“On Wednesday, 19 November, when Marina Korolyova and I were presenting the Razvorot programme we received a text message signed Yevgeny. It read: ‘the jurors did not ask for the press to be removed’. I did not pay it particular attention but two hours later another text message arrived and it was spotted by our news editor. This is one of the members of the jury, it said, and gave a name, surname and telephone number. I rang to make sure Yevgeny Kolesov really existed and said that we could not let him speak on the basis of a text message or an anonymous telephone call. He was ready for that, he said, and thought what was happening was wrong.

“That same evening we agreed to meet. He dictated his address and I went to see him at home. He showed me all the necessary documents, starting with his internal passport and invitation for jury duty and ending with his juror’s pass. We went over the same questions once again. It’s not part of my job or that of our radio station to put someone in an awkward position: perhaps he thought he could say what was happening at the trial and then carry on as before? No, he was quite aware of the consequences. An experienced, level-headed 59-year-old, he said the members of the jury were outraged at the deception practised by the judge. He would also be making a statement in court, he said.

“On Thursday Kolesov rang and said he was going to the trial. Around 2.30 pm he rang again. The hearing had ended and almost all the jurors had signed a statement, requesting that the press be allowed back. He wrote a separate statement that he no longer wished to participate in the proceedings. We met on the Arbat ─ the Moscow District Military Court and our studios are not far apart ─ and went back to Echo Moskvy. We tried to prevent any leaks: you never know what might happen ... We reached the office 15 minutes before the broadcast. Our staff kept coming into the visitors’ room simply to look at him and listen to our conversation. Next everything was broadcast live. When we came out of the studio people greeted Kolesov in the corridor. Back in the visitors’ room my colleagues made one excuse after another to drop by. It was astonishing. It’s the first time I’ve seen such a response to one of our guests.

“We didn’t talk about Anna Politkovskaya although Kolesov knew of her and what she had done. On air he said, ‘I heard her trial was coming up and at the same time got my invitation to jury duty.’ He put two and two together.

“When I saw the text message I thought, here’s a man with a conscience. Who was he, I wondered. My first thoughts were: this is some well-educated member of the intelligentsia – a doctor or a teacher. They also get asked to sit on juries, don’t they? Then I learned that he was an ordinary working man, a roofer. It shook me. Usually we imagine that such people take no interest in anything else. Then you meet such a rough diamond (in the sense of its brilliance, inner light and strength) and it’s an astonishing experience. I expected anything but that.

“Kolesov has an amazing sense of his own dignity. On the very first day, he realised that he and his fellow 19 jurors were simply being used. He had not signed up for this and had a different idea of justice and his small role in that great apparatus. I’m elated and overjoyed that such a person exists.

“Colleagues are still ringing and asking me to put them in touch with him. But Kolesov is not interested. He says he does not want to give interviews or appear on television. He’s quite categorical. He didn’t do what he did, he says, to win public attention. It’s a position I admire.”

Vladimir Varfolomeyev
deputy chief editor, Echo Moskvy radio station