Favorite Enemies

Left Front activists Sergei Udaltsov and Konstantin Kosyakin were the only ones detained for the July 31 action in Moscow who stayed overnight at the police station. On August 1, Udaltsov was sentenced to 15 days of arrest, Kosyakin to five, both for allegedly disobeying the legal demands of police officers. Udaltsov went on a hunger strike.

According to the Left Front website, the judge of court district No. 423 of the Tverskoy district, Sergei Komlev, rejected all requests from Udaltsov’s defense lawyer, including the possibility of calling defense witnesses to court. In the middle of the trial, the judge stated that the defense attorney had no right to file motions based on newly discovered circumstances, and did not even consider some of the motions.

As usual, the prosecution witnesses in the cases of Udaltsov and Kosyakin were the police officers who detained them. Their reports, again as usual, were almost identical, but the name of one of them was spelled incorrectly, and even the judge noticed this. The Left Front website reports that when witnesses were asked which demand Udaltsov refused to comply with, they stated that he should have given the order to the crowd to stop the march. They say he speaks at rallies and has a loud voice, so he has the right to order people. The court ignored Udaltsov’s argument that he was not even the applicant for the action. Kosyakin was one, but received a shorter sentence. The judge considered that Udaltsov deserved 15 days, since he was repeatedly brought to justice, but did not correct himself. Kosyakin was given five days, taking into account his advanced age, but not taking into account the second group of disability, which does not give the right to administrative arrest.