How the website is made

I am the author of this website. I have never seen it on a screen myself.

I am held in Heidering prison and have no unrestricted internet access. Nevertheless, I decide what appears on this website. I convey my materials and instructions by telephone; helpers outside prison and technical tools make the website possible.

What ‘I publish’ means on this website: I make the decisions about its content and take responsibility for it. It does not mean that I have a laptop, a browser or access to my email inbox in my cell.

For journalists: how to reach me

Write to bagrash.presse@gmail.com. Your message will be read to me over the telephone. I dictate my reply, and a helper outside prison sends it. A reply usually takes one to two days. Please send all enquiries about contacting me to this email address.

If you would like to visit me, send a request proposing a time. I am entitled to a one-hour visit every two weeks.

Journalists can also request an interview through the press office of the Berlin Senate Department for Justice. I am always willing to give an interview. However, I expect that the Senate will most likely not reply at all.

Postal address: Dmitry Bagrash, JVA Heidering, Ernst-Stargardt-Allee 1, 14979 Großbeeren.

The first version: HTML by telephone

When I began making the documents in my case publicly accessible, the technical process was absurdly cumbersome. I prepared texts in prison and dictated them by telephone to a young helper I knew. Parts of the HTML code were made in the same way: from memory, on paper, and then over the telephone.

I could not open the result myself. Someone described to me over the telephone what was on the screen. In this literal sense, I saw the first website through another person's eyes.

Today: I work on the content; AI helps with the technology

AI tools came later. I no longer have to specify every technical change myself. I can concentrate on what I am responsible for: original documents, the chronology, questions to the authorities, my own assessments and the correction of factual errors.

The process is often the same: I telephone someone I have authorised outside prison. They open an AI system and put the telephone on speaker. I dictate tasks, explain the circumstances, listen to drafts, correct them and decide what is published. Files, links, HTML and deployments are handled outside prison.

AI is a tool, not the author of my factual assertions. My conclusions should be recognisable as my assessments. When a court or authority has written something, the original document should appear alongside it.

The same applies to email

I cannot see the inbox at bagrash.presse@gmail.com myself either. When a journalist, lawyer, authority or member of parliament writes, someone outside prison has to open the inbox and tell me what the message says. I formulate or approve replies by telephone; they are sent outside prison.

This also explains delays. An email may arrive in seconds, but I only learn of it when I can reach someone who can read it to me.

Why do people outside Germany often help me today?

Today, people outside Germany often help me.

This has a practical advantage: they do not have to speak German to upload a file, deploy the website or read an email to me. They can help with translation and technical work. Decisions about the content remain mine.

I do not treat telephone calls from prison as a confidential channel of communication. My working method is therefore designed to make as many steps as possible traceable through documents afterwards, rather than to conceal anything.

Why this public scrutiny?

I dispute the central accusation for which I was convicted and seek a retrial and complete rehabilitation. Nobody has to accept my assessment. That is precisely why this website is organised as a documentary record: anyone who considers my conclusions wrong should be able to read the originals.

The prison records themselves document that my continuing challenge to the conviction, planned public activities and intention to keep publishing after a relaxation of restrictions played a role in decisions assessing my prospects. This can be read, for example, in exhibits 115_F2 and 137_F2. It does not automatically follow that every decision adverse to me was retaliation. But it is a documented reason why public and judicial scrutiny matter so much to me.

An example: video calls

Heidering prison barred my video calls in 2026 after a public video statement. Berlin Regional Court I overturned the decision on 11 September 2026. Among other things, the court criticised the inadequate investigation of the facts; the complete sequence of the prison decision, submissions and court order is published here.

Dossier on the video-call ban → · Public video statement →

What I demand

I do not ask you to believe me. I demand an independent examination under public scrutiny. If state bodies, a court or I myself misrepresent something, the original documents should show what actually happened.

What happens if this website is blocked?

The technical operation is handled outside prison. This website may be blocked at the instigation of the Berlin Prosecutor General's Office. Arrangements have been made: if the website or its embedded videos become inaccessible, a mirror copy on other technical infrastructure will be available within four hours at the latest after any blocking — including the videos. In that event, search the web for the mirror copy.

About the translations

The German version is authoritative. The Russian and English versions were produced from the German text using AI tools and checked automatically and on a sample basis. I have not approved them sentence by sentence. If a translation differs from the German text, the German text takes precedence.

Responsibility: I, Dmitry Bagrash, take responsibility for the content of this website and the decisions to publish it. Technical helpers and AI tools carry out implementation work. As a rule, I do not publish the personal details of private helpers without their consent.