"This is a desire to curry up"

The coordinator of the Open Russia Department in Krasnodar, Jan Antonov, opened an administrative case, she faces a fine of 5 to 15 thousand rubles. Antonov is accused of the fact that it consists of an undesirable organization, the case is instituted under Article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. Antonova - the organizer of the action "Tired" in Krasnodar, which took place on April 29 in many Russian regions. Its participants collected signatures under the appeal to President Vladimir Putin with a request not to take part in the elections in 2018.

On the eve of the “Tired” campaign, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office recognized the activities of several foreign non -governmental organizations unwanted in the country. Among them were OR (Otkrytaya Rossia) (Open Russia, Great Britain), Institute of Modern Russia, Inc (Institute of Modern Russia, USA), Open Russia Civic Movement, Open Russia (public network movement "Open Russia", Great Britain).

"These organizations carry out special programs and projects on the territory of the Russian Federation in order to discredit the results of the elections in Russia, recognition of their results by illegitimate," the department’s website reported .

Banner of the action "Tired"

Later, the Ministry of Justice said that he did not find branches of the Open Russia and Institute of Modern Russia recognized as undesirable in Russia, registered in the UK and the United States.

On April 27, in the office of the Open Russia movement of the same name, searches were held in Moscow. Law enforcement officers seized equipment and leaflets. In Kirov, the police arrested the entire circulation of forms of appeals to Russian President Vladimir Putin, released before the action "Tired". Police officers also tried to search in the office of traffic in Kazan.

The fact that she is a member of the "undesirable organization", Yana Antonova found out, appearing on May 29 by the agenda for interrogation to the prosecutor's office.

The Coordinator of Open Russia was informed that it is a member of the British organization Otkrytaya Rossia. The next day, an administrative case was brought to her. On May 29, district police officers also came home to other employees of the Krasnodar branch of Open Russia. According to Antonova, the prosecutor’s office has not called any of them.

The chairman of the Open Russia movement, Alexander Solovyov, told Radio Liberty that the case against Yana Antonova was illegally instituted:

This is a desire to get in order and scare activists

- This is either the incompetence of employees of the regional prosecutor's office, or the desire to curry up or scare activists. Because the representative of the Russian Prosecutor General Alexander Kurenny almost immediately after the recognition of the unwanted British organization of Open Russia said that this would not affect the Russian movement of the same name. Because the Russian public movement "Open Russia" is valid under Russian legislation, according to the law on public organizations, and acts in the form that does not require registration. The law on unwanted organizations can not concern Russian organizations, it can concern only foreign organizations. But for some reason, employees of the Krasnodar prosecutor's office refer precisely to the decision of the Prosecutor General. Obviously, they did not hear the words of the official representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office, or the words of the Minister of Justice Konovalov, who said in the same way that this would not affect the activities of the Russian movement.

- Nevertheless, the case has been started. What threatens Yana Antonova directly?

I hope that nothing threatens her. This is not us, that's all

“I still hope that this does not threaten her.” Our lawyer leaves for Krasnodar, we are already defending Yana Antonova. Because nevertheless, organizations that are registered in the UK appear in the protocol. This is not us, that's all. If even the case is brought to court, relatively speaking, they do not cancel this protocol, I hope that the court, despite the fact that we have objective problems with the court in the country, will take a reasonable side. Because what is written in the protocol is not true.

-Are there any other cases of pressure on your regional activists?

They have already turned searches in Open Russia into everyday life

- This is the first attempt to draw up a protocol on the fact of recognition of undesirable organizations to which we have nothing to do. But pressure occurs in other ways. Searches are carried out. They have already turned searches into some commonplace. That is, no one is interested from writing this from journalists, because they constantly search for someone from Open Russia. They motivate searches with different pretexts, but all of them are politically motivated and are always carried out with violations, ”said Alexander Solovyov, head of Open Russia.

The lawyer of Open Russia Sergey Badamshin informed the RS that in the near future he intends to get acquainted with all the materials in the case of Yana Antonova, accused of relations with an “unwanted organization”. However, he once again recalled that we are talking about British Open Russia, to which Antonova has nothing to do, and called the actions of the Krasnodar prosecutor's office "a small desire to distinguish and stand out."

The action "Tired", organized by "open Russia", took place on April 29 this year. In Moscow, there were no detentions, more than 120 people were detained in St. Petersburg, 72 of them were drawn up on participation in an unauthorized procession. On May 10, the court in St. Petersburg fined 10 thousand rubles by the coordinator of the Open Russia movement Andrei Pivovarov for organizing this unauthorized action. In Kazan, the local activist of movement Daria Kulakov was arrested with appeals to Vladimir Putin. She spent 10 days in a pre -trial detention center.

Open Russia was established in 2001 by the shareholders of the Yukos oil company and a group of private individuals for the implementation of charitable, educational and educational projects. Until April 2017, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the chairman of the board of Open Russia, during the conference of the organization in Tallinn, it was elected by the Coordinator of the Open Law project Alexander Solovyov.