Ex-advocates Pussy Riot will answer the media through the courts

Former Pussy Riot lawyers filed a lawsuit in the Tver court of the Kommersant newspaper and lawyer Irina Khrunova, who now protects the interests of the punk group. The reason for applying to the court-the article " Punk-Moleben came to Strasbourg ." In it, Khrunova’s lawyer claims that Pussy Riot will not be able to appeal the decision to arrest the ECHR, since at one time Feigin, Polozov and Volkov submitted all the documents. Lawyers demand that Kommersant delete the article, publish a refutation and pay them material compensation - 500 thousand rubles to each. In addition, they also want to receive compensation from Khrunova - 50 thousand rubles to each. The Kommersant Publishing House said that they had not yet received any lawsuit. Publicpost asked lawyers Mark Feigin, Nikolai Polozov and the author of the article Grigory Tumanov to comment on the situation.

Nikolai Polozov, lawyer:

"In this article (" Punk-Moleben came to Strasbourg "-approx. Ed.) The opinion of the lawyer Khrunova is given. In particular, it was indicated that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina will not be able to complain about the fact that the former team tried to file a complaint with the European court, but did this incorrectly. And the second-that Tolokonnikova and Alekhina were not They can count on the recognition of the arrest illegal, which will affect the amount of their compensation, because I, Mark Feigin and Nikolai Polozov, filed a preliminary complaint with the ECHR, but additional documents were allegedly written, besides, it was written there that the girls refused due to the conflict around the Pussy Riot brand and discontenting the quality of the services. On our business reputation. "

Mark Feigin, lawyer:

“The lawsuit is already in the Tver court, at the place of the legal address of the Kommersant newspaper. This is the first lawsuit in a series of other lawsuits. It has been filed with the Kommersant newspaper and now to Irina Khrunova about the article“ Punk-Moleben came to Strasbourg. ”The information that defeated our honor and business reputation that set forth there is not relevant. We could avoid claims and trials if the editorial board of Kommersant, to which I turned in the person of its chief editor, responded at least some desire to meet and give materials, or refuting, or explaining our position, nothing of this has happened. To be.

- And to whom will the next claims be?

I will not tell you this. You know, we still need to make a living. Here you also need to see what mainstream publications in this campaign against us were. They were in Kommersant, in a number of publications. We do not know, maybe the Kommersant will take and go with us to a settlement or to negotiations in court.

- That is, the claims will be to the media?

Yes, to publications that published not only inaccurate, but also false slanderous topics against me, Violetta Volkova and Nikolai Polozova. And equal to those people who distributed this information through the media. In this case, here is Khrunov. Why did she say all this? She will have to explain.

- Did you try to talk with Khrunova itself?

Neither the newspaper contacted us, nor Khrunova herself wanted to contact us. We are convinced that it was a custom campaign. These are the consequences of our active and in many ways successful from the point of view of publicity of work in the Pussy Riot. That's how we were avenged by trying to destroy our reputations, accusing us of the most incredible crimes. We tried to object through the media, somehow it was unconvincing. As we know, all this acts according to the law of the genre. In this genre, the media has a big handicap: because they can write, but they may not refute. But in the genre of the court, we will conditionally call us, it’s easier, more comfortable for us. I hope that the owner of the publication Alisher Usmanov, seeing how the situation is formed, which will seriously affect the publication of the publication, there in his media holding there will be some decisions. Because he should work out: whether there are really custom, paid or politically custom materials. This is the task of the purity of the publication, this must be done. ”

Grigory Tumanov, Kommersant correspondent, author of the article "Punk-Moleben came to Strasbourg":

“If lawyers consider it necessary to do this, even if they, of course, do this. Our legal service has not yet seen this claim. Documentary confirmations of what is written in the article, yes, they are. I remember that Irina Khrunova’s comment, which said that the previous complaint was submitted incorrectly. But this is all very simply established.

- Mark Feigin said that they tried to contact you about the publication.

Nobody called me, but Mark Feigin sent a very lengthy letter. We only realized from him that Mark Feigin was very offended. I do not presume to judge the purely human adequacy of Mark Zakharovich, but there was such a letter, yes . I just don't want to slide into some insults, especially since it is not very beautiful. But for our notes in Kommersant we are responsible.