The Moscow Times, Russia
July 28 2005
Nationalists Give Cash to Ivannikova
By Oksana Yablokova
Staff Writer
Alexandra Ivannikova, whose conviction in the killing of a gypsy cab
driver who she said tried to rape her was recently overturned, has
received a 50,000-ruble ($1,700) award from an ultranationalist group
that hailed her actions as an example of bravery.
In December 2003, Ivannikova, 29, stabbed Sergei Bagdasaryan, 23, an
ethnic Armenian, in the thigh with a knife after waving down his car
for a ride. The knife struck Bagdasaryan in an artery, and he was
dead by the time police arrived at the scene.
During her trial, Ivannikova received support from human rights
advocates, who said the trial was a test case on the right to
self-defense, as well as from nationalist groups, whose campaign
focused on Bagdasaryan’s ethnicity.
On July 12, Ivannikova was invited to the three-year anniversary
celebration of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration and awarded
50,000 rubles ($1,700) in a stack of 100-ruble bills wrapped with a
ribbon and a bow.
Ivannikova also received flowers and a long ovation from the
audience, said Alexander Belov, a spokesman for the group, whose
Russian acronym is DPNI.
Belov said that DPNI had supported Ivannikova during her trial and
that the group’s supporters had voluntarily donated money to her.
They had started collecting money before the end of the trial and
wanted to give her husband the money so he would have money to pay
the lawyers, he said.
“One should not think that we rewarded her for killing an Armenian.
However, we thought that she deserved an award for having committed
such a brave act, and she has gone through a lot of suffering,” Belov
said by telephone Wednesday.
Belov said he was not sure that the DPNI would have supported
Ivannikova so actively or given her the cash award if she had killed
a Russian or Slavic man. “I personally might, but I am not sure that
other people would have been willing to donate so much money,” he
said.
Through her husband, Ivannikova declined to comment on the award,
saying that she had grown tired of being interviewed by the media in
recent weeks.
Ivannikova’s lawyer Alexei Parshin said that she had arrived at the
DPNI ceremony not knowing that she would receive the award, Izvestia
newspaper reported Wednesday. Parshin said he did not know she was
going to the event.
During the trial, Parshin distanced Ivannikova from the position of
ultranationalist groups, including DPNI, that rallied in her defense
outside the court.
Yevgeny Ikhlov of the For Human Rights group, which also supported
Ivannikova during her trial, criticized her for accepting the DPNI’s
award.
“It could be explained if she accepted compensation for her suffering
from an NGO. But she actually took the reward for murder, not to
mention who gave her this money,” Ikhlov said, adding that Ivannikova
would most likely be acquitted in a new trial as the City
Prosecutor’s Office has said it would not take part.
Ivannikova’s acceptance of the award “will seriously complicate the
defense strategy of other people standing trial in similar cases,”
Ikhlov said.
Last month, the Lyublinsky District Court found Ivannikova guilty of
murder and gave her a two-year suspended sentence. District
prosecutors had sought a three-year prison sentence.
The Moscow City Prosecutor’s Office then intervened and recommended
that the verdict be reviewed, contradicting the position of the
prosecutor on the case. On July 4, the Moscow City Court overturned
Ivannikova’s murder conviction on the grounds of self-defense.
However, the court agreed with a request by Bagdasaryan’s father that
the case be retried.
Ivannikova’s initial conviction was widely criticized by human rights
advocates, including government ombudsman Vladimir Lukin. The case
was also discussed on a political talk show on NTV television.