Putin is sure that there is no political background in Ponomarev's case

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that in the case of 77-year-old human rights activist Leo Ponomarev, arrested for "violation of the procedure for organizing a rally", there is no political background. The head of state expressed this opinion at a meeting of the Human Rights Council of the Council on December 11, the transcript of which on Monday was published on the Kremlin website .

“Nothing there [in Ponomarev’s case] such an ambush is there, a political background,” Putin assured.

He added that he did not see anything illegal in the court decision to refuse to let Ponomarev out of the guard to say goodbye to his colleague-officer Lyudmila Alekseeva. “To close relatives could be released for goodbye, for the funeral, the law is not provided for in the law,” the head of state noted. “The judge is guided by these direct instructions of the text of the law itself, that's all.”

Putin noted that if the same decision was made in relation to an unknown person, then no one would pay attention. According to the president, the court could not make any other decision regarding Ponomarev, because the "law for all is the same," TASS reports.

Putin also said that he would instruct the Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika to check the case of Lev Ponomarev. At the same time, the head of state warned that calls for unauthorized shares lead to events like Paris. And "to question the justice of the court made by the court is very difficult, simply impossible." “There is a court, he made a decision, then the second decision. Of course, I proceeded from the fact that this topic will come up [at the current meeting]. But what I saw from the certificate that I read was about calls for unauthorized rallies and marks,” the president said. Putin is sure that the calls for unauthorized actions are fraught with riots and chaos. In his opinion, this is confirmed by the latest events in France.

“But we don’t want we have events similar to Paris, where the paving stones and burn everything in a row, the country is then immersed in a state of emergency,” Putin emphasized.

The president also cited as an example the deceased human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseeva, who knew how to find compromises and coordinate rallies. “It seems to me that everyone needs to strive for this,” Putin added.

On December 5, the Tver District Court of Moscow found Ponomarev guilty of repeated violation of the Promotion Procedure and appointed 25 days of arrest for calls to participate in the inconsistent action "For our children" at the FSB building on Lubyanka. On December 7, the Moscow City Court reduced the arrest period to 16 days. The Chairman of the CEC of the Russian Federation Ella Pamfilova called Nonsense the arrest of Ponomarev and expressed confidence that one could find another way to respond to his offense. And the head of the Accounts Chamber Andrei Kudrin, commenting on the arrest of Ponomarev, said that a long administrative arrest for the repost of news and messages on the Internet was an excessive measure of punishment.

Ponomarev’s defense insists on the absence of an offense in his actions. According to his lawyer Henry Reznik, the human rights activist did not express any ideas, and also did not discuss any political platforms.