Russian journo OLEG KASHIN brutally beaten (VIDEO)--whisteblower on Putin's chief thug

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In the early morning hours on November 6, 2010, almost five years ago, a group of men attacked and nearly killed Oleg Kashin, one of Russia's most prominent journalists. They broke each of his fingers and smashed his head with a steel pipe. He was hospitalized in a coma, but he did not die.

Last month, on September 7, 2015, after a surprisingly exhaustive investigation by Russian police, Kashin revealed the names of his alleged attackers. The men appear to be linked to Andrey Turchak, the powerful governor of Pskov, and ex-employees of the security department of “Zaslon,” a company owned by Turchak's family that designs and produces aircraft electronics and weapons-targeting systems. Though the evidence against Turchak and his entourage has mounted in the press, he remains free and in office. He hasn't even been questioned.

On Saturday, October 3, Kashin published an open letter addressed to President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, where he discusses his case and the significance its abandonment has for Russia as a nation. That letter appears below, translated fully into English.


Dear Mr. Putin and Mr. Medvedev,

My colleagues have already written you open letters about my case. You haven’t responded (and, more importantly, neither has your Investigative Committee), though this actually makes perfect sense: you were asked to “sort it out,” but there’s no need for anything like that. I understand perfectly well that you “sorted it out” a long time ago, and you’ve known for just as long that it was your little Governor Turchak who was behind this crime against me—the same crime I once discussed with one of you, when one of you told me the heads of whoever was responsible would roll. But my case was solved a long time ago. You know this, and I know this. And I see no reason to pretend that the problem here is that you still need to “sort it out.”

Like I said: you’ve already sorted it out, and your decision not to act is clear.

You’ve decided to side with your Governor Turchak; you’re protecting him and his gang of thugs and murderers. It would make sense for somebody like me—a victim of this gang—to be outraged about all this and tell you that it’s dishonest and unjust, but I understand that such words would only make you laugh. You have complete and absolute control over the adoption and implementation of laws in Russia, and yet you still live like criminals. Every time, it’s something above the law. Consider Inspector Sotskov, who’s been handed my case and is now dutifully tearing it apart. Busy rescuing Turchak and his partner Gorbunov, Sotskov put it elegantly when he said recently: There’s the law, but there’s also the man in charge, and the will of the boss is always stronger than any law. Put bluntly: he’s right and that’s reality. Your will in Russia is stronger than any law, and simply obeying the law is an impossible fantasy.

Read MORE https://globalvoices.org/2015/10/04/a-letter-to-the-rulers-of-russia-from-oleg-kashin/