Linguist states methodology violation in examining Brinikh's case

When examining the article by Valery Brinikh "The Silence of the Lambs", the expert of the forensic centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) made gross methodology mistakes in examining the article for extremist statements, Elizaveta Tolstunova, a linguist from Nizhni Novgorod, has stated at the Maikop City Court.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the ecologist Valery Brinikh is accused of distributing extremist material, namely, his article "The Silence of the Lambs", published on the Internet. The article deals with the environmental pollution in Adygea by a local swine-raising complex. Ecologist refuses to plead guilty, claiming that his case was falsified. On May 11, he requested an independent examination.

At the court session, held on June 24 at the Maikop City Court, the defence ensured the presence of Elizaveta Tolstunova, an expert linguist, who had earlier filed a written conclusion on the expertise made by Fedyaev, a linguist from the above forensic centre of the MIA of Adygea, Valery Brinikh told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"We've ensured the presence of the expert at the court session for questioning. She spoke on the Fedyaev's expertise, saying that he had violated the methodology of conducting the linguistic examination of the materials claimed to have extremist content. She noted that extremism can't be revealed purely linguistically; the examination should be complex – linguistic and psychological. It is even better to attract sociologists and psychologists, as a linguist is unable to perform the whole spectrum of studies needed to reliably detect the presence of extremist statements in the text," said the ecologist.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.