St. Petersburg State University expelled a student from Germany who was fined for articles on environmental protests

St. Petersburg State University has expelled student of the Faculty of Philology Lukas Latz due to the fact that he was engaged in journalistic activities as part of the study of environmental protests in Russia. He must leave Russia within seven days. Latz himself told about this OVD-Info.

According to a student from Germany, he learned about the expulsion even before the official notification from the rector's office. “It was very strange. Yesterday I suddenly received a message on Facebook from a student who is in a group with foreigners, in which she asked me if I should leave the country. At that time, I did not know anything about it, and said that it was just a rumor. Today I received a letter from the rector's office stating that a decision was made on my expulsion due to the fact that I violated administrative law.

The rector's office refused to tell the young man the reason for such a decision, and also did not allow him to communicate with the university employee who signed the expulsion order. The order, which is at the disposal of OVD-Info, states that two protocols were drawn up against Latz under administrative articles.

The journalist himself said that the protocols in question against him were drawn up at the end of May. Then two policemen came to him, presumably from the Center “E”, who talked to him about his interview with the activists of the environmental movement “Stop GOK” from Chelyabinsk. During the conversation, the police asked the foreigner about his future plans and whether he was going to continue his journalistic activities.

Two protocols were drawn up against Latz under Article 18.10 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (working by a foreigner without a work permit) because of his trips to Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg. Fines for each of the protocols are two thousand rubles, a person can also be expelled from the country by decision of the state. After talking with the police, the student was summoned to the administration, where, according to Latz, he was persuaded to “apologize to them” and pay any fine.

The young man eventually paid the fine, and when he brought the receipt to the police department, they again tried to interview him. The policeman, who identified himself as Alexander Petrenko, was in possession of a translation of an article by Lutz on the Stop GOK movement for the German newspaper Jungle World.

The policeman's particular attention was drawn to the phrase: "In the local media, Stop GOK is portrayed as a movement of extremists and delinquents." According to Latz, Petrenko was interested in whether, according to the student, this environmental movement is extremist.

Latz himself says that he communicates with activists and writes about them as part of a study of the environmental movement in Russia, which is the subject of his master's thesis. Lutz wants to continue visiting Russia and, together with a lawyer from the human rights organization Civil Control, is going to appeal against the protocols.

“In general, I really liked Russia, I was happy every day, it’s just very sad that someone can decide that I shouldn’t be here. Before this situation happened, there were no difficulties,” concludes the interlocutor of OVD-Info.

• OVD-Info talked about the conflict between residents and the authorities over the construction of a mining and processing plant (GOK), and how they are trying to stop the protest.
• Two activists of the movement, Vasily Moskovets and Gamil Asatullin, are accused of attempting to set fire to the territory where construction is being carried out. Activists note that there is a provocateur in the case - Yevgeny Medvedev, who joined the movement, who led inflammatory conversations and persuaded Asatullin to commit arson. According to investigators, the instigator was Moskovets, the leader of Stop GOK.