alexandr_kashin

To:       President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

FAX: 202-456-2461

E-mail: comments@whitehouse.gov

August 6, 2009

Dear President Obama:

I apply to you as to the highest instance and do hope that as President of the United States, you will be able to help me in my humiliating battle for my dignity and justice.

I am not sure you have ever been told about my story that has been unfolding on the territory stretching from Vladivostok, Russia to Washington, DC for 11 years now.

On October 27th, 1998 in the City of Vladivostok, Mr. Douglas Kent, Consul General of the United States in Vladivostok, was driving under the influence and caused an auto accident as a result of which I, at that time a 23-year old young man, suffered spine damage which left me disabled and wheelchair-bound for life.

The investigation has proven the guilt of Mr. Kent but his diplomatic immunity made it impossible to bring him to justice.

In 2000, I filed a civil suit in Philadelphia Court. The hearings stretched over the period of 6 years and were held in Philadelphia, PA; Alexandria, VA; San Diego, CA. When the case was referred to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Judge delivered an outrageous judgment on August 10, 2006. The ruling states that Mr. Kent was acting within the scope of his employment when he caused an automobile accident while driving home from gym. The ruling bars me from suing in U.S. courts because federal employees are immune from liability for torts committed within the scope of their employment and the government is immune from suit for tort committed by its employees abroad. This ruling leaves me without recourse against the man who ruined my life. I have not received a single cent for the loss of my health and I am now left with no option for necessary treatment or a decent life.

In March of 2008, having given up on the opportunity to achieve justice and in protest to the treatment I had received from the United States government, I took the only action I felt was left within my power and began a hunger strike. It lasted for 20 days and resulted only in further health deterioration. During the hunger strike, the US Department of State offered me $100,000 in compensation – an amount which not only seemed ridiculous to me but also humiliated me immensely since it would not cover even two years of medical treatment for a quadriplegic in Russia. 

After that hunger strike, in the course of 2008-2009, 11 protest rallies were held in 4 cities in Russia (Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, and Moscow) – those where there is a U.S. diplomatic mission. A committee in my support was established. This committee is the one that initiates such rallies.

On March 6th, 2009 in Geneva and on March 31st, 2009 in Hague, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Lavrov discussed the case with the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

On June 3rd, the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs Mr. Margelov forwarded a letter to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs Mr. J. Kerry and to Senator Nelson. On June 29th, 2009 in Moscow, a joint meeting of the Committees on Foreign Affairs of the State Duma and the Congress was held where my case was presented. At the State Duma, I also met with Congressmen Berman and Rohrabacher who pledged their support.

Despite all the numerous protests, support from politicians, and constant media coverage the case does not get off the ground. The Department of State still sticks to its cynical and inhuman attitude and has no intention to grant me a fair compensation. I am left in absolute stagnation, wheelchair-bound for life.

When Georgian diplomat Geuorgui Makharadze drove under the influence of alcohol and struck and killed sixteen-year old Joviane Waltrick in Washington, D.C., the American government brought pressure to bear until justice was done and his immunity waived. The question still remains why the same has not been done for me, a Russian citizen.

In believe that this case is hurting the relations between our two countries and adversely affects the attitude of Russian citizens towards the USA. This case is no longer viewed in Russia as my “private matter” but rather as a spectacular example, a litmus test for the U.S. Department of States. A resolution in my matter would serve as a good signal for the "re-set" of Russian-American relations recently proposed by you, Mr. President.

Now is the time for the U.S. to demonstrate the depth of its compassion and commitment to justice, not only because it is the right thing to do but also because your intervention in righting the wrongs of Mr. Kent will help the United States in its effort to continue building strong and healthy relationship with Russia.

I put my faith in you, Mr. President. I do want to believe there is light for me at the end of this deep 11-year long tunnel of despair and hope.

Respectfully yours,

Alexander Kashin

Not every day I ended up in intensive care. For the first time it happened on October 27, 1998. It was an ordinary fall evening. I flagged down a cab on Okeanskiy avenue near Dalrybvtuz (the college I was attending), took a seat in the back, which is not typical for me since I normally take the front seat, but there was a girl sitting next to the driver in the front. The cab took off and in a couple of hundred meters it got to the point where my life (the real normal life) had ended up and this whole tragic story started to unfold.

An extract from a criminal case:

On 10.27.1998 at around 9:45 p.m. a motor vehicle, Chevy Blazer, license plate # 004D 001 25/RUS, operated by US citizen Douglas Barry Kent was drivingalong Semyonovskaya street in the direction from Uborevich street toward Aleutskaya street of the city of Vladivostok. Near building # 13 on Okeanskiy prospect when the driver of the Chevy Blazer was approaching to the intersection of Semyonovskaya street and Okeanskiy prospect, he failed to comply with paragraph 1.1, 1.3, 13.9 and 13.3 of the Traffic Rules Code and the traffic sign 2.4 of the Traffic Rules Code failing to yield to Toyota Camry, license plate # A 451 BX, operated by A.A. Bulashev, which was moving along Okeanskiy Prospect (Okeanskiy Prospect is considered main road in relation to Semyonovskaya Street) and crashed into it. As a result of this collision the Toyota Camry was pushed away on the oncoming traffic lane, where it collided with Toyota Land Cruiser, driver I.V. Volodin, license plate # E 383 AУ, which was moving along Okeanskiy prospect toward Svetlanskaya Street. As a result of the accident 23-years old A.N. Kashin, who was a passenger in the Toyota Camry, got bodily injuries, which according to the forensic medical investigation #5172 of 12.21.1998, greatly undermined his health, and according to the medical and social expert commission of the Ministry of Social Services of Russian Federation of 12.18.1998 A.N. Kashin received disability group I with 100% total incapacity. Based on this fact on 11.05.1998 Directorate of Internal Affairs of Vladivostok initiated a criminal case in accordance with article 264, part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The investigation reviled that the car accident happened due to the fault of Douglas Barry Kent.

In other words, the cab was moving along the main road and approaching the intersection we were hit from the right a huge SUV Chevy Blazer, which was “flying” down the hill on a minor road. The SUV crashed right into the door I was sitting behind. This is how everything began, or should I say ended? Fortunately nobody else besides me was hurt in the accident.

Afterwards from my conversations with witnesses I found out how the things were unfolding at the accident site. The driver of the SUV Chevy Blazer, U.S. Consul General in Vladivostok Douglas Barry Kent, didn’t even care to ask about the condition of the passengers of the crashed, smashed into pieces Toyota Camry, didn’t try to administer first aid. He locked himself inside his vehicle waiting for traffic police officers and the consulate officials to arrive. The traffic police officers who arrived to the scene of the accident recognize that the Consul General Douglas Kent was under influence, as they could smell alcohol in his breath. However, he refused to take a breathalyzer test. Kent’s behavior was relaxed, he kept smiling. Meanwhile I was being carried to the emergency ambulance car.  This was the end of my short encounter with Consular General in Vladivostok Douglas Kent. Unconscious, I was taken to the intensive care, and Kent headed to Nautilus night club to resume partying after an interruption. At the night club he was really trying hard to recover from the stress. According to one of the club’s employees, he fought the stress to the point that he started taking one striper’s panties off her with his teeth.

On the way to the hospital my consciousness was on and off. The doctors were afraid to lose me and were constantly talking to me asking my name, addresses and phone numbers of my relatives they could contact to inform about the accident.
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The first time I realized that I could not move was at the hospital. I could not feel anything, not even pain.  The doctors had a look at me, performed a tomography. The verdict was not comforting: closed complicated transverse comminuted fracture of the body at the 6^th and 7^th cervical spine vertebras, damage of the spinal cord, subarachnoid bleeding, concussion of the brain, scratches on the face, and hematoma of the head.

The surgery was scheduled.

The surgery went on for several hours. The vertebras were shattered, their fragments penetrated the spinal cord in places, and weren’t that easy to be retrieved.

After the surgery, the long recovery period has begun.  I was almost constantly given an IV, as well as antibiotics, since my body was extremely weakened and non-viable on its own.  I turned into a plant, being fed through tubes with a nourishing liquid. To fall asleep I needed to get pain killers and sleeping aid pills. After a couple of days of immobility, my body started to develop bedsores and since no special bed or a mattress was available, I had to be manually turned every three hours. My mother physically did that, and she was always there by my side then, and for the following months and years.  Unable to eat, I lost tens of kilograms during my stay at the hospital and was brought home as an immobile skeleton covered with skin in bedsores.

Not once did Douglas Kent show up at the hospital. From the first day of the accident the hospital was filled with reporters.  Every Russian channel was covering the event. I met general counselor D. Kent three months later, at a rehabilitation center. The only thing he was concerned with was the news coverage of what happened. He kept telling me what a good person he was and asked me not to speak ill of him to the reporters. And not a single word on any help in my situation.
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Thanks to the doctors and my natural vitality I somehow miraculously made thru to the New Year’s Eve.  That was the first year of my personal nightmare. I was released from the hospital a couple weeks later. At the time, both of my legs were fully paralyzed, arms were partially paralyzed, I was unable to open my fists and I was desensitized from the shoulders down. I was lying down motionless, being unable to even lift my head up by myself to say nothing about turning on another side. This was the condition when I arrived to a rehabilitation center, where I spent two months, and got back home without much improvement. Five months after the accident I was back home. A young healthy man had left his house one day and came back an immobile, half-alive plant.

The few first months at home were difficult, since there were no signs of progress. My mother quit her job to take care of me full time, since we had no money for a sitter. My father built a special bed with side bars and stands, with foam-covered rope hanging in between. Using my arms (not hands, which were still clutched into fists) to grab the side bars and the rope I was able to lift myself up to turn on my own (the foam on the rope was necessary to protect the skin on my arms, which had become very sensitive and could be  easily damaged even by one careless move). I lied on bags filled with hay, since there was no special anti-bedsore mattress available, even though I asked Kent for it.

Slowly things started moving forward and I started to come back to my senses and recuperate. At that time it was possible to drastically improve my health, increase the body functions, and rehabilitate my arms, maybe even legs. I have been told that many times by various rehabilitation specialists and, realizing that myself, I trained practically 24/7.
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I taught myself to open my fists, and now, on the contrary, I am unable to close them. My parents made a sack, filled it with sand, creating a weight lifting piece adjustable from three to five kilograms in weight. I used to lift it up while lying on my back. I was also given a couple of one kilogram dumbbells with handles to train my hands. Soon my arms were rehabilitated. However, I am still unable to use my hands, like holding a pen, for example, only to press on buttons.

That was the perfect time to go to a rehabilitation center and get professional help under the supervision of doctors, using the latest developments in the area. But I did not have any money of my own, neither had I received any compensation from the causer of my sufferings who had by that time left Russia without paying  me a penny for my damaged life and without taking any responsibility of paying my medical bills. He crushed me like a dog with his heavy weight jeep, and left to die in a trench. Kent was absolutely sure of his impunity, hiding behind the diplomatic immunity.

At that point, on top of my health problems and the fight for my life, I also had to battle Douglas Kent supported by the US Department of State for my rights and the compensation that would allow me to get the medical treatment I needed.
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As I had mentioned earlier, there was a criminal case opened in regard to the occurred car accident. The investigation proved that the driver of the Chevrolet, Douglas Barry Kent, was the one at fault. And while he was not denying his guilt, he was refused to accept any responsibility for the incident.  The diplomatic immunity from criminal prosecution gave him the feeling of being a “white master” at the times of colonial invasions, who was able to kill and torture the “natives” without reprimand. And it does not come as a surprise when you know that the general counselor of the United States in Vladivostok, Douglas Kent, was a member of a Nazi organization in his youth.

It is possible that during that time he was recruited by one of the secret services. That would be the only explanation as to why the Department of State profusely refused to not only to give up Kent to the Russian or American justice, but even to give out his whereabouts, upon the request of the Russian court and Russian road police in order to service him with a notice to appear in court. But I have gone too far ahead in the story; I will try taking one step at a time. 

During the course of the investigation numerous requests were issued by the Russian road police to the Embassy of the United States to take away Kent’s diplomatic immunity, but all failed. There are examples of other countries being cooperative in similar situations, like the one involving the Georgian diplomat G. Maharadze. In 1997 in the United States there was a tragic incident involving a worker of the Georgian Embassy George Maharadze. He caused death of a 16 year old American girl in a car accident. Under the pressure of the United States government, the president of Georgia Eduard Shyvarnadze had taken the diplomatic immunity from Maharadze, making his arrest and the following investigation possible. As the result, in December of 1997 Maharadze was found guilty of unintended murder and sentenced to seven years of prison. He was released from the federal prison in New-York in June of 2000 to serve the rest of his sentence in Georgia.  So the question remains, why did the United States government that insisted on removing immunity in Maharadze’s situation not return the favor while being asked to take the diplomatic immunity from Kent?

It is obvious that the Unites States is very strict about protecting the rights of its citizens, whereas I am considered to be a second-grade person, not worthy of justice. This is a perfect example of double standards. Here is another example: the case of a Russian diplomat in Canada, A.Kniazev. On 27^th of January 2001 A Russian diplomat in Canada A.Kniazev caused an accident, involving a female casualty. Kniazev was deported to Russia, put on trial and sentences to four years in prison.

It is clear that all countries except the United States keep to the ethical-moral standards, according to which the justice has to be done, despite all immunities.

The investigation was closed, but instead of it going to trial, the case was closed due to the impossibility of bringing the individual with diplomatic immunity to criminal justice.  And Kent was long gone from Russia anyways.
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