{"id":2132,"date":"2018-09-18T12:56:14","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T18:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/supportthebitkovs.com\/?p=2132"},"modified":"2018-09-18T13:04:38","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T19:04:38","slug":"por-que-le-hacen-esto-a-los-bitkovs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/supportthebitkovs.com\/en\/2018\/09\/18\/por-que-le-hacen-esto-a-los-bitkovs\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are They Doing This to the Bitkovs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESPA\u00d1OL DISPONIBLE AQU\u00cd:<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The ordeal of a Russian family<\/span><\/h1>\n
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By<\/span>\u00a0JAY NORDLINGER\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>April 25, 2018 7:22 AM<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Guatemala City<\/em><\/p>\n

Y<\/span>ou should know about the Bitkovs \u2014 a strange and terrible case. The Bitkovs are a family of four: Igor and Irina and their children, Anastasia and Vladimir. They started out in Russia \u2014 or rather, three of them did. Vladimir was born here in Guatemala.<\/p>\n

Igor, Irina, and their daughter were forced to flee Russia, as so many are. They came to Guatemala to start a new life. They are now in prison here. Igor is in a men\u2019s facility and his wife and daughter are in a women\u2019s facility, less than half a mile away. They are forbidden to see one another. That is, Igor may not see Irina and Anastasia, and vice versa.<\/p>\n

Vladimir, age six, is in the care of guardians (loving, selfless ones). \u201cIf I were not a child, I would be in prison too,\u201d he says. He would rather be. He would like to be with his family, free or not. He speaks of hiding in their bedsheets.<\/p>\n

According to the family and its supporters, the Bitkovs are the victims of a vengeful Russian state, working in curious partnership with Guatemalan authorities and a U.N. agency. Their case is all over Russia\u2019s state media, as the Kremlin cackles at their plight. In America, Mary Anastasia O\u2019Grady of the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>has written about them repeatedly. Members of Congress are interested in holding hearings.<\/p>\n

On April 27, there will be a hearing before the U.S. Helsinki Commission, in Washington.<\/p>\n

The Bitkov family merits a book, rather than an article such as mine. They could be a movie, too \u2014 harrowing, Kafkaesque. I will tell their story in brief.<\/p>\n

Igor grew up in Novodvinsk, a town in Arkhangelsk Oblast, in northwest Russia. His parents were engineers, working in a pulp and paper mill. His father was the Communist Party representative in the mill. (These were Soviet times, I should note.) Irina grew up in the city of Arkhangelsk, about 15 miles from Novodvinsk. Her father was a systems engineer, and her mother worked in a pharmacy.<\/p>\n

Neither family had much money, but they got by.<\/p>\n

Igor and Irina met in 1989, when Irina was visiting Novodvinsk. (Irina remembers the day precisely: September 1.) Irina and a friend were sitting on a stoop. A guy next door, Igor, was taking out the garbage. He said to Irina, \u201cYou\u2019re not from here. I know all the pretty girls in this town, and I\u2019ve never seen you before.\u201d They were married nine months later. Igor was 21 and Irina 20. They are now in their late 40s.<\/p>\n

Apparently, they are natural entrepreneurs. By dint of their own efforts and talents, starting from nothing, they built a splendid company: NWTC, for \u201cNorth West Timber Company.\u201d They dealt in pulp and paper. They pioneered clean technology, which was very important to Igor. \u201cIn my hometown, many people died from consequences of dirty technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bitkovs were also philanthropists, funding churches and orphanages, etc. PricewaterhouseCoopers, among others, honored them for their achievements.<\/p>\n

As their company grew, they borrowed money from three state banks: VTB, Sberbank, and Gazprombank. Sberbank would value NWTC at $428 million. Igor says it should have been more like $450 million, but let\u2019s not split hairs.<\/p>\n

With success came trouble \u2014 because the Kremlin and its oligarchs wanted in on the action. A leader of Sberbank wanted to buy 51 percent of the company. Putin\u2019s party \u2014 United Russia \u2014 wanted Irina to be one of its regional chiefs. An association of businessmen, chaired by the VTB honcho, wanted her to join. (That would have entailed hefty \u201cdues\u201d payments from the Bitkovs.) On it went.<\/p>\n

And the Bitkovs said no. Why? \u201cWhy did you not play ball, like everyone else?\u201d I ask. \u201cPrinciple,\u201d says Igor. \u201cI could have paid, no problem \u2014 but I didn\u2019t want to. We did not want to play their game; we wanted to play ours.\u201d Irina explains, \u201cThere is no middle way in Russia.\u201d Either you\u2019re in or you\u2019re out. You can\u2019t finesse the system. If you go along with the oligarchs, even a little, they will own you. Your hands are either clean or dirty. You can\u2019t be a little bit pregnant. There is no middle way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we could remain independent,\u201d says Irina. \u201cWe were doing so much good for society. I thought that would be enough. I did not realize that not working with the government would be fatal to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putin\u2019s Russia, in short, is a mafia state. The Bitkovs refused to pay protection.<\/p>\n

Igor makes an additional point: \u201cOur company showed that a private enterprise could be better run than a state enterprise. They hated me for that. We built the company from the ground up, all by ourselves. We had no government support \u2014 not from Yeltsin, not from Putin. And the results were impressive.\u201d Irina, for her part, remembers a government official at a ribbon-cutting ceremony, for a new Bitkov factory. He said, with sarcasm, not admiration, \u201cEvidently, it is possible to build such a company in Russia on your own initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June 2007, something evil happened: The Bitkovs\u2019 daughter, Anastasia, age 16, was kidnapped, drugged, and repeatedly raped. This took place over the course of three days. Who did it? \u201cA criminal structure, working with the FSB,\u201d Igor explains. \u201cOne with impunity.\u201d (\u201cFSB\u201d is the new name for \u201cKGB.\u201d) Igor paid a ransom of $200,000, in cash. He handed over the money \u2014 dollars \u2014 to the police, acting as \u201cmiddlemen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anastasia emerged from the ordeal with severe mental problems. She has been diagnosed as \u201cbipolar\u201d and \u201cborderline.\u201d Several times, she has tried to kill herself. Yet she is much better today, and she is a very brave woman. More on this in a moment.<\/p>\n

The attack on Anastasia was a warning to Igor and Irina Bitkov: Play ball, or else. Faced with yet more threats, the Bitkovs finally fled, in April 2008.<\/p>\n

Immediately, the banks called in their loans. They gave the Bitkovs 48 hours. The Bitkovs had a perfect credit record \u2014 but they could not repay the balance of their loans in two days. So the banks forced them into bankruptcy and gobbled up the company they had built.<\/p>\n

In Turkey, Igor had a phone call with FSB agents. It was the kind of phone call you don\u2019t forget. They demanded that he return to Russia. Igor refused, fearing the worst. They then said that, wherever he and his family went, the FSB would hunt them down and kill them.<\/p>\n

What were Igor\u2019s options? Apply for political asylum in the United States? There was the problem of a visa, or the lack of one. How about an EU country? As Igor explains, relations between the West and Putin\u2019s Russia were much warmer in 2008 than they would be later. (He cites Germany, in particular.) He knew of Russians who had applied for asylum in the EU and were deported back to Russia \u2014 much to their sorrow. Also, Igor was an entrepreneur, not a political figure, so how much sympathy would he get, asking for asylum?<\/p>\n

He searched the Internet \u2014 and found a law firm called Cutino International, offering immigration services in Latin America. Igor thought first to go with his family to Panama \u2014 but Panama required a visa. Guatemala did not. So, in April 2009, they came here.<\/p>\n

Cutino\u2019s price for the facilitation of a Guatemalan passport and ID card was $50,000. Igor paid for three sets: for Irina, Anastasia, and himself. The documents were issued by the relevant government offices.<\/p>\n

Obviously, it was hard for Igor to leave everything behind \u2014 even his name (he adopted a new one, the better to get lost, so to speak). But he felt he had no choice. He had one object in mind: the survival \u2014 the physical survival \u2014 of his family.<\/p>\n

What would you and I have done, in his shoes?<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he Bitkovs settled in, as best they could. They learned Spanish. The second child, Vladimir, was born in 2012 (21 years after the first!). As years went by without incident, the family felt more secure. Anastasia tried making a reality-TV show. Life was normal, relatively speaking.<\/p>\n

But in 2013, one of the banks, VTB, having traced the Bitkovs, went to the Guatemalan authorities. The bank persuaded them to investigate the family for financial crimes. The aforementioned VTB \u201choncho\u201d \u2014 Andrey Kostin, the bank\u2019s chairman and CEO \u2014 gave power of attorney to Henry Comte, of the Guatemalan firm Comte & Font. Henry Comte is also an alternate judge in one of the courts involved in the Bitkovs\u2019 case.<\/p>\n

(I e-mailed Mr. Comte on April 19 to ask about this apparent conflict of interest and about the sentencing of the Bitkovs. He responded the next day, saying that the managing partner of the firm would get back to me as soon as possible. As of the time of writing, the managing partner had not.)<\/p>\n

For more than ten years now, Guatemalan authorities have worked alongside CICIG, a U.N. agency created to fight corruption in this country. \u201cCICIG\u201d stands for \u201cComisi\u00f3n Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala,\u201d or \u201cInternational Commission against Impunity in Guatemala.\u201d CICIG is highly controversial in this country. Some people think the commission is above reproach, a godsend to Guatemala. Others think, or fear, that corruption has infiltrated the corruption-fighter.<\/p>\n

In the eyes of some, VTB and CICIG appear to be in alliance, and that would be curious indeed. VTB has long been under sanction by both the United States and the European Union. Earlier this month, Chairman Kostin was placed under U.S. sanction personally.<\/p>\n

CICIG strenuously denies any alliance between itself and VTB, or any relationship with the bank at all.<\/p>\n

VTB\u2019s charges of financial crimes went nowhere in Guatemala. (And to say \u201cVTB\u2019s charges\u201d is really to say the Russian state\u2019s charges.) Those charges were patently absurd. But the authorities had another angle: passport violations, documentary irregularities. For a time, VTB was a plaintiff in a passport case, which was odd.<\/p>\n

Mind you, CICIG and Guatemalan law enforcement were chasing some very bad actors: corrupt government officials and human traffickers, a.k.a. coyotes. There was a ring of these people. Truly nasty characters, the kind to murder whistleblowers, some of them. But did Igor, Irina, and Anastasia Bitkov belong in the same net?<\/p>\n

On January 15, 2015, at 6 in the morning, they were arrested. A full 70 agents came to the Bitkovs\u2019 house. Another 30 went to the family office. Still another 30 went to the house of Anastasia\u2019s boyfriend. That\u2019s 130 agents in total \u2014 an impressive number for a passport case.<\/p>\n

Initially, the Bitkovs were kept in\u00a0carceletas<\/em>, or cages, in humiliating and dangerous conditions. Igor had to deal with gang members (MS-13 and Barrio 18). Anastasia had a terrifying breakdown. The details of these first days are staggering.<\/p>\n

What about the little boy, Vladimir, three years old at the time? The Kremlin was quick to weigh in. It did so in the person of Pavel Astakhov, who was then Putin\u2019s commissioner for \u201cchildren\u2019s rights,\u201d notorious. Astakhov declared that Vladimir was a Russian child who should be in the hands of Russian authorities. (Tough luck, Pavel: The Guatemalan-born Vladimir is a Guatemalan citizen.) Irina and Igor wanted their son to be in the hands of their chosen guardians: his longtime nanny and one of the family\u2019s lawyers. A judge sent him to an orphanage.<\/p>\n

He was there for 42 days. When he was finally released to his guardians, he was in very bad shape, physically and mentally. He had a scar over his eye. He had a respiratory infection and an ear infection. He had conjunctivitis in both eyes. He had a chipped front tooth. He was undernourished. Moreover, he was in a zombie-like state, unable to speak. In fact, he forgot how to speak Russian altogether.<\/p>\n

Today, Vladimir is in good shape, all things considered, cared for by those remarkable guardians. At Mariscal Zavala Prison, I meet him briefly outside the women\u2019s facility, where his mother and sister are kept.<\/p>\n

In our separate interviews, the prisoners \u2014 Igor, Irina and Anastasia \u2014 tell me repeatedly how grateful they are for their clutch of helpers and advocates, whom they refer to unblushingly as \u201cangels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Igor has been in prison since the day of his arrest in January 2015. For a year \u2014 from January 2015 to January 2016 \u2014 Anastasia was in hospital detention, along with her mother. They were then released under house arrest (which lasted until January of this year). Sometime during 2015, when the Bitkovs were away, their house was looted, almost certainly by the police, who were responsible for guarding the house. Everything was taken \u2014 even Vladimir\u2019s toys.<\/p>\n

It is very important to Anastasia and her family that she stay out of a place called Federico Mora Hospital. (Not the hospital she was detained in, which is called Concepci\u00f3n.) A warden, among others, has threatened to send her to Federico Mora. It is a mental institution that consigns girls and women to sexual slavery. The BBC did a documentary on it with a blunt title: \u201cThe World\u2019s Most Dangerous Hospital.\u201d Mariscal Zavala, where Anastasia is now, must be very heaven by comparison.<\/p>\n

Last December, one court ruled that the Bitkovs were not guilty of any criminal offenses. If anything, they were guilty of administrative offenses in the matter of their passports and ID cards, which might make them liable to a fine. But CICIG et al. challenged this ruling \u2014 and the Bitkovs were convicted. Their sentences: 19 years in prison for Igor, 14 each for Irina and Anastasia. For passport violations and documentary irregularities.<\/p>\n

The sentence for rape is between eight and twelve years. Murderers rarely get what the Bitkovs got. There are people in this country, and elsewhere, who are anti-Bitkov: who buy the Russian propaganda or simply scorn the family. But virtually no one thinks their sentences are anything but insane and shocking.<\/p>\n

I will quote CICIG, through its spokesman Mat\u00edas Ponce, who in the below paragraph is speaking of CICIG\u2019s efforts against a crime ring \u2014 a network composed of the aforementioned government officials, traffickers, and the like. In CICIG\u2019s view, the ring includes the Bitkov family, as \u201cusers\u201d of it.<\/p>\n

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The Migration Case was internationally praised for having dismantled a large network that posed a risk to national and regional security. Proceedings were conducted under Guatemalan law, including all constitutional and procedural safeguards. All those prosecuted enjoyed right to defence and were free to act on all available actions (appeals, human rights safeguards, etc). The Attorney General\u2019s Office, with support from CICIG, fulfilled its role to file charges and provide evidences, always under Guatemalan law. In Guatemala, after hearing the defence and the prosecution, Judges are independent to rule and set penalties within the limits of the Criminal Code. The case remains open, currently pending two different appeals by higher courts.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

B<\/span>efore seeing Irina and Anastasia at Mariscal Zavala, I see Igor. The men\u2019s facility is like a tent city or shantytown. Igor points to one of his fellow inmates and says, \u201cHe\u2019s a judge\u201d (or was a judge). In Guatemala, Mariscal Zavala is known as a \u201cVIP prison.\u201d Yet you and I would not want to live here, trust me.<\/p>\n

One look at Igor and you know he\u2019s keeping himself in very good shape. He looks like an athlete. He exercises regularly. This is important for his mental health, he says. It helps chase the darkness away. Also, he wants to keep himself fit for his family\u2019s sake. He thinks of Vladimir: How old will this boy be when his father gets out? How old will the father himself be? He is aiming for longevity. He wants to be around.<\/p>\n

Ever the entrepreneur, Igor is making and selling cr\u00eapes to his fellow inmates. What kind of cr\u00eape do you want? He can make you almost any kind. He once ran a $450 million pulp-and-paper company. The cr\u00eape business in prison is a lot humbler, but still something.<\/p>\n

When I ask him about his spirits \u2014 his mental health \u2014 Igor says, \u201cI believe in God.\u201d He is Orthodox, and he participates in services here with Catholics and evangelicals.<\/p>\n

What would he like people to know, about what has happened to him and his family? This: \u201cThe Kremlin has tremendous power. More than people realize. More than\u00a0I<\/em>\u00a0realized, before we were persecuted here in Guatemala. This is secret power, not in evidence. The United States has power, but it\u2019s clear, transparent. The U.S. is a big democratic country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Igor believes that the Russian influence on his fate is strong, and that Guatemala is awash in Russian money and schemes. \u201cRussia is a criminal state that corrupts others.\u201d He is far from alone in this belief.<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s facility, conditions are worse for Irina and Anastasia than for Igor. The prison is very cramped, with bunks giving people just a sliver of privacy. But at least the prison is not violent. (The men\u2019s, too, has the advantage of non-violence.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been in survival mode for years,\u201d says Anastasia. She is gracious and composed. She has embraced Christianity, and in fact was baptized just yesterday. \u201cGod is healing me. He is doing His work. That is why I can walk around smiling, despite being sentenced to 14 years in prison. You need to lose everything in life to come to the understanding that you never had anything at all. It was all an illusion. Real life is not physical \u2014 it comes from within.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Anastasia has been through is mind-boggling. During the drama of the last few years, she got married, to a Guatemalan who is now in Spain. His petition for divorce and her sentence of 14 years came on the very same day: January 5, 2018. I laugh when she tells me this. I ask her to forgive me, and she does. She laughs, too. You almost have to.<\/p>\n

As for Irina, she believes that \u201cGod has some mission for us.\u201d She also says that she has a goal, which she calls a \u201cdream\u201d: to be part of a team that helps others who are trapped in nightmarish circumstances, such as those she and her family have faced.<\/p>\n

Russian authorities continue to taunt and haunt the Bitkovs. They are intent on prosecuting the family in Russia, and they talk of extradition. (Vladimir\u2019s Guatemalan citizenship is a problem for them.) Every day in the state media, they make villains of the Bitkovs. Anastasia says, starkly, \u201cThere are people in Russia who believe that we deserve not prison but death.\u201d The Bitkovs believe, and their supporters believe, and experts on Russia believe, that the Bitkovs\u2019 return to Russia would mean their death, their murder.<\/p>\n

Irina\u2019s mother and Igor\u2019s brother have visited the family here in Guatemala. Afterward, their homes were raided: Irina\u2019s mother\u2019s in Arkhangelsk and Igor\u2019s brother\u2019s in St. Petersburg. \u201cThey took every electronic thing,\u201d says Igor, referring to agents: computers and phones. \u201cThey interrogated them for hours, and threatened to put them in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six-year-old Vladimir may be Guatemalan, but Igor, Irina, and Anastasia are citizens of no country. Anastasia cites an old term for their status, \u201ccivil death.\u201d The family is amazed that people in Guatemala and elsewhere are willing to help them: \u201cnot because we are their fellow citizens,\u201d says Irina, \u201cbut simply because we are human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prominent among these helpers is Bill Browder, the financier who became a human-rights advocate when his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was tortured to death in Russia. Browder has spearheaded \u201cMagnitsky acts,\u201d which are laws that sanction human-rights abusers in Russia. He makes an interesting point (and, to me, a persuasive one). It is as follows.<\/p>\n

In March, the Russian state tried to murder Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury, England. This was the poison attack that received worldwide attention. Sergei Skripal was an officer in Russian military intelligence and a spy for the British. He was, in short, a double agent. He went to Britain in a swap between the two countries. The Russians don\u2019t really care about Skripal (in the view I am stating). He is in no position to do any harm to them anymore. What they wanted to do is send a message to others: If you betray us, we will get you, even if you think you\u2019re safe abroad. So it is with the Bitkovs (again, in the view I am stating). The Kremlin doesn\u2019t give a damn about this little, tormented family. They are simply sending a message to others: If you defy us \u2014 if you\u2019re a businessman who doesn\u2019t hand over his assets willingly \u2014 we will find you and hurt you, no matter where you go. You want to end up like the Bitkovs?<\/p>\n

Call it deterrence.<\/p>\n

What can the United States do? Anything? Well, Washington is the biggest aid donor to Guatemala \u2014 by far \u2014 and it also pays for about half of CICIG\u2019s budget. At a minimum, Congress ought to know about this bewildering and sickening case.<\/p>\n\n

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