Members of the Association of Carriers of Russia complained to the ECHR

Andrey Bazhutin and Arkady Moshnikov, activists from the Association of Russian Carriers (OPR), complained to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg about police actions during a motor rally in support of Kuban farmers in August 2016. This was reported on January 10 on the website of the Dozhd TV channel with reference to Vedomosti.

In August, truckers from the ODA, who have been protesting since 2015 against the introduction of the Platon system, decided to support the farmers of the Krasnodar Territory, who organized a tractor march on Moscow to draw the attention of the federal authorities to their problems. The farmers, as well as the truckers who joined them, faced severe pressure from the police and officials of the regions of southern Russia, through which the route of the action passed. They were detained en masse and one by one, arrested, fined, beaten, police and FSB officers came to their homes.

Bazhutin and Moshnikov moved out in a convoy of three cars to join the farmers. Not far from Rostov-on-Don, they were detained by police for allegedly violating Part 5 of Art. 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the procedure for holding a public event). The police considered that the presence on the cars of the inscriptions “We pay taxes, where are our roads?”, “Who allowed Rotenberg to rob on the road?”, “No money, but you hold on” indicates that truckers organized a public event without notifying while local authorities. Both activists were fined 10,000 rubles.

According to the members of the RRO, Art. 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Activists believe that the administrative cases were just a pretext for the police, who tried to prevent truckers and farmers from uniting.

According to lawyer Alexei Glukhov, who represents Bazhutin and Moshnikov at the ECtHR, Russian legislation does not contain a direct ban on car rallies, but the need to coordinate such an action with all municipalities along the route of the race, in fact, makes it impossible.