Appeal

Investigative and judicial authorities have turned to arbitrariness in their actions. We, volunteers, are forced to take measures against the power of the rulers and their henchmen. Thus, in the Ostankino court, Judge Matveev arrested Russian citizen Natalya Viktorovna Zander in the courtroom, a mother of two minor children, who also supports two elderly parents, disabled of the II group. We demand the release of Natalya Viktorovna Zander by September 1, 1999. Otherwise, every 7 days, communications, buildings, etc., will be blown up. Volunteers of Russia.

The Prosecutor General's Office received this letter on August 21. "Novaya Gazeta," according to the author of the indictment, FSB Captain Innokenty Asochakov, received it on September 7; however, "Novaya Gazeta" told us that this letter arrived much later — after all the Moscow bombings.

Mylnikov himself claimed (during the investigation, at the trial, in conversations with his lawyer Evgeny Chernousov and with human rights activists) that at the end of August he also went to the MVD building on Zhitnaya. There, he spoke with an acquaintance, a police colonel, and a senior FSB officer invited by the colonel. Mylnikov demanded nothing from them, only told them about the warnings he had received.

Therefore, identifying the author of the threatening letters was not difficult, especially since Anatoly lived in Natalya Zander's apartment at that time. According to him, he was indeed detained and interrogated several times in the fall, but he denied authorship of the letters even at the trial. The main prosecution witness was 17-year-old Anzhelika, whom Anatoly had helped get a job at the same "Golden Pages" where he and Natalya Zander worked. In the summer of 1999, at the request of Anatoly (with whom she was in love), Anzhelika made computer printouts from a handwritten draft of the "Appeal." Anatoly asked her to destroy the manuscript and delete the file on the computer, but for some reason, the girl in love kept the sheet and in May 2000 handed it over to FSB investigators.

Moscow City Court Judge Marina Komarova (she is currently presiding over the closed trial in the case of the apartment bombings) in August 2002 sentenced Mylnikov to 6 years and 8 months of imprisonment under Article 205 of the Criminal Code. According to the judge, Mylnikov "committed terrorism" in the form of threats for mercenary purposes. The origin of these threats and their coincidence with real events did not interest the judge. Journalists from "Komsomolka" and "Novaya Gazeta" were summoned to court but did not appear, and the court refused to hear the police colonel from Zhitnaya who came at the request of the lawyer.

Again the Perovsky trail?

Here we must tell about the events that took place three years earlier.

Mikhail Proshin indeed became a "pogonya" (nickname/driver): he took the position of personnel manager. And in the summer of 1999, he was sentenced to 25 years of strict regime for the murder of two directors of his native factory.

Proshin shot the first director himself with a pistol. There were almost direct witnesses: a minute before the death of Director Mironov, his guard Izmailov and driver Ryazantsev saw Proshin with a pistol in his hand near the director's office. But they were afraid to tell about what they saw during the investigation.

Proshin ordered the murder of the next director from two mechanics of the factory garage — Alexander Zander and Vladimir Gorelkin. (In one publication, three appear: a factory mechanic, an unemployed person, and a driver of the Federal Tax Police Service. Later, the tax police are not mentioned anywhere). For this crime, Zander, Natalya's husband, received 15 years in the same trial. Gorelkin "cooperated with the investigation" and received eight; according to our information, he has already been released.

What kind of people could call Mylnikov, demand Natalya's release, and threaten bombings?

The search for the Zanders' connections proved unsuccessful. Nothing new could be learned from Natalya Zander: she spoke for two hours with one of the members of the Kovalev Commission, but the conversation was not about Zander and his circle, but about the personal qualities of Anatoly Mylnikov. Anatoly's daughter (Trepashkin also found her) claims that her father simply had the gift of foresight: once he even predicted the imminent death of one of his...