"Case of 12" - a case worth one and a half million

The state prosecution has requested fines totaling one and a half million rubles for activists of the St. Petersburg branch of The Other Russia, accused of continuing the activities of the banned NBP.

During the debate, prosecutor Nadezhda Filimonova re-listed the offenses charged against the other Russians and stated that the testimony given in court by defense witnesses contradicted the investigation materials and was therefore not significant. In particular, the prosecution does not trust the testimony of the applicants of the “Strategy-31” actions, Tamara Vedernikova and Andrei Pivovarov, on the basis that when the police detained all the National Bolsheviks, the action actually stopped, which means they were the organizers. And the prosecution stubbornly continues to call the incomprehensible banner on the black and white video a red flag of the NBP.

It is noteworthy that the prosecutor stated that the fight against extremism is currently one of the priorities of law enforcement agencies in the Russian Federation. She gave an example: the number of cases under anti-extremist articles, primarily 282.2, is constantly increasing.

The guilt of the defendants, according to the state prosecutor, was proven by evidence presented to the court, including interrogations of operatives, expert findings, testimony of “secret witnesses” and search records.

Filimonova stated that the defendants committed a crime of increased social danger, directed against the state constitutional system. She considers activists socially dangerous.

Proposing a punishment to the court, the state prosecutor noted that she could not ask for real sentences for the activists, since the crime they were charged with was a crime of minor gravity. Therefore, for those accused under the first part of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Organization of the activities of an extremist community") Andrei Dmitriev, Andrei Pesotsky and Alexei Marochkin, she requested fines in the amount of 250 thousand rubles. For those accused under the second part of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Participation in the activities of an extremist community") Andrei Milyuk, Roman Khrenov, Alexander Yashin and Ravil Bashirov, the prosecutor also requested fines, but in a smaller amount - 180 thousand rubles each.

During his speech, Gleb Lavrentyev, the defense attorney for the leader of the Drug Russians, Gleb Lavrentyev, noted numerous inconsistencies in the testimony of prosecution witnesses with the investigation materials; in addition, the lawyer drew the court’s attention to the fact that not a single “criminal episode” had been proven by the investigation. In his opinion, his client and the other defendants must be acquitted and the case closed for lack of corpus delicti.

Andrei Pesotsky's lawyer Olga Tseytlina again reminded the court that the alleged NBP meetings filmed on a hidden camera were in fact a police provocation. She cited the testimony given in court by Center “E” operative Dmitry Gryaznov, given by him before and after the announcement of the order he signed to search for suitable premises. The resolution itself generally speaks of “the need to artificially create a concentration of NBP members in one place.”

Tseitlina noted during her speech that if a guilty verdict is passed, this case could become not just resonant, but a dangerous precedent. “In the same way, it will be possible to condemn anyone - it will be enough to place a hidden camera in the kitchen and record who and how they scold the current government,” she said.

In turn, Pesotsky’s second lawyer, Sergei Golubok, in his speech, responding to the prosecutor’s remark that “the problems of the clients are that they don’t like the government and the party in power, and that’s the only reason they are being judged,” drew the analogy that socio-economic The problems and crisis that the defendants discussed at their meetings are going to be resolved by the state at their expense. Activists are encouraged to pay to solve the problems they dare to speak out about.

The next court hearing will take place on November 26 at 10:30 at the address: st. Tobolskaya, 10. The debate between the parties will continue, during which the remaining lawyers and defendants will speak.