Celebration atmosphere

On March 8, in Moscow and other cities of Russia, participants in single-person pickets, many of whom were women, were detained

A series of solo pickets (as well as attempts to hold them) took place in support of Nadezhda Savchenko, illegally detained by the Russian authorities: in Moscow, according to OVD-Info, 39 people were detained, 12 of whom were convicted the next day. They were detained immediately under two articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses: Art. 19.3 (disobeying the lawful demands of police officers) and Part 5 of Art. 20.2 (participation in a public event held in violation of the notification procedure) of the Code of Administrative Offenses. Two detainees were sentenced to administrative arrest for ten days and fines of 20,000 rubles, while the rest received only fines for similar amounts.

First, these detentions were illegal. The police did not present any demands to the detainees (the same article 19.3), except for one thing - to go to the paddy wagon (most of them were seized in silence), and the detainees complied with this requirement. As for the law “On meetings, rallies, demonstrations, processions and pickets” (Article 20.2), he knows two categories of those who came to public events: “participants” and “organizers”. The "organizers" have many responsibilities: coordinate the event, ensure its safety, etc. "Participants" are only required to comply with the lawful requirements of police officers, maintain public order, be sober and behave well. The "Participant" should not and cannot know for sure whether the event is agreed or not - that is, he cannot a priori violate Article 20.2.

Secondly, many were detained even before they took out any posters, started chanting something or somehow stood out from the rather large number of people who went out to walk around the festive Moscow. This is about the same as if you were detained when you thoughtfully inspect the fence, and accused of vandalism, because you wrote an indecent word on it. As a result, some of the detainees turned out to be just random people who decided to see what was happening here.

Thirdly, the police (moreover, they were not riot police with faces invisible under the visors of their helmets) behaved extremely rudely, being confident in their right to “crush enemies” publicly and with pleasure. It looked especially wild in relation to women on March 8.

Fourthly, documents - protocols on delivery, detention, offense, etc. filled not just casually, but literally at random. Random articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses were written to the protocol for some detainees, they were given the wrong copies of the protocols, they mixed up the time ...

Fifth, and this is perhaps the most important thing: the domestic repressive apparatus has once again shown its basic property - lack of system. Some of the detainees were released without a protocol at all, some were given strange photocopies of detention protocols (instead of a protocol on an offense), and some were left to spend the night and convicted the next day.

It's not even worth talking about the features of the court. Russian administrative proceedings are of a pronounced inquisitorial nature: the presumption of innocence does not work in it, and the judge in practice supports the prosecution. Calling witnesses, attaching video recordings, and generally trying to defend the factual side of the case is useless.

But there is, oddly enough, in this ugly story and its positive side. Almost all decisions in such administrative cases have a 100% chance of being challenged in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg. You were detained, convicted, you filed an appeal with the Moscow City Court, which did not satisfy it - that's all, the means of national judicial protection have been exhausted on this, you can safely apply to Strasbourg. And do not be afraid that such a trial may take several years, and not everyone has enough fuse and energy for such a step. A fair trial is worth it.