Translated material
Not just elections
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On September 18, Russia holds elections to the State Duma and regional legislative assemblies. We've published a compilation of different types of election-related harassment over the past two months. Here there are arrests of agitators (know-how of recent days: leaflets lying in backpacks and trunks can become grounds for charges of illegal campaigning), andattacks on parliamentary candidates , and the arrest of members of election commissions for ten days , and even the deprivation of a candidate immunity so that he could be fined for using pictures of politicians in campaigning.
In addition, on election day we join the monitoring of election violations carried out by the association of the largest associations of independent observers.
If you are detained or have other problems with security forces during the elections, call the multi-channel hotlines Violation Maps 7 (800) 333-33-50 or OVD-Info 7 (495) 374-66-75.
No freedom of assembly
Six people were detained in the center of Moscow for reading the Constitution out loud. One of the detainees was taken away in an ambulance. For five, including a candidate for deputy, protocols were drawn up for holding an event without filing a notification, and for another one - for repeated violation of the procedure for holding events.
For several days, members of the fire-fighting expedition of Greenpeace Russia and the Ecological Watch for the North Caucasus were detained; first they were detained in Adygea , then in the Krasnodar Territory , when they were going to a press conference to talk about how they became victims of a brutal attack . Later it became known that EcoWatch was recognized as a foreign agent.
In addition to oppositionists in elections and environmentalists putting out fires, Kuban farmers who dared to ride tractors to Moscow especially suffer. On September 13, they were not allowed to go to Ryazan for a conference of farmers and cargo carriers. And the next day they alsoattacked workers at farmer Nina Karpenko’s farm while harvesting.
Four activists campaigning for the return of social housing were detained for blocking Tverskaya Street in Moscow.
On Manezhnaya Square in Moscow, as a result of a provocation, two activists standing in single pickets were detained . One of them, Yuri Gorsky, was released immediately without a protocol, but Mark Galperin was left overnight and the next day he was arrested for five days .
Valery Tsaturov, a candidate for deputy of the Moscow Regional Duma, who was detained last week at a rally against police brutality, came to the Yakimanka police station two days after the incident, thinking that he would be taken from there to court. They actually took him to court, but before that they rewrote the protocol to a more severe part of the article, implying punishment up to and including arrest. However, the court sent the case materials back to the police department.
In St. Petersburg, city defenders were not allowed to hold the action “Rolling a Barrel to Smolny”; two activists were detained.
In the Orenburg region, a pastor who organized games and competitions for children was accused of organizing an uncoordinated event. A resident of this region was fined for organizing a concert in the courtyard of his house.
Other persecutions
The policecame to the home of the head of the Voice of Beslan organization, Ella Kesaeva, in her absence. Together with the police there were people who had previously attacked Kesaeva and Moscow journalists.
In St. Petersburg, an elderly activist was taken from a reception with the prosecutor to the police, and then to a psychiatric hospital: the prosecutor did not like the fact that Marina Machneva was filming him on her phone. The next day shewas released from the hospital , considering that she did not need treatment.
System
After the unswitched phone of detained Moscow region activist Yan Katelevsky allegedly recorded secret conversations between police and a judge discussing the possibility of various illegal actions - in particular, the theft of the protocol and the activist’s personal belongings - an inspection was carried out. Based on the results of the inspection, police officers from the Department of Internal Affairs of the city of Ramenskoye received reprimands .
What awaits us (18.09 – 24.09)
On September 20, the complaint of Kuban activist Daria Polyudova about the refusal of parole will be considered.
On the same day, trials on administrative cases of those on the waiting list who were on a hunger strike at the United Russia reception office are scheduled to take place in Moscow.