Freedom of meetings in Russia, 2012

The State Duma has adopted the new legal initiative in the legislation and other legal initiatives of June to the bill to a bill on rallies that increases the fine for violation of the procedure for conducting mass measures. The maximum fine for an individual will amount to 300 thousand rubles or 200 hours of compulsory work, for an official - 600 thousand, for a legal entity - a million rubles. Such fines will be used if harm to someone else's health or property. All leading human rights organizations and experts consider these amendments to repressive tightening, criminalization of protest, which question the possibility of realizing the right to freedom of peaceful assemblies in Russia. Corresponding conclusions were drawn up. Thus, the chairman of the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation on Human Rights M. Fedotov sent a letter to the S. Naryshkin State Duma S. Naryshkin, which is proposed to return the bill on rallies to the first reading. After this, in a number of regions of the Russian Federation, they began to develop and adopt regional laws clarifying places for public events, the number, etc. Such laws are adopted in Tatarstan and Chuvashia, Yekaterinburg, Voronezh, Kostroma, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Kirov, Irkutsk regions. The list of regions is growing all the time. Almost everywhere pickets are prohibited near "railway stations and platforms, bus and river stations, airports. It is also impossible to picket closer than 50 meters from buildings occupied by state authorities, courts, prosecutors, consulates, educational institutions, healthcare, and religious structures. ” Also, markets, shopping and entertainment centers, sports complexes are included in the lists of prohibited places. Realization of the right to freedom of assembly of a scholarship of the subject to change the form of public events on April of the North-West Administrative District of Moscow refused the Yabloko party to coordinate the march on Ostankino. The authorities proposed the opposition to limit themselves to a rally involving no more than 200 people, despite the fact that the application of Yabloko submitted 5,000 participants. “The Yabloko party agreed to a rally on April 14, but does not intend to limit the number of its participants,” the party said in a report on changing the place and/or time of Joints of January, the authorities of St. Petersburg refused to agree on the opposition’s application for the holding of the march for honest elections on Nevsky Prospekt. The refusal is motivated by the fact that “in many places of Nevsky Prospekt on this day, repair and construction work will be carried out.” In Voronezh, the initiative group of citizens instead of march on February 4 on the central street of the city was proposed to arrange a rally on a low -level area near the reservoir. At the same time, on January 21, the city administration agreed on the procession of the Communists on the same route by blocking one half of the Revolution Avenue. Fertile to hold public events of Kozlovsky (defense movement) in June received a notification of public event in the CAO of Moscow. The stated action was prohibited due to the fact that the organizers over the past year were brought to administrative responsibility under Articles 19.3 and 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. In July, the Office of the Ministry of Justice of Russia in the Primorsky Territory issued a warning about the inadmissibility of violation of the legislation on rallies by the Kazyan Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of the Primorsky Territory. Violations are mass prayers and Muslim meetings on the street. INCOLUTED DDT concerts in the regions were canceled under the pressure of local authorities. About this on the website of the group was written by Yuri Shevchuk. In particular, he spoke about the abolition of concerts in Kemerovo and Ugra, where the tickets were “actually sold out”. “In Tyumen, there was no hall for us at all. In Omsk, some local minister also forbade the concert halls to hold our “desperate show,” the report said. Shevchuk clarified that all the instructions and orders were given to dodging officials by phone, so even not to sue them. The holding of public limits on January19 in Moscow and a number of other cities of Russia and the world were held by the memory of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova. The Moscow procession has become the most numerous. According to the Summary of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, 600-800 people took part in the action (according to other estimates, more than 1000). This figure exceeded the number of participants, declared in the notification, therefore the organizers of the action were invited to the police to bring to administrative responsibility. Prevention of public events to prevent mass events is used to especially mass or undesirable actions by detaining organizers or main speakers. So, a few days before the Millions Millions, appointed on May 6, the Nizhny Novgorod activists began to come from district offers to refrain from traveling to Moscow to participate in “unauthorized” public events. In Ufa, the police arrested nine activists who were waiting for the train departure to Moscow. The detainees were taken to the Soviet Department of Internal Affairs. As one of the activists noted, detention was carried out without explanation. Among the detainees was a minor girl. In Moscow, six activists were detained, distributing invitations to the “Million March”. On May 4, the Moscow City Hall officially confirmed the approval of the Millions Marshm of Millions. The May evacuation of the station in Ufa was a gross case. “About 20 minutes before the arrival of the Astana-Moscow train, the general evacuation of the station was announced. They completely withdrew all of them from the station, the police drove up, the station and the platform were completely cordoned off, they didn’t let anyone in, ”said the interlocutor of the newspaper. Ru ”, who wished to remain unnamed. After the announcement of the evacuation, the police detained ten people in the territory near the station - six oppositionists gathered in Moscow and four activists who came to hold them. On the street, several people approached the opposition and began to provoke them into conflict. Problems with ensuring the security of the participants of the promotions of folk unity, November 4, in Moscow, nationalists beat several people at the Dostoevskaya metro station, while upstairs, on Suvorovskaya Square, a rally was held in support of activists of the anti -fascist movement. The Nazis rushed at people, chanting: "Kill!" According to the activist of the Russian socialist movement I. Magkoeva, one of the victims, V. Kuzmin, the attackers pushed on the rails. Three people were defeated by the heads and persons. On May 6, the Million Millions agreed with the Moscow authorities ended with clashes with the police, as a result of which about 30 law enforcement officials were injured. On the same day, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case for calls for riots and the use of violence against representatives of the authorities. The number of accused exceeded two dozen, and the witnesses-for 300. The first, on May 27, was detained by 18-year-old Alexander Dukhanin, which the court placed under house arrest. She was charged with part 2 of Article 212 (participation in the riots) and under Part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (the application of violence to a representative of the authorities). On October 19, one of the activists of the “Left Front” Leonid Razvozhaev was stolen in Kyiv. This case can be safely called the quintessence of violations of the right to freedom of assembly and the beginning of a new wave of political repression. The rejection of public events on February 21 on the CEC of Russia was the next protest rally under the slogan “Stop dictatorship!”. The action lasted no more than five minutes. Activists went out in groups of several people and chanted slogans. Then they scattered leaflets and lit several fires. After that, law enforcement officers began to detain the participants in the action and plant their police buses. In total, according to the organizers of the action, 25 out of 30 participants were detained. The State Duma on June 5 detained several dozen people who opposed amendments to the Assembly Law. The detainees were released from the Presnenskoye ATS without drawing up protocols. Remembering the measures carried out with notification of the authorities; The detention of the participants in June, the procession of the opposition in St. Petersburg was stopped for violation of the regulations. The event was supposed to end at 16.00, and lasted 15 minutes longer. In this regard, two organizers were detained. On June 20, at least five people detained at least five people for promotions in support of the arrested Pussy Riot participants. Eyewitnesses note that they detained participants with whistles. About 200 people gathered near the building of the Tagansky District Court of Moscow. The Twitter of the War Art Group says that 300 people took part in the action. The rejection of events that did not require notification to the authorities on February 115 Law enforcement agencies of Moscow stopped trying about 300 residents of the capital to celebrate St. Valentine's Day, launching heavenly lanterns in the Victory Park at 21.00. The festive flash mob of lovers was organized by participants in the VKontakte social network. At the appointed time and place, about 300 people came and began to prepare the heavenly flashlights brought with them to launch. However, police officers intervened in the process who announced through the loudspeaker that lanterns are prohibited. The police motivated the ban by fire safety requirements, although there were at least 700 meters to the nearest building. On the same day, Barnaul’s authorities banned the toy rally. The city administration decided that the toys could not participate in the rally on their own. The organizers intended to put up about 250 men from the Lego and Kinder Surprise designer on the city center Square in the city center with posters against violations of electoral legislation. The organizers were stated that the action could not be agreed “due to the confusion of the law regulating rallies”, in addition, toys are equated with campaign materials and cannot be considered participants in the rally. The use of the force upon termination of March10 in Nizhny Novgorod The Police and OMON brutally dispersed the peaceful processing of citizens who protested against the massive electorals Braudes. Of the approximately 100 participants, 85 were detained, and at least one was hospitalized in a neurotraumatological department with a diagnosis of a concussion. Power acceleration and mass detentions were carried out despite the fact that there were no violent actions, calls for violence and other real violations of public order from the manifestants. The city administration ignored the obligation to negotiate with the organizers of the procession, which prescribes the federal law. The defense of shares on March 5 in Moscow and St. Petersburg was held using special equipment. The participants were subjected to beatings during the detention and in police branches. At least 258 people were detained in Moscow, up to 500 in St. Petersburg. According to the ATS-Info, from December 4, 2011 to March 9, 2012, only 1756 people were detained in Moscow, most of them were sentenced to administrative arrests and fines. For three months, the police detained people who participated in coordinated rallies, political actions, single pickets and flash mobs. Activists who distributed political literature and stuck leaflets were delayed. After March 5, the detention of people who wear a white tape on their clothes began. Detention was carried out using gross force by violation of procedural norms. Many cases of beating detained on buses were recorded, and from March 5 - in police branches. The norm of steel: prevention of lawyers, defenders and presses to the detainees; refusals to call for ambulance detained; violations of sanitary standards in cells for detainees in administrative order; Violations related to food and sleeping places. In February, Vera Lavreshina and Nadezhda Nizovkin were forced to be forcibly placed in a psychiatric hospital. On March 5–7, the detainees were carried out in the Zamoskvorechy police department, in particular Tatyana Kadieva, as a result of the beating, was hospitalized in the neurosurgery department. During the sylofial acceleration of protesters after the end of the rally on March 5 on Pushkinskaya Square and the shares on the Lubyanskaya Square, electric skiers and pain techniques were used - several people turned into emergency rooms with hand fractures and brain concussions. On March 5, the detainees were subjected to many hours of torture in buses filled with exhaust gases. Protection is right to the freedom of assembly by the courts of the RFODINA from the organizers of the rallies “For honest elections”, 22-year-old resident of Voronezh Nina Belyaeva became a person who was a member of the administrative case of violation of agitation rules. According to the deputy chairman of the election commission of V. Cherepukhin, Belyaeva posted on her page on the VKontakte social network there are messages that contain “signs of election campaigning in the form of obvious repeated calls to vote against the registered candidate for the position of President of the Russian Federation Putin V.V.”. As a result, Belyaev was fully justified. The Novokhopersky District Court recognized the decision of the justice of the peace of the judicial section No. 2 of the Novokhopersky district of the Voronezh region, who was fined the young man for the publication of the message on his VKontakte wall. In August, Alexei Kovtun informed his friends on the social network on the arrival of the regional governor A. Gordeev. The publication indicated neither the place nor the time of the meeting of the governor with the residents of the city, since Gordeev did not have this information. The meeting was calm, with the exception of the cries "Shame!" to the head of the region. Five days later, real repressions began in the city. They came home to the meeting participants, demanded to sign a confession in an offense. The magistrate court fined four “participants” for 10,000 rubles each, and the “organizer”-the author of the VKontakte recording-for 20,000 rubles. In the European Court of Human Rights, the Russian authorities asked the Russian authorities to explain how, with the decision in the Alekseev case against Russia, the laws on the damage to gay propaganda were correlated. At a meeting on June 6, members of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which is the body to control the execution of decisions issued by the European Court of Rights, noted that since the court’s decision was made, the applicant had no opportunity to organize the procession of gay prides in Moscow, and called for the Russian authorities to provide detailed information about the causes of this. A complaint about the actions of the police during the action on Bolotnaya Square on May 6. The complaint claims that employees acted unjustifiably strictly: “Police officers beat people for no obvious reasons. Most likely, they proceeded from the order of the leadership of the brutal dispersal of a peaceful action, as well as guided by sadistic inclinations. "There are no longer ready to recognize the right to freedom of assembly from local to the leadership of the country, which was finally approved by the adoption of amendments to the law on rallies and the so-called swamp business. This will be followed by a series of legislative restrictions on the right to protest in regions that continue indicative detentions and beatings of participants in peaceful shares. The courts participate in the falsification of administrative cases, appointing disornse fines to participants and organizers. All this is radically protested, convinces citizens of the futility of submitting notifications that will still be “not agreed”, and strengthens the already significant distrust of the courts. In the framework of the “swamp business” against participants and organizers, the whole spectrum was used both traditional violations of legislation and international obligations and new elements (abduction, searches, etc.). For the entire post -Soviet period, there were no worst conditions for the exercise of the right to freedom of assembly. The analogy can only be drawn with the period of military operations in Moscow in 1993 and with the situation with freedom of assembly in the North Caucasus. © Moscow Helsinki Group: Human Rights in the Russian Federation, Collection of reports on events in 2012 also read: Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights: Freedom of Assembly, 2012 God also read: Annual Report of the ATS-INFO: a person from autzak-a politician of detention in Moscow read also: weekly Digests of the OTD-Info for freedom of assembly