Anatoly Grigorievich Kucherena is a Russian attorney, public figure, Doctor of Law, and professor. From mid-2013, Kucherena has represented former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's interests in the Russian Federation. Kucherena continues to represent Snowden, pro bono, on an occasional basis. In 2013, according to Izvestia, he was known as a person who spoke in favour of the banning of anonymizer software: advocating the prosecution of its development, distribution and usage by including it in the "malware" software category. In June 2014, American film directorOliver Stone acquired rights to a screen adaptation of Kucherena's novel, Time of the Octopus, the story of fictional American whistleblower Joshua Kold. Threatened by his government and waiting for a decision on his request for Russian asylum, Cold spends three weeks in the transit area of the Moscow airport. Stone said, "Anatoly has written a 'grand inquisitor'-style Russian novel weighing the soul of his fictional whistleblower against the gravity of a 1984 tyranny that has achieved global proportions." The book, the first in a "psychological-political thriller trilogy," was released on 3 March 2015 in Russian and 29 January 2017 in English. The Moscow Times reported that Kucherena said Snowden had received a copy of the book and liked it. In April 2015, WikiLeaks revealed that Oliver Stone paid $1 million for the movie rights to Kucherena's novel.
In 1979-1981, he did his military service in the Soviet Army serving at the Kapustin Yar and Aralsk launching ranges. He left the service as a squad leader.
In 1991, Kucherena graduated from the All-Union Correspondence Law Institute.
Since 1993, he has been a member of the Moscow City Bar Association. In 1993-1995, he worked at the First Moscow Legal Advice Center where Henri Reznik, a prominent Soviet and Russian lawyer, was his mentor.
In 1995, Kucherena established and became the head of one of the first law offices: Argument Attorneys at Law.
Kucherena has been a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation since 2005.
Kucherena has been the Chairman of Public Council at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation since 2013 the Chairman of the Central Council, the All-Russia Social Movement Civil Society, and the Chairman of the Institute for Democracy and Cooperation.
In 1999, Kucherena defended his master’s thesis on, Administrative Justice in Defense of Human and Civil Rights and Freedoms in the Russian Federation.
In 2003, Kucherena became a Doctor of Law, with his thesis entitled, Advocacy Role in Civic Society Formation in Russia.
High-profile cases and clients
Between 1997 and 2001, Kucherena defended Platon Obukhov, a writer and diplomat facing charges of “spying” for the United Kingdom. The court found Obukhov not responsible on the grounds of mental illness and ordered his transfer from prison to a psychiatric clinic. In 2003, he was discharged from the clinic for outpatient treatment.
Between 2000 and 2005, Kucherena represented Tamara Rokhlina, who was charged of murdering her husband, General Lev Rokhlin. In 2000, she was sentenced to eight years imprisonment. The sentence was reversed by the Supreme Courtin 2001 and a new four-year suspended sentence was passed in 2005. In the same year, the European Rights Court recognized that Rokhlina’s rights were violated in the investigation: in particular, that she served an excessive term in detention.
At different times, Kucherena has also represented:
Grigory Lepsveridze, a Russian crooner blacklisted in the U.S.A. on accusations of being a money courier for the Brothers’ Circle, a Eurasian criminal organization. The news sparked a public outcry and a petition in support of the singer posted on the U.S. White House website;
