To the slanderers of United Russia

Precedent: the law on libel, which came into force on August 10, adopted by the party in power to combat the independent press and bloggers, will be tested for the first time on a high-ranking United Russia member. It is under the article of libel that the chairman of the executive committee of the Chelyabinsk regional branch of United Russia, Alexander Motovilov, faces criminal prosecution and punishment.

Today, a deputy of the legislative assembly of the Chelyabinsk region of the 4th convocation, a well-known businessman Valery Aleshkin, who left the United Russia party a week ago, submitted to the Chelyabinsk Internal Affairs Directorate an application to initiate a criminal case against the chairman of the regional executive committee of this party, Alexander Motovilov. In it, Aleshkin asks “to verify the circumstances specified in this statement in accordance with Article 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, and to initiate a criminal case against Alexander Alexandrovich Motovilov based on the fact of dissemination in a statement posted on the official website of the Chelyabinsk regional branch of the United Russia party,” slanderous information under Part 2 of Article 1281 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.”

Let me remind you that on August 15, the owner of the Uralkhimsbyt company, the Metro-74 newspaper and a number of other enterprises, Valery Aleshkin, submitted his statement of resignation from the party to the Kurchatov branch of United Russia, and on the evening of August 17, A.’s statement was disseminated in the media. Motovilov that Aleshkin was allegedly expelled from the party earlier ( details of the story ).

It is clear that for the regional “United Russia” and Motovilov personally, the fact of a public break with the party of not the last entrepreneur in the region (despite the fact that Aleshkin was nominated for by-elections to the City Duma) is a severe blow to his political reputation in the eyes of the Moscow authorities. This is precisely where the awkward attempt to justify himself by “retroactively” expelling the businessman from the party comes from.

Aleshkin immediately called this statement from United Russia a “blatant lie”, and Motovilov himself a “liar”, and promised him legal and criminal prosecution. Today he fulfilled his threat: simultaneously with the statement to the Internal Affairs Directorate, a similar claim for the protection of honor and dignity was submitted to the Soviet Court of Chelyabinsk.

Valery Aleshkin’s lawsuit states, in particular:

“The decision to leave United Russia was made by me out of inner conviction, independently and was not associated with any external influences from third parties.

However, on August 17, 2012, on the official website of the Chelyabinsk regional branch of the United Russia party, a statement was posted by the head of the Regional Executive Committee of the party, Alexander Alexandrovich Motovilov, about the process of my leaving the party.

Valery Aleshkin insists in his lawsuit that “the information provided by Motovilov in the above statement is slander - deliberately false information that discredits my honor and dignity and undermines my reputation.

The Chelyabinsk regional branch of the United Russia party did not make any decisions to refuse to support me in the by-elections to the Chelyabinsk City Duma. It wasn’t accepted simply because I didn’t ask for such support. And Alexander Motovilov, as the head of the regional executive committee of the party, is well aware of this. The decision to participate in the by-elections to the Chelyabinsk City Duma as a self-nominated candidate was made by me long before submitting my application to leave the party and regardless of my affiliation with this party.

I did not receive any proposal to “leave the ranks of the party of my own free will” from the Chelyabinsk regional branch of the party.

There was not and could not be any hypothetical decision of the party branch to “leave me from the party,” which Motovilov speaks of in his statement as existing even before submitting my application to the local branch to leave.

Leaving the party is an independent voluntary action of the party member himself. The regional branch may decide to expel a specific member from the party, but the procedure for its adoption is strictly regulated by the party charter. And in my regard it was definitely not accepted.

Motovilov’s statement about my “constant participation in criminal cases, which negatively affect the entire regional branch of the party,” also has no connection with reality. I don’t know what exactly Motovilov meant by “constant participation in criminal cases,” but during the period of my membership in United Russia, I did not appear in a single criminal case, not only as a suspect, but also as a witness.

....At the same time, slanderous information about me and about the circumstances of my exit from the United Russia party was disseminated publicly by Motovilov, on the official website of the regional branch of the party on the Internet.

Responsibility for the dissemination of this information is established by Part 2 of Article 1281 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Slander”, which came into force on August 10, 2012.”

What could happen to Mr. Motovilov if Valery Aleshkin’s application is granted? The most severe punishment under this article is a fine of 5 million rubles or compulsory labor for up to 480 hours. For a start it’s not bad at all. The Southern Urals will become famous for its precedent: the first high-ranking United Russia member in Russia to be sentenced to a real prison term for a political crime.