He sat down, but did not sit

One of the most discussed acts of the now legendary judge Olga Borovkova, who sentenced Boris Nemtsov, Konstantin Kosyakin, Vladimir Tor and Ilya Yashin to various prison terms in connection with the December 31 protests on January 2, was her refusal to give Nemtsov a chair. However, on January 13, the day after the Tver court recognized Nemtsov’s sentence as legal, court spokeswoman Alexandra Berezina told the Russian Legal and Judicial Information Agency that Nemtsov himself refused the chair.

“Before the start of the meeting to consider the material on the administrative offense against Nemtsov, the question of a chair for the accused was actually raised. The judge invited Nemtsov to take a chair, but he ignored this offer and, of his own free will, participated in the court hearing while standing. This was his expression of will, and the court does not have the competence to force the accused to sit on a chair,” the agency quotes Berezina as saying. In the protocol of Nemtsov’s case, the incident with the chair was not noted at all. It is also reported that the defense did not make any requests for a chair.