Victory of the “power wing”: Moscow’s POC headed by Anton Tsvetkov

Scandals accompanied the formation of the new PMC. As a result of the selection carried out by the Council of the Public Chamber, out of 40 members of the PMC, 17 people represent the human rights community (primarily, these are those members of the PMC of previous convocations who actively visited pre-trial detention centers, special detention centers and police departments of Moscow recently), the rest - the so-called “power wing" - it, in particular, included representatives of the organization "Officers of Russia" led by its chairman Anton Tsvetkov and other organizations that protect the interests of military personnel - and sympathizers. Tsvetkov, who was also a member of the previous POC and tried to become its chairman even then (as the now former chairman of the POC Valery Borshchev recalls , Tsvetkov negotiated with him by inviting him into his car), accused representatives of the human rights wing of visiting only political prisoners and take money for transfer from a pre-trial detention center to a hospital.

The meeting on November 18 was also immediately preceded by a scandal: Tsvetkov said on Twitter that an agreement had already been reached that the meeting would be held in the building of the Public Chamber, and then the address of the office of Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin was sent out, and accused his colleagues of provocation. At first, Tsvetkov refused to be nominated as chairman and proposed Andrei Babushkin as chairman of the Committee for Civil Rights, but he refused, saying that Borshchev should remain chairman. Tsvetkov then put forward the candidacy of his fellow Officers of Russia member, member of the Public Chamber Dmitry Galochkin, but over the past weekend he thought about it and decided to run himself. Representatives of the human rights wing supported Borshchev, whom new members of the Public Monitoring Committee and representatives of the Gulagu.net website accused of working ineffectively and not providing the public with reports on his activities (the head of Gulagu.net, Vladimir Osechkin, who supports Tsvetkov, even sent letters to the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow and the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service for Moscow with questions about the activities of the PSC of the second convocation).

As Andrei Babushkin told OVD-Info , from the very beginning of the meeting a problem arose with the press: “We said that first we had to make a decision on the admission of the press, but Galochkin, as a member of the Public Chamber, taking advantage of his status, led the press directly into the hall " Representatives of the “security wing,” according to Babushkin, prevented the Commissioner for Human Rights in Moscow, Alexander Muzykantsky, from conducting the meeting. Then a newly-minted member of the PMC, a former member of the LDPR, leader of the international youth community “DVIZH” Pavel Pyatnitsky, known for his scandalous behavior , began to insult Muzykantsky and Lukin on Twitter (later, however, he wrote that he was mistaken about them: they, they say, “They also, in their own way, advocate for public control”). There was a discussion about the regulations for a very long time; as a result, the regulations of the previous convocation were adopted, although, according to Babushkin, they were morally outdated. A working group was created to bring the regulations to fruition, and Babushkin was elected chairman. The atmosphere became tense when it came to discussing the post of chairman. (“Everyone is screaming,” this is how Anna Karetnikova, one of the most active members of the PMC who visit places of detention, described the situation on Twitter.) Pyatnitsky and a member of the Presidium of “Officers of Russia”, head of the Commission for Work with Veterans and Pensioners of the Central Council of Supporters “United Russia” Vyacheslav Kalinin threatened opponents with a showdown. Babushkin proposed a compromise option - for the PMC to have two co-chairs. However, Tsvetkov and his supporters did not agree to this. Babushkin was again invited to take part in the elections, but he again refused in favor of Borshchev. When the decision was made that the chairman would be elected by open rather than secret voting, 12 of Borshchev’s 17 supporters, according to Babushkin, “were forced to leave - everything became clear to us.” Tsvetkov was elected by a majority of votes (he himself voted for the formal alternative candidate, Elena Abdullaeva, blogger at Gulagu.net).

Since the regulations of the PMC were not changed, what Tsvetkov’s opponents most feared did not happen—commission members were not deprived of the opportunity to visit places of forced detention without the consent of the chairman. So for now, according to Babushkin, Tsvetkov’s election as chairman will not threaten the work of the commission members. However, according to him, “the status of our leaders will be lowered, they will not be invited to meetings of the FSIN board, to sum up the results of their work, Tsvetkov will be in charge of all this.” Meanwhile, as Pyatnitsky, who was elected deputy chairman, wrote on Twitter, “Lukin said that he would dissolve the POC of Moscow, using his powers, if the result of the election of the Chairman does not suit him.”