Disabled person? Well, go for it...

The scandalous story involving wheelchair user Alexander Mokin from Yekaterinburg, who was not allowed into one of the local restaurants, received a completely unexpected continuation. Sympathetic townspeople boycotted the establishment, as a result of which it went bankrupt, and Mokin managed to sue the owners for 100 thousand rubles.

Spoiled holiday

Yekaterinburg resident Sasha Mokin has been confined to a wheelchair for three years. He received a spinal injury accidentally. Being an avid fisherman, Alexander often went with friends to the Beloyarskoe reservoir in the Sverdlovsk region. It was hot, I decided to take a swim and, not noticing that the reservoir had become fairly shallow, dove headfirst off the pier...

“I don’t know whether I will ever walk,” says Sasha. – Doctors do not give accurate forecasts. They say God will decide.

Before his injury, Mokin worked as a children's products manager. Now he, like most Russian wheelchair users, spends most of his time at home. He has a wife, Larisa, and a 6-year-old daughter, Anya. In April, Sasha turned 27 years old, and he decided to have a celebration at a restaurant.

“I chose the Gallery restaurant because there used to be a nightclub in this building without steep stairs, which was convenient for wheelchair access,” explains Sasha. – Before my birthday, I booked a table at a restaurant. I even checked with the managers whether there was enough space for a person in a wheelchair. They answered: “Everything will be fine, come.”

On the appointed day, all of Sasha’s friends came to the restaurant, a large company gathered. Security allowed everyone inside. Except for the birthday boy. A scandal broke out and the art director of the restaurant came out. Looking at Sasha with a contemptuous look, she said: “How do you present yourself in a restaurant? You will confuse our visitors."

Nobody cares

For half an hour, Sasha and the art director sorted things out in front of the closed doors of the restaurant. According to the guy, the girl communicated offensively, and at the end of the conversation she even said: “Complain wherever you want - I don’t give a damn.”

“The holiday was ruined,” Sasha sighs. “I wrote a statement in their complaint book, then waited an hour for the art director to bring us a piece of paper with the restaurant’s details. She brought some handwritten scribbles.

By the way, this is not the first time Mokin has encountered such rudeness. Last December, he booked a table at another restaurant, but upon arrival the picture was the same: “You can’t, you’ll scare the visitors.” At that time, he complained to the electronic reception of the regional governor, after which the director of the establishment called the disabled person, invited him to an amicable conversation and apologized for his employees. But there was no apology from the Gallery. Fearing that history would repeat itself a third time, Sasha turned to the prosecutor's office.

“My goal is to show that a disabled person is also a person,” says Sasha. – I filed a claim for compensation for moral damage, although I don’t really need the money itself. This is the principle.

Sudden bankruptcy

Ekaterinburg residents, having read about Sasha’s story on his blog, wrote indignantly that they would stop visiting the restaurant. The local wheelchair society even staged a picket at the entrance to the ill-fated establishment.

– I read on the forums: “Well done, fight. We won’t set foot in the “Gallery,” says Sasha. “But I can’t confirm for sure whether there was a boycott.” After all, Yekaterinburg has more than a million residents.

Sasha saw on the news how the assistant director explained that it was a misunderstanding, that the administration was preparing a letter of apology. But no one called him personally. And a couple of weeks after the scandal, the restaurant closed completely.

A bankruptcy sign appeared on the door. Letters from the prosecutor's office and Rospotrebnadzor began to arrive: they could not get into the establishment either at the actual or legal address.

“The restaurant tried to evade responsibility in this way,” explains State Duma deputy Vladimir Burmatov, to whom Sasha turned for help. – I met with the ex-governor of the Sverdlovsk region Misharin and asked to help the guy. Only then did the prosecutor's office move.

According to the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Sverdlovsk Region, Tatyana Merzlyakova, the administration of the establishment violated the requirements of Article 426 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation on a public contract.

“The organization must provide catering services to everyone who contacts it, regardless of what he looks like,” she explained. – In addition, in Russian legislation the concept of “face control” is completely absent.

Until the thunder strikes

As the investigation later found out, the restaurant legally exists; according to the extract from the tax office, it is not bankrupt and is listed as an active person. In July, a trial finally took place in the Ordzhonikidze District Court of Yekaterinburg in the Mokin case. None of the restaurant representatives came to the process. The court decided to recover compensation for moral damage in the amount of 100,000 rubles from the company that owns the restaurant, Alexandra LLC. “As much as I asked for, they awarded me as much,” notes Sasha.

“He will be able to receive compensation in two months, after the bailiffs impose penalties on the restaurant’s accounts,” notes Mokin’s lawyer Anna Demeneva.

According to Burmatov, the amount, although not small, can hardly be exhaustive for such an unpleasant incident.

“Everyone assesses moral costs in their own way,” he believes. – But I worked with people with disabilities in 2008–2010 and saw enough horror. Disabled people often find themselves in situations where both society and officials turn away from them. In the case of Mokin, I myself did not expect such a happy ending...

It was not possible to get any comments from the restaurant management. But Alexander decided to celebrate the holidays only at home.

“It’s nice that everything ended like this, but it’s a pity that the authorities remember us only after scandals,” Sasha sighs. – Look at the streets of any Russian city - there is not a single wheelchair user. What can we say about protecting the rights of people with disabilities, about the courts, if we don’t even have the banal opportunity to leave the house.

Precedents

All life is a struggle

In May 2012, employees of the Yekaterinburg branch of VTB24 bank refused to issue a previously approved loan for a car to wheelchair user Andrei Sychev, seeing that he was confined to a chair. According to the bank, the reason for the refusal was the excessive caution of their employee: it seemed to her that the people accompanying the disabled person were using him to get money. Later, VTB24 formally apologized to Sychev and offered a loan on more favorable terms.

In April 2012, autistic children were not allowed into the Moscow Oceanarium. The director cited the pity that disabled people would cause among visitors as the reason. He suggested that the group come on a sanitary day so that no one would see them.

The management of the aquarium was warned in advance about the arrival of children; initially they agreed, but later for some reason they changed their mind.

In 2008, a flight attendant at S7 Airlines (Siberia) did not allow Muscovite Natalya Prisetskaya in a wheelchair to board the plane. The flight attendant explained her decision by saying that the passenger was unaccompanied.

Then Prisetskaya won the case, receiving compensation in the amount of 50 thousand rubles from the company.

Opinion

Chairman of the public organization “All-Russian Society of Disabled Persons” Alexander Lomakin-Rumyantsev:

– I was once not allowed into a casino in Minsk, but because I was without a tie, and not because I was in a wheelchair. I haven’t encountered any egregious situations like Alexander’s. Most likely, not because they do not happen, but because a disabled person’s pension does not allow him to “go out” often... I am not surprised that Mokin won the case - while the courts still more often side with the disabled. Another thing is that disabled people themselves practically do not go there. They are afraid that they will be deprived of benefits and do not hope for results.

Photo from the family album of Alexander Mokin