Chronicle of current events

September 2–6

Mikhail Kosenko learned about the death of his mother in jail

September 2, Monday

“There are no political prisoners in Russia,” said State Duma chairman Sergei Naryshkin, answering the question of an eleventh grader in an open lesson in the Logos gymnasium in Dmitrov near Moscow . “This term is used by individual citizens for political purposes,” Naryshkin explained to the gymnasium students. An open lesson was dedicated to the Constitution of Russia.

The Khabarovsk City Education Department demanded that the director of secondary school No. 32 of the city of Khabarovsk dismiss the teacher Alexander Ermoshkin for the fact that he is gay and LGBT activist. The decision to dismiss from school has not yet been made, but Yermoshkin was fired from the Far Eastern University, where he taught at the Department of Biology and Geography.

September 4, Wednesday

The chairman of the Moscow Helsinki group Lyudmila Alekseev, the chairman of the “For Human Rights” movement Lev Ponomarev and the chairman of the Civil Promotion Committee Svetlana Gannushkin refused to participate in a meeting with the American President Barack Obama in St. Petersburg. They explained their refusal by the fact that they could not agree on their schedule. Svetlana Gannushkina turned to President Obama with an open letter, in which she asked him to refuse to conduct a military operation in Syria.

September 5, Thursday

Lawyer Svetlana Ratnikova was detained at a court meeting in the case of an activist of the Group "War" Igor Chepkasov. Ratnikov was accused of conducting a video of the process on the iPhone. She faces 15 days of administrative arrest for the "non -fulfillment of the order of the judge."

September 6, Friday

The lawyers of Mikhail Kosenko, defendant in the “Swamp case”, appealed to the Zamoskvoretsky court of Moscow with a request to allow Kosenko to attend his mother’s funeral. The press secretary of the Moscow City Court Anna Usacheva told The New Times that there is no norm in the Code of Criminal Procedure that would allow the court to release the accused to the funeral. This requires the petition of the investigator. The press secretary of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Vladimir Markin told The New Times that, since the investigation is completed, only the court can decide to change the accused preventive measure. Kosenko’s mother has not seen her son for more than a year - since his arrest.

Photo: Valery Sharifulin/ITAR TASS