Freedom of assembly (April 22-29)

Events of May 6, 2012 on Bolotnaya Square

On April 29, the International Commission for the Assessment of the Events of May 6, 2012 in Moscow officially began operating . Among the members of the Commission are members of the OSCE Council of Experts on Freedom of Assembly. Among the questions posed to them was whether there were mass riots or isolated hooligan acts on Bolotnaya Square.

The BBC Russian service spoke with one of the members of the Commission, Doctor of Law and member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Oleg Martynenko: “If the Russian government does not pay attention to the commission’s findings, then these results will go to the European Union and will come from there.” redirected questions - and the government will have to answer them sooner or later,” Martynenko believes.

Martynenko assumes that the preliminary results of the international commission’s work will be made public sometime in August, and the final results in the fall.”

The Vedomosti newspaper publishes comments by political scientist Boris Makarenko, as well as State Duma deputy from United Russia, a member of the Russian OSCE delegation, Ilya Kostunov:

“No matter what conclusions foreign experts come to, the Russian authorities will not listen to their opinion, especially against the background of the growing campaign to search for and expose “foreign agents” among NGOs within the country, believes political scientist Boris Makarenko .

If the point of view of experts is presented at a meeting of the OSCE Assembly, the Russian delegation in response will report the official point of view, promises member of the delegation United Russia deputy Ilya Kostunov , and if an anti-Russian information campaign is launched, as was the case with the case of Sergei Magnitsky , the delegation should go beyond speech framework and run your own campaign. Talk about the “Bolotnaya case”, which departs from the fact of the attack on police officers, is unacceptable, Kostunov is sure.”

The BBC Russian service also publishes a commentary by the head of the Russian representative office of Amnesty International, Sergei Nikitin, according to whom “the Russian authorities will not be able to completely ignore the commission’s conclusions:

“The participation of such well-known human rights organizations as Article 19, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International will undoubtedly play a role in how the international community reacts to the results of the work [...] Reputation is extremely important for our country, therefore, Whatever the Russian authorities say, I assume that to some extent they will have to take into account the opinions that will be heard from human rights activists,” Nikitin told bbcrussian.com.”

On the website of the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, material about the creation of the commission was published under the heading “Events on Bolotnaya will be assessed by “foreign agents”.”

REGNUM news agency quotes the words of Veronika Krasheninnikova, General Director of the Institute for Foreign Policy Research and Initiatives, member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation:

“The organizations that initiated this project are foreign agents under the new Russian legislation. We can consider the opinion that they broadcast based on the results of their project to be the opinion of their funding sources,” the expert said.

“This is a typical event of similar structures that Vladimir Bukovsky once called Western dissidents. I don’t think it’s worth paying special attention to this step,” Krasheninnikova noted.”

Detentions

Weekly Saturday detentions continue on Red Square. On April 27, 30 people were detained during a walk in support of political prisoners.

“Protest walks around Red Square, which were popular among the opposition last year, resumed in March 2013. The opposition promises to gather for similar rallies every Saturday,” writes RBC.

“Such weekend rallies have already become almost traditional,” Forbes reports . “Last weekend, the police also detained more than 20 people expressing solidarity with the prisoners.”

“Participants of the action in the center of Moscow brought with them sheets of paper, from which they wrote down the date of a new demonstration on Bolotnaya Square, scheduled for May 6,” the BBC Russian service clarifies .

“Novaya Gazeta” contacted one of the police departments where the detainees were taken: “The duty station told Novaya that a lawyer was not allowed in, since “none of the detainees asked for a lawyer.” However, one of the detainees, a member of the federal council of Solidarity Nadezhda Mityushkina, told the police that a lawyer was waiting for her on the street.”

“Strategy-31”

Triumfalnaya Square has been opened to pedestrians, head of the Moscow regional security department Alexei Mayorov said on April 29.

Earlier, on April 22, Newsru.com reported : “Answering the question whether public organizations will be able to hold mass actions on Triumfalnaya Square, Mayorov noted that “if applications are received, they will be considered within the time limits established by law.” “As soon as the fences installed on Triumfalnaya Square are removed, it will be open for public events, including political events,” confirmed deputy head of the department Vasily Oleynik, as quoted by ITAR-TASS.

However, this will not concern Eduard Limonov, who has been trying to hold a “Strategy-31” protest in the square every month for 31 days for several years in defense of freedom of assembly. According to Mayorov, the oppositionist will still not be able to hold rallies on Triumfalnaya Square, since the law prohibits people who have been repeatedly brought to administrative responsibility over the year from being organizers of mass actions.

The court sentenced the leader of “The Other Russia” Eduard Limonov to an administrative fine of three thousand rubles under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for holding the “Strategy-31” action on March 31, 2013.

“The court made a decision based on the ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which allowed fines to be imposed below the lower limit of 10 thousand rubles prescribed in the law “On Rallies”,” writes Lenta.Ru.

“For the Strategy-31 actions that took place in December and January, Limonov was fined 2,000 and 15,000 rubles, respectively,” recalls the Kasparov.ru publication.

Legislation on freedom of assembly

Reports from international organizations

The international human rights organization Amnesty International published on April 24 an annual report on human rights in Russia, which contains, in particular, criticism of the law on rallies, which came into force in the summer of 2012, and also notes the widespread use of forceful dispersal of peaceful assemblies:

“Amendments made to the Federal Law “On assemblies, rallies, demonstrations, processions and pickets” in June 2012 complicated the already difficult procedures for obtaining permission and sharply increased penalties for administrative violations. Changes made to the law imposed additional responsibilities on organizers and increased their responsibility for the actions of rally participants. Bans on demonstrations became common practice, and they were often dispersed illegally.”

“Excessive use of force by police officers and illegal arrests accompanied such protests as rallies on Pushkinskaya and Lubyanka Squares in March 2012 and the May protests on Bolotnaya Square, as well as actions organized by the Strategy 31 movement and the “folk festivals” in May 2012 .

“The state is obliged to allow peaceful meetings of citizens and guarantee their safety, but today the default position of the authorities in the Russian Federation is that demonstrations that they do not approve simply should not happen. Rare exceptions only confirm the general rule,” notes John Dalhuisen.”

Human Rights Watch's annual report, also published on April 24, calls the human rights situation in Russia the worst in the entire post-Soviet period. We are talking about a number of restrictive laws, including the law on rallies, to which a special section of the document is devoted.

““I didn’t notice anything unprecedented in the past year, I didn’t find any victims or persecution of civil rights ,” the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education, political scientist Vyacheslav Nikonov, disagrees with the conclusions of the report. These organizations [Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch] are official, representing the interests of US government agencies, the opinion of these organizations is known and one can say in advance what they will talk about, Nikonov is convinced,” writes the Vedomosti newspaper.

“Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Gennady Gatilov criticized the latest report of the Human Rights Watch organization on the human rights situation in Russia,” the Voice of Russia publicationreported on April 25. “It clearly serves the political interests of some states,” he wrote in his microblog on Twitter. “The document ignores all the efforts of the Russian authorities in this area.”

Decision of the Constitutional Court on the complaint about pickets

On April 25, the Constitutional Court refused to consider Alexei Navalny’s complaint regarding the application of the law on rallies.

“A. Navalny’s application was submitted to the Constitutional Court (...) in January of this year,” RBC reports , “The blogger demanded that the “too vague” provisions of the law, which actually allow any participant in a coordinated protest action to be held accountable, be declared unconstitutional.”

“The reason for A. Navalny’s dissatisfaction was his detention during the picketing of the FSB building in October 2012. The oppositionist, who was surrounded by media workers, was accused of organizing an unauthorized march and fined 30 thousand rubles.”

“I stood in a single picket near the FSB building in Moscow. Having finished the picket, I rolled up the poster and headed towards Maroseyka. This attracted the attention of media representatives who went with me after the picket and asked questions,” the oppositionist said earlier. The police detained A. Navalny, who was walking surrounded by journalists, saying that he had organized an unauthorized procession. The Basmanny court found him guilty under Part 2 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the rules for holding public events).”

“Examining the contested norms, the judges of the Constitutional Court came to the conclusion that the very fact of holding a public event without notifying the authorities is recognized as socially dangerous and punishable,” writes Rossiyskaya Gazeta. “As for the form of bringing to administrative responsibility, the Constitutional Court reminds that In the federal law “On meetings, rallies, demonstrations, processions and pickets”, the violator can indeed be removed, suspended or the action itself terminated.

Bringing to administrative liability along with the use of these coercive measures cannot in itself be considered as a disproportionate interference in the exercise of the right to freedom of assembly and excessive state coercion, since, unlike administrative measures, the purpose of which is to prevent the commission of new crimes, these measures are aimed at suppression of illegal behavior and restoration of public order, indicate the authors of the definition. Having thus differentiated measures of administrative liability, the Constitutional Court judges also refer to the “Guidelines on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly” prepared by the OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission for Democracy through Law. In these principles, the Europeans indicate that “the imposition of sanctions (such as prosecution) after the event may sometimes be more appropriate than the imposition of restrictions “before or during the meeting.” Therefore, Navalny’s complaint was also denied in this part. True. , in the text of the ruling, referring to the ruling in the case on rallies, the judges of the Constitutional Court remind their colleagues of the possibility of avoiding the classification of a single picket if ordinary attention was shown to it.”

Read also:

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Freedom of assembly: media digest (March 25-31, 2013)

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