2016 (journal’s website: http://www.tipse.ru/jour); T.V. Nazarova, and A.V. Gromova, “Vozmozhnosti sovremennoi lingvisticheskoi ekspertizy, provodimykh v ekspertno-kriminalisticheskikh podrazdeleniiakh organov vnutrennikh del Rossiiskoi Federatsii [Possibilities of contemporary linguistic expert analysis conducted by criminology expertise divisions of Internal Affairs agencies of the Russian Federation],” Ekspert-kriminalist, no. 4, 2017.

³⁸ For more details about this, and about the variety of Russian specialized forensic expert analysis methods, see D. Dubrovskiy, “Expert conclusions in verbal extremism,” Baltic Worlds, 2016, vol. 3, pp. 10–19.

³⁹ For instance, “one instance of incitement to hatred and enmity in the text is the use of the opposition’s approach to the ‘people versus authorities’ political conflict” (L.Z. Podberezkina and E.Iu. Fedorenko, Sudebno-psikhologicheskaia ekspertiza. Psikhologo-lingvisticheskaia ekspertiza materialov ekstremistskoi napravlennosti: Uchebno-metodicheskoe posobie [Forensic-psychological expert analysis. Psycholinguistic expert analysis of extremist materials: A training and methods handbook]. Krasnoyarsk, 2012).

⁴⁰ A. Verkhovsky, “Radical nationalists from the start of Medvedev’s presidency to the war in Donbas: True till death?” The New Russian Nationalism: Imperialism, Ethnicity and Authoritarianism, 2000–15. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016, pp. 75–103.

⁴¹ Court statistics. Courts Department of the Russian Federation Supreme Court (http://www.cdep.ru/index.php?id=79)

⁴² The text of historian Rybnikov’s expert analysis is available at https://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2009/09/10_a_3258922.shtml?p=incut&number=2

⁴³ A fake document, well-known in Russia, according to which there was a plan in the post-war period to subvert the USSR, most of all by “subverting Soviet values and morals.”

⁴⁴ V. Vorontsova. “A sentence from the future [Prigovor iz budushchego].” Novye izvestiia, January 21, 2015, https://newizv.ru/news/society/21-01-2015/213447-prigovor-iz-budushego

⁴⁵ E.A. Ostrovskaia; I.V. Kuznetsova; and I.S. Rat’kovskii. Ekspertiza po delu pastora Uil’ma Brankhema [Expert analysis for the case of Pastor William Branham]. Tsentr ekspertiza SPbGU. Author’s archives, 2019.

⁴⁶ D. Dubrovskiy. “Ideologicheskii donos pod vidom nauchnogo znaniia (Ideological denunciation disguised as scholarly knowledge).” Riddle, https://www.ridl.io/ru/ideologicheskij-donos-pod-vidom-nauchnogo-znanija/

⁴⁷ B. Misonzhnikov. “Tochki nad i ili Ekspert, striapchii Vitalik, i deputat Reznik [Dots on the i or the Expert, Vitalik the Solicitor, and Reznik the Deputy].” Peterburgskii publitsist, November 2, 2018. https://spbspeaks.ru/2018/02/11/борис-мисонжников-точки-над-i-или-эк/?fbclid=IwAR177gB5aEu4npQKiX40iQUKWGlhy5BchYGF9-ZFj6KybxC6oJaNxT65pB8

⁴⁸ For a review of one of Prof. Misonzhnikov’s expert analyses, see, for example, “Voprosy gumanitarnoi sudebnoi ekspertizy v ianvare-fevrale 2018 [Questions of forensic expert analysis in the humanities in January and February 2018].” Amicus Curiae https://www.amicus-curiae.info/analytics/473

⁴⁹ A.A. Alekseev. Osnovy psikholingvistiki [Foundations of psycholinguistics]. Moscow, 2017, p. 57.

⁵⁰ V. Chelishcheva, “‘Ubei v sebe raba’ – prizyv k nasiliiu. Kak sudebnaia ekspertiza v Rossii prevratilas’ v fars [‘Kill the slave in yourself’ is a call to violence. How forensic expert analysis in Russia has been transformed into a farce].” Novaia gazeta, June 14, 2016, https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2016/06/14/68935-ubey-v-sebe-raba-prizyv-k-nasiliyu

⁵¹ D. Dubrovskiy. “Ideologicheskii donos pod vidom nauchnogo znaniia [Ideological denunciation disguised as scholarly knowledge].” Riddle, https://www.ridl.io/ru/ideologicheskij-donos-pod-vidom-nauchnogo-znanija/

⁵² Pointing to this, in particular, are recent decisions by the European Court of Human Rights, which consider, in particular, issues regarding specialized forensic expert analysis, in particular, Dmitriyevskiy vs Russia Application no. 42168/06, Stomakhin vs Russia no. 52273/07, Ibragim Ibragimov and others vs Russia no. 1413/08 and 28621/11.

⁵³ See, for example, A.A. Kondrashev, “Sudebnaia reforma v Rossii: Problemy realizatsii i varianty reshenii [Court reform in Russia: Problems of implementation and ideas for solutions].” 2017, no. 2, vol. 75. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sudebnaya-reforma-v-rossii-problemy-realizatsii-i-varianty-resheniy (accessed 5/24/2020).

⁵⁴ “Spisok politicheskikh zakliuchennykh [List of political prisoners].” Memorial Human Rights Center, https://memohrc.org/ru/pzk-list