They want to prosecute city officials

The United Political Coalition of the Ulyanovsk Region demands that a criminal case be opened against officials of the Ulyanovsk administration, who, in their opinion, deliberately prevented the holding of a picket in defense of Article 31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Officials say they acted within the law, but human rights activists claim that the city administration violated a number of legal requirements. Political scientists believe that officials, due to their fear, are creating new problems for themselves.

Today, the United Political Coalition of the Ulyanovsk Region (UPK, which includes representatives of the extra-parliamentary opposition) plans to send a statement by mail to the head of the ICR, Alexander Bastrykin, demanding that a criminal case be opened against officials of the Ulyanovsk administration on the grounds of a crime under Article 149 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Obstruction of holding a meeting, rally, demonstration, procession, picketing or participating in them, punishment - up to 3 years in prison"). Appeals of similar content will also be sent to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The reason for the statement was the disruption of a picket in defense of Article 31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which proclaims freedom of assembly (“Pickets and rallies within the framework of the all-Russian movement “Strategy-31” have been held in Russian cities regularly since 2009, every 31st day of every month in which there is such number").

As co-chairman of the OPK Konstantin Troshin explained to Kommersant, such actions were held in Ulyanovsk regularly, but previously there were no problems, since “officials understood that the action was all-Russian, and it would be stupid to interfere with it.” Now, according to him, notice of the picket was submitted four days in advance, in this case, if there are obstacles to holding the action, a representative of the administration is obliged to notify the applicant about this on the same day and offer another location. There was no objection and the notice was registered. But the next day, the head of the department for work with law enforcement agencies and public associations of the Ulyanovsk administration, Agalar Nurov, without providing an official refusal, informed the applicant Viktor Gus that holding a picket was impossible, “since an event of the youth affairs committee was planned in Goncharov’s park.” “We called the committee, and it turned out that it was not carrying out anything,” explained the organizers. Based on this, believing that a registered notification is sufficient if there is no official refusal, they came to Goncharov Square on August 31 and saw that “with a large concentration of police and the absence of visitors, several trays with books were placed there and some kind of presentation of city libraries was being held.” According to Mr. Troshin, Agalar Nurov was there, but did not tell the picketers anything, and handed Viktor Gusev a written refusal from the administration only after his demand, “and even with the use of offensive phrases.” Mr. Troshin considers the actions of officials “planned”, and the library action “an urgently invented event.” The coalition believes that “the officials violated a number of articles of Law No. 54-FZ of June 19, 2004 and should be criminally punished.”

Agalar Nurov, on the contrary, claims that he acted “in full compliance with the law,” “which requires notification within 3 days” that “holding two events on the same site is prohibited,” and the “Living Library” event in Goncharov Square was scheduled for August 24, which was announced by the Department of Culture in a letter, citing requests from readers, “since Karamzin Square cannot accommodate everyone who does it.” The organizers of the “Living Library” told Kommersant that there was enough space in the Karamzin park, and they did not ask for anything, and one of the participants in the library event in the Goncharov park admitted that “it was announced to the employees completely unexpectedly.”

The head of the interregional human rights organization “Legal Foundation,” Igor Kornilov, believes that Mr. Nurov’s answers “show that officials do not know the law,” “the statement that there are three days to respond indicates that Nurov did not read the law,” and “a letter from culture” could have been made “retroactively”, because “there is no information about the event in Goncharov Square on any website of the cultural departments of Ulyanovsk and the region, and the investigation could simply prove this.” Mr. Kornilov is confident that the actions of city administration officials have all the signs of a crime under Article 149 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Sergey Titov, Ulyanovsk

The opposition was thwarted by books