"Ajar Russia"

Former Coordinator of Open Russia in Yekaterinburg Maxim Vernikov became a defendant in a criminal case of unwanted organizations

On the morning of March 14, employees of the Investigative Committee and Police came up with a search for the former coordinator of the Sverdlovsk branch of the Open Russia movement Maxim Vernikov, who now holds the position of editor -in -chief of Ural MBH Media. In the video that appeared on the site 66.ru, it is clear how the fighters collect the door in Vernikov’s apartment. Later it became known that Vernikov became a suspect in a criminal case instituted under Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code (“The activities of an unwanted organization in the Russian Federation”).

“He searched him, seized all means of communication - a laptop, a phone. Then Vernikov, along with a lawyer, went for an interrogation to the Investigative Committee, which lasted about two hours. He was presented with a decree on initiating a criminal case and attracting him as a suspect, then he was released by an obligation of a turnout, ”Aleksey Pryanishnikov, the coordinator of human rights, told Novaya Gazeta, adding that Vernikov gave a signature of non -disclosure of the details of the case.

According to the press secretary of Open Russia, Natalia Gryaznevich, the fact that Vernikov was given the opportunity to independently come to the UK for interrogation is a “good sign”, which says that they are not going to arrest him yet.

Last year, two protocols on the activities of an unwanted organization (Article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) were drawn up for participation in Skype conference with the founder of movement Mikhail Khodorkovsky and for the placement of posts in VKontakte, which mentioned the phrase “Open Russia”. Another protocol under the same article was drawn up for the Constituent Conference of Open Russia in 2017 in Yekaterinburg.

Vernikov himself says that back in December he stopped being the coordinator of Open Russia, and in February he completely came out of the movement.

In April 2017, the Prosecutor General’s Office recognized a number of organizations that were connected with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, including the British or Otkrytaya Rossia and Open Russia Civic Movement. Open Russia has repeatedly noted that they are not related to British organizations, since the Russian movement is not registered and is valid only in Russia. In addition, the official representative of the General Prosecutor's Office, Alexander Kurenna, claimed that the ban would not affect the work of movement in Russia.

In January 2019, the first criminal case on the activities of an unwanted organization was opened in Russia-against a member of the Council of Open Russia from Rostov-on-Don Anastasia Shevchenko. Now she is under house arrest. The case against her was also opened after two protocols on administrative offenses. While Shevchenko was during interrogation, her seriously ill -ill daughter died in the hospital.

“The initiation of both criminal cases is illegal, the charges themselves contradict even this absurd and political law on unwanted organizations, since people are held accountable for participating in the activities of the Russian public network movement“ Open Russia ”, which is not a foreign organization. And the main criterion for recognizing the organization is undesirable that the organization should be foreign, ”said Pryanishnikov.

The introduction of the British organizations of Khodorkovsky in the register of undesirable also became the reason for the persecution of activists of the movement under Article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offenses throughout the country. Over the past year, the protocols made up more than 50 activists of the movement, and seven of them had two or more decisions. Coordinator of the Human Rights Cards noted that none of the cases have submitted any evidence that activists are associated with foreign organizations.