Where did he get the courage? What was he like as a person? What was he thinking? Does his face look familiar? (He was the same age, from Moscow, like me). Did he seem older than his age? (In pre-detention photos).
All these questions..... What good are they now? Is there something that can be learned from his life and death?
His name was Sergei. In 2009 he was 37 year old. He was a lawyer, working in Moscow for a Western hedge fund. Had I met him before, I would have looked at him with suspicion and slight hostility. Really? A hedge fund? Give me a break. You are not kidding anyone by wearing the suit and the tie. What real business can one talk about, given the hostile business environment in Russia? Practicing law? The same law that is routinely used to punish honest businessmen and strip them of everything, kick them out into the street?
These questions did not seem to be on Sergei's mind when, instead of getting the hell out of the country, as his former boss advised him to do, he went to the State Investigative Commission to report a theft of tax revenue in the amount of $235 million dollars from the Russian state by the very state revenue and law enforcement officials whose job is to protect the state from such crimes. After testifying, he was arrested on the order of the same officials he accused of perpetrating the enormous theft and held in jail awaiting trial. 11 months he spent there, writing letters of complaint, in his neat, curiously titled cursive, which reminded me of the humanistic script of the 15th century. His wife and mother sent him parcels with food. He never received them. He was never allowed to talk to his kids (he had two). He kept writing and describing the conditions he was kept in (sordid). He kept writing, even in severe pain, having developed an acute digestive track disorder.Nobody helped. He was told that he had to change his testimony first. He didn't. He kept asking for help. He died asking for help.
Who were you, Sergei? What gave you the strength to stand the pain? Why did you die, unbroken, in that broken place? Forgive the questions.
