In Kaliningrad, Open Russia activists were awarded compensation for moral damages

The Central District Court of Kaliningrad decided to pay three Open Russia activists, Yakov Grigoriev, Pyotr Zuev and Konstantin Krein, compensation for moral damages and the work of a lawyer. This was reported by the coordinator of the movement’s human rights department, Alexey Pryanishnikov.

Previously, activists were accused of “carrying out the activities of a foreign or international organization recognized as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation” (Article 20.33 of the Administrative Code). In September 2017, they were acquitted for lack of an administrative offense.

“The example of Kaliningrad shows that the stigma of “undesirability” that the authorities are trying to stick on Open Russia is not only illegal, but is also repulsed even in the Russian court. The next step is to achieve the same results in other regions, especially in Chuvashia, where the Ministry of Internal Affairs decided to make a career by stamping illegal 20.33 protocols on our activists. Today, for the 6th time, OR coordinator Anton Kravchenko was brought in,” Pryanishnikov said. Grigoriev, Zuev and Crane were awarded 6 thousand rubles each.

The activists were detained on July 2 at a coordinated protest against the “presumption of correctness” of the police, where they unfurled the Open Russia flag. Before this, Grigoriev had already been accused twice of collaborating with Open Russia.

• On April 26, 2017, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office recognized a number of organizations associated with Mikhail Khodorkovsky as undesirable. The list includes the UK-registered Open Russia (OR Otkrytaya Rossia) and the Open Russia Civic Movement (Open Russia), the Institute of Modern Russia, Inc, registered in the USA .
• The Russian Open Russia movement was not banned. Nevertheless, in December 2017, Roskomnadzor added the website of the Open Russia media project to the register of prohibited sites. Access to the websites “Open Elections”, “Open University” and khodorkovsky.ru was closed.