"This is the norm!" Why the state will not investigate the case of Bykov's poisoning

As Novye Izvestia has already reported, investigative journalists of The Insider and Bellingcat published a joint investigation in which they revealed the circumstances of the attempt on the life of the writer and poet Dmitry Bykov. According to investigators, the same FSB officers from NII-2 (research institute) and the Second Service, who were allegedly part of the group on the poisoning of politician Alexei Navalny and in the attempt on the life of journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, may be involved in the assassination attempt on Bykov.

Dmitry Bykov was hospitalized in April 2019 with symptoms similar to those of organophosphate poisoning diagnosed in opposition politician Alexei Navalny. The investigation says that FSB officers began monitoring Bykov at least a year before the poisoning.

They tried to poison Dmitry Bykov like Alexey Navalny, Bellingcat claims. It is possible that the poet and literary critic was saved in time by the T-shirt removed.

“When Dmitry came to his senses in Moscow, a fist-sized crimson spot was found on his back (near the top of his shoulder blade). Where it came from, no one knew. The skin in this place peeled off, covered with crusts and itched terribly. It took about a month to heal ... If the stain really is a trace of poison, then the fact that Dmitry Bykov took off his T-shirt in an ambulance could save his life by reducing the time of interaction with the substance...", - written in the investigation.

“These evidences convince me”, - Bykov himself told Kommersant about the investigation. - This is an analogue of a state award. And I, frankly, am pleased that my modest activity is estimated at such large-scale costs. There are just how many tickets there. I'd rather take money. " And he told Taiga.info (the Ministry of Justice included the publication in the list of foreign media agents) that he was offended that the alleged poisoners decided to inflict poison in “his favorite city” Novosibirsk: “These people chose my favorite city, and this is insulting”.

Of course, this event generated a lot of responses and comments on social media.

For example, publicist Marina Shapovalova writes:

Is it surprising that Bykov was also poisoned? Didn't the similar symptoms suggest this at all? Today is Shchekochikhin's birthday. Whose unexplained death has ceased to be a mystery after the incident with Litvinenko. The same picture, but nobody looked for polonium in Shchekochikhin's analyzes. It seems that there is no logic in such poisoning. The logic is different. This is the logic of the system that handles the use of poisons. There is a staffing table, a work plan, annual and quarterly, reports on results, business trips, penalties, bonuses ... A number of characters on which the application is practiced is not an end, but a means. For some reason, within the system, selected from among those suitable for experimentation on them. "Who do not feel sorry for" or "who would not hurt." Based on the results of field trials, an individual can be identified as a target if an order is received for him. I don’t understand what’s unclear here. If you understand where you live..."

Journalist Kirill Shulika draws attention to the fact that society most often does not know the true causes of death of many famous people:

“All these publications about the poisoning, in particular, of Dmitry Bykov, make in general about all the deaths of more or less famous people to think that they are unnatural. Well, of course, about sudden illnesses, too, but here at least the person is alive and it can get out of the public eye in some way.

But with the dead, everything is very ambiguous. Decl's father Alexander Tolmatsky does not like all this fuss and rumors, he asked to stop, according to my information, he promised some journalist to crack if he did not stop. But they do not stop, forcing relatives to go through all hell over and over again.

It is clear that there is no good solution. It seems that it is impossible to keep silent out of respect, but it is also not worth talking in such a way that it is not worth traumatizing. The moral choice is difficult. Bykov, by the way, earlier did not really like to discuss the topic of that flight, I am not sure that now he will suddenly begin to willingly discuss it with everyone..."

But political scientist Alexander Morozov asked an extremely important question: why is there no need to wait for an official investigation, as it should be by law, in Bykov's case?

“… Let's take an ordinary European. For him, it is not the fact of attempted murder that is shocking. There are murders in politics. It is shocking that the national media publishes an investigation into a state crime. That requires an immediate request to the prosecutor's office. But it won't. The writer himself, having read the investigation - if he is in the logic of European everyday life - is already sitting tomorrow, surrounded by his own and additional lawyers, who immediately begin to fight.

But this will not be here.

What will happen? And "life will go on, as it were." And now this no longer fits into consciousness. It is possible to "fit into the mind" some kind of geopolitical argumentation - albeit completely false - for example, about the sabotage of military intelligence on the territory of a NATO member state, or silence the situation with responsibility for the downed civilian liner. All this belongs to the sphere of "big politics" from the point of view of the layman, who seeks to push such events to the margins of consciousness and go about their daily affairs.

But here we have before us a proving assumption about the attempted murder of the writer by a group of state security officers. And these publications do not suggest any institutional response.

The question arises: if this is the "course of life", that is, such is the "norm", then - let us digress here from the moral side - and ask ourselves: what is this from the political-philosophical side? Is it - the Russians have finally built a world for themselves, described in the article by Rodion Raskolnikov, which seemed to Porfiry Petrovich very fascinating and dangerous? What are the anthropological foundations of such a community? Let me emphasize: I am now talking not about the fact of the attempted murder, but about the absence of any action in space after the attempt. This absence makes an absolutely mesmerizing impression. "Shocking" is poorly said..."