Nikita GIRIN, 13 July 2020 Novaya gazeta

• The historian Yury DMITRIEV was accused of touching his foster daughter’s genital area on several occasions;
• At the age of eight the girl suffered episodes of involuntary urination (enuresis);
• DMITRIEV touched the child’s genital area to check if her underwear was dry when he could smell urine, after which he took his daughter to have a wash;
• The diagnosis of enuresis was supported by hospital release notes;
• Three psychiatric investigations concluded that DMITRIEV displayed no sexually deviant tendencies;
• Linguistic experts from the Academy of Sciences’ Institute of the Russian Language analysed the texts of the girl’s interrogation and attested to communicative pressure applied by the investigator. A Moscow University professor analysed the texts of the girl’s conversations with a psychologist and believed that the girl’s statements concerning DMITRIEV’s actions did not display the criteria typical of recollections of a traumatic experience.
• The success of the prosecution in the Dmitriev case appears to correspond to the career moves of Anatoly Seryshev, former head of the FSB in Karelia.

I am finishing this text in Yury Dmitriev’s flat, in the room that used to belong to his foster daughter. The shelves still hold several of her toys, her story books, and school notebooks. From the window you can see her school …

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