Translated material
Political pressure: media digest (October 30 - November 5, 2014)
Navalny
An employee of the Navalny Foundation was charged in absentia with stealing a painting.
“The investigation in absentia brought charges against another associate of oppositionist Alexei Navalny, employee of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) Nikita Kulachenkov, as part of the case of the theft of a painting seized from Navalny’s apartment, his lawyer Vasily Kushnir told RIA Novosti. “Today the Investigative Committee filed charges in absentia due to his absence; he is accused under article ‘theft’ (158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation),” the defense lawyer clarified.”
prosecution
The Supreme Court of Chechnya reduced Ruslan Kutaev's sentence by two months
"Caucasian Knot", October 31 :
“The Supreme Court of Chechnya today completed its consideration of the appeal against the sentence of the President of the Assembly of the Peoples of the Caucasus Ruslan Kutaev and decided to reduce his prison term from four years to three years and 10 months. <...> The Criminal Collegium of the Supreme Court of Chechnya left the verdict of the first instance unchanged, only reducing the sentence for the defendant, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told in the Supreme Court of the republic. The court also changed some of the restrictions imposed by the court of first instance in relation to Ruslan Kutaev. In particular, he was allowed to visit public places after serving his sentence, the prisoner’s lawyer, Pyotr Zaikin, clarified in turn. According to him, from today the sentence comes into force. The defender noted that the decision of the Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic will be appealed. “We intend to appeal the verdict,” said Zaikin. “True, this will take more time, but we will go to the end.”
Details of the search of Maria Gaidar
“Friends, as you remember, last Monday my apartment was searched. Do you know on the basis of what facts and arguments presented by the investigator to Basmanny Court Judge Natalya Dudar that the decision to conduct a search was made? Based on an anonymous publication in the live journal of one of the many bots, where the STOLEN correspondence of Alexei Navalny was posted ! That is, the only legal justification turned out to be unreliable and unverified data, as well as illegally obtained data! <…> Naturally, we will appeal this whole story with court hearings, where 40 sheets of case materials are reviewed in 10 minutes . It is a fact that some publication by some anonymous blogger, which talks about private correspondence obtained ILLEGALLY, cannot serve as the basis for a door-knocking search. This is obvious not only to lawyers, but also to any sane person. Not to mention the fact that we were shown a copy of the court order on the search only after the period for appealing it had expired.”
Sergei Mokhnatkin was declared sane
“Activist Sergei Mokhnatkin, pardoned in 2012, was declared sane, RAPSI was informed about this on Friday by the press service of the Tverskoy Court in Moscow, where a new criminal case against him on charges of attacking police officers is being heard. The court ordered an examination in connection with Mokhnatkin’s behavior during the hearing: the accused behaved aggressively, used obscene language and spat at his defense lawyer. “Experts from the Serbsky Center for Psychiatry found Mokhnatkin sane, the court continues to consider the case against him. The next hearing is scheduled for November 7; the day before, the accused did not appear at the hearing,” court press secretary Ekaterina Korotova told RAPSI. Previously, Mokhnatkin was taken into custody, but due to the expiration of the period established by the court, Mokhnatkin was released from the hospital home during the examination. Mokhnatkin is accused of two counts of using violence against a government official. At the first hearing, two injured police officers told the court that Mokhnatkin, during a mass event in the center of Moscow on December 31, 2013, hit them in the face several times and cursed them obscenely.”
A case has been initiated against the leader of the Tajik Labor Migrants movement
“The leader of the Tajik Labor Migrants movement, Karomat Sharipov, became a defendant in a criminal case for exerting illegal pressure on the management of the Sadovod market in Moscow. Searches were carried out at Sharipov's home and office, and he himself was interrogated by an investigator. As Sharipov told Mediazona, a criminal case was initiated under Part 1 of Art. 179 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (coercion to make a transaction or refuse it), this article provides for punishment of up to two years in prison. According to the leader of Tajik migrants, the case was initiated at the request of the head of the market security, Alexander Portnykh, who said that Sharipov was committing actions aimed at capturing the market. Earlier, information appeared about Sharipov’s arrest , but he denied it and explained that he was summoned to testify at the investigative department of the police department for the South-East Administrative District of Moscow. The day before, searches were carried out at Sharipov’s house, at his dacha in the Ramensky district of the Moscow region and at the movement’s office on Samotechnaya Street, during which Sharipov’s personal computer was seized. The head of the public organization connects the criminal prosecution with his tough position regarding the exploitation of Tajik labor migrants at the Sadovod market (according to Sharipov, there are about 6 thousand illegal immigrants from Tajikistan in the market). In September 2014, a leader of Tajik migrants came to the market after reporting a shooting incident in which four Tajik citizens were injured. According to him, human rights activists recorded numerous violations at the market and handed over the collected materials to the prosecutor’s office.”
About Oleg Sentsov
Dinara Idrisova's blog, October 31 :
“Lawyer Dmitry Dinze, who visited Sentsov in the pre-trial detention center, spoke about the mood, well-being and conditions of detention of the Crimean film director accused by the state of terrorism.
“I would like to inform those who are interested that we recently visited Oleg Sentsov in pre-trial detention center No. 2 Lefortovo. He is fine, in a great mood, but, like any person, sometimes he is in a bad mood. He sends his best greetings to everyone. I have received about 100 letters in all this time, counting the postcards. He answered and answers all the letters. If someone does not receive an answer, then it is no longer up to him, letters from the pre-trial detention center take a very long time, probably this is due to double censorship, that is, they are checked in the pre-trial detention center itself, and then again. the opera and the investigators are reading. He also asks him to write letters and send him messages, as they say, there are never too many messages. He sits in the same cell with a crazy bomber who prays in his cell 5 times a day. There are no dialogues between them, Oleg is his only one. periodically feeds him, of course, you won’t get any gratitude from his cellmate, since the latter believes that all the help is sent to him by the Almighty. In Oleg’s cell it is cold, but tolerant. In principle, Oleg does not complain about anything. He treats problems philosophically, he does not think and live. one day, hopes for the future and that the people will come to their senses and understand what is going on around them. He sends his best regards to everyone and is looking forward to additional letters.”
extrajudicial prosecution
Peace March participant beaten in Kaliningrad
“In Kaliningrad, a political activist, participant in the “Peace March” held on September 21, Dmitry Irkitov, was attacked. He was beaten on the way to a press conference dedicated to previous attacks on Kaliningrad oppositionists. The attack took place on Saturday, November 2. “Dmitry, as usual, arrived in the city center much earlier than the appointed hour and moved along Leninsky Prospekt towards the Kaliningrad Hotel. Not far from the hotel, he was met by two unremarkable men who wordlessly began to beat him. Dmitry covered his face, but missed a series of blows to the body,” write members of the opposition “Committee for Public Self-Defense” (KOS). Eyewitnesses to the incident came to Irkitov’s aid; he managed to escape from the attackers and leave by bus. After the attack, the activist went to the hospital, where he was given an x-ray and it was discovered that his liver and one of his kidneys were enlarged. The press conference to which Irkitov was heading was dedicated to similar attacks that activists associate with the “Peace March” that took place in Kaliningrad on September 21. On November 26, two activists of the Committee for Public Self-Defense, Vasily Adrianov and Evgeny Grishin, were beaten ; even earlier, KOS activists Andrei Bogdanov and Viktor Gorbunov suffered at the hands of unknown persons. Other participants in the March have repeatedly received threats by email over the past month, activists say.”
Activist of the medical workers' trade union beaten in Ufa
“On the evening of October 29, in the center of Ufa, two unknown people attacked Andrei Konoval, coordinator of the health workers’ trade union “Action”. The activist was taken to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a concussion. The attack took place near the house where the headquarters of the trade union committee “Action” is located, as reported by the website of the Vademecum magazine. Konoval told the resource Proufu.ru that one of the attackers had a baton in his hands.
In the morning, Konoval himself spoke about the details of the attack in his LiveJournal: “I started to resist, a fight broke out (my left hand now hurts), after which the second guy rushed in, and the two of them started beating me. It was at this moment that the “gray hat” told me: “If you come to Ufa again, we’ll crush you,” and something else in the same spirit.” Konoval came to Ufa for negotiations between the trade union activists of the Ufa ambulance station and its management. It is this, Ufa trade unionists suggest, that may be involved in the attack. In September, union members went on a hunger strike to protest against reduced salary increases and increased workloads. The action was supervised by Andrei Konoval; the hunger strike took place in the building near which he was attacked. On November 2 in Moscow, Konoval intends to speak at the rally “Stop the collapse of Moscow medicine!” against the closure and reorganization of medical institutions and dismissals of health workers.
The attack on Konoval is not the first case of physical violence against civil activists in Ufa recently. In early October, the son of Lyudmila Tukshaitova from the Ufa public environmental movement “StopKronoshpan” was beaten. The young man was taken to hospital with a serious head injury. The attack on Tukshaitov is associated with the struggle of local residents against the construction of a wood processing plant.”
The Foreign Ministry was unable to confirm the citizenship of Vladimir Bukovsky
“ The writer and human rights activist Vladimir Bukovsky, who lives in the UK, cannot obtain a new Russian passport at the consular section of the Russian Embassy in London. State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov sent a request to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asking him to take control of the situation. The consular department refers to the mistakes of the 90s, when people received a passport “without proper registration of citizenship.” As stated in Dmitry Gudkov’s request to the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the consular department of the Russian embassy in London did not change Vladimir Bukovsky’s expired passport, but began checking whether he had Russian citizenship. The documents for verification were accepted by the consulate on March 12. According to Mr. Gudkov, the rights of “the Russian citizen, including those guaranteed by Articles 6 and 27 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (“a citizen of the Russian Federation cannot be deprived of his citizenship”, “everyone has the right to freely return to the Russian Federation”)”, since the human rights activist cannot enter Russia. Dmitry Gudkov asks Sergei Lavrov to “give instructions to stop violating the rights” of Vladimir Bukovsky and take the issue under personal control. A response is expected within a month (the request was sent on October 31). The deputy does not understand “what a threat to the regime” the human rights activist poses: “So what if he criticizes the authorities, many of us still criticize the authorities.” Mr. Bukovsky told Kommersant that he recently received a written explanation from the consular department. According to him, the document states that the consular department could not find papers confirming his citizenship. The human rights activist does not plan to visit Russia in the near future, but wants to clarify his “legal situation - am I a citizen or not a citizen?” As an employee of the consular department of the embassy in London explained to Kommersant, the problem is not that the applicant is Vladimir Bukovsky. According to him, everyone who does not have a valid internal passport of the Russian Federation or a foreign passport undergoes the citizenship verification procedure. Mr. Bukovsky's passport expired in 2012. According to Kommersant's interlocutor, the foreign policy archive did not contain information about the writer receiving Russian citizenship. “In the 90s, it happened that citizens of the USSR received a Russian passport without proper registration of citizenship,” he explained. To resolve the situation, he says, it is necessary to contact the Presidential Citizenship Commission, which will make a decision on restoring citizenship. Vladimir Bukovsky, in turn, believes that it is the responsibility of the state to have all the necessary information about a citizen.
As he told Kommersant, he was “never deprived of Soviet citizenship” (he was expelled from the USSR in 1976) and in 1992 he received a Russian passport. In 1993, he wanted to renounce it, but the Russian Embassy explained to him that there was no procedure for renouncing citizenship. In 1996, he was not allowed into the Russian Federation for the anniversary of Inkombank, and in 1998, he was not allowed to film a TV show. “The Russian passport was expired, and the English visa was not given,” he said. In 2007, when Mr. Bukovsky decided to take part in the 2008 presidential elections, the consular department issued him a new Russian passport. However, the Central Election Commission refused to register him due to the fact that he permanently resides in England.”
“No sooner had Deputy Gudkov’s request reached Minister Lavrov’s desk than the Russian diplomatic mission in London made its own comment regarding the refusal to renew Vladimir Bukovsky’s Russian passport (the minister’s official response to the State Duma must arrive before December 1). Foreign Ministry officials said - attention - that they “could not confirm the citizenship” of the writer, citing , as usual, “mistakes of the 90s.” “Mistakes of the 90s,” however, cannot explain the fact that the last Russian passport was issued to Vladimir Konstantinovich on August 1, 2007 (validity expired in 2012). Or that in a letter to the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation in December 2007, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Andrei Denisov confirmed Bukovsky’s Russian citizenship, adding that he “apparently” also has citizenship or residence permit in the UK. Based on this letter—and the lack of a “certificate that he is a writer”—the Central Election Commission and the Supreme Court refused to register Vladimir Bukovsky for the 2008 presidential election. It is worth noting that, without “confirming” the citizenship of Vladimir Bukovsky, the employees of the consular department of the Russian Embassy in London (if, of course, they made this decision themselves) took quite a lot upon themselves. Among the documents that they “did not confirm” in this way is the decision of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee No. P38/46 of December 14, 1976 on the “expulsion” of Bukovsky from the USSR without deprivation of citizenship; the decision of the Commission on Citizenship Issues under the President of the Russian Federation in 1992 to grant Bukovsky Russian citizenship; the decision of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Great Britain Boris Pankin to issue Bukovsky a new Russian passport in 1992. As well as the above-mentioned regulations of 2007-2008. The situation in which Vladimir Bukovsky’s citizenship was recognized in 2007, but not recognized in 2014, can only be described in one way. We are talking about deprivation of citizenship. For the first time since Soviet times. And in direct violation of Art. 6, paragraph 3 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
Apparently, the authorities are already starting to win back. Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation, head of the Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov confirmed that Vladimir Bukovsky is a Russian citizen and promised to help with the registration of his new passport.”