Permissible speeches

The Federal Security Service did not find calls for separatism in the words of the presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak about the belonging of Crimea. This was reported by the BBC with reference to its own sources.

Employees of the special services conducted a linguistic analysis of a fragment of a press conference of the TV presenter, where she spoke about the Crimea. According to the results of the examination, the FSB came to the conclusion that Sobchak’s words did not contain calls for violation of the territorial integrity of Russia, a source familiar with the results of the examination said. The audit took a little more than a month, the special service officially did not report its results.

At the headquarters of Sobchak with the conclusion of the FSB agreed. “There are really no calls in her words, but the fact of violation of the international obligations of Russia is simply stated,” said Elena Lukyanova, a staff of the headquarters, professor of the Faculty of Law of the Higher Superior.

The case of Sobchak demonstrates double standards in law enforcement, said Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora human rights group. “It is good that Ksenia managed to avoid criminal prosecution, but right now the case of the Crimean Tatar activist Suleiman Kadyrov was transferred to the Crimea to the Crimea, who said exactly the same as Sobchak,” Chikov said.

The case against Kadyrov became known in October 2016. He is accused under Part 2 of Article 280.1 of the Criminal Code (public calls for separatism) for the repost video with the comment "Crimea is Ukraine". On October 25, the investigation against Kadyrov was completed . In December, the trial of him began in Crimea.

On October 24, at a press conference, Sobchak said: "From the point of view of international law, Crimea is Ukrainian. Point. Next - let's talk ... We violated our word, we violated the 1994 Budapest memorandum. We made a promise, and we did not fulfill this promise." To the question of the correspondent of RIA Novosti, whether she was afraid to hold accountable for these words, Sobchak said : “The law has not a word about the statement of the fact and even about the statement of her opinion that does not coincide with the state. You can’t judge me for this either and Suleiman Kadyrov also cannot be judged. All the people who condemned for this are political and innocent.”

Sobchak announced her nomination on October 18 . She calls herself a "candidate against all." “I am outside the tough ideological framework. I do not belong to specific parties, is not connected by party or group discipline, as part of this campaign, I’m not even for“ our Crimea ”and do not mind. I am for the country to cease total theft, a real policy, power, accountable for free will,” said the journalist.