Leonid Volkov: "Hypocritical lawlessness"

“The coordinator of Navalny’s Moscow headquarters, Oleg Stepanov, was detained by the second operational regiment at the exit from the special detention center, where Oleg served 8 days of arrest for allegedly “calling for unauthorized rallies.” Oleg was taken to the Khoroshevo-Mnevniki police station, where they will draw up a new protocol on an administrative offense (we don’t even know yet , about which one), then they will be taken to the “court” and imprisoned for another number of days, I don’t understand why. We are all already accustomed to this, of course, and to the “chains of arrests” too - although this is a fairly recent innovation,” writes an ally of Alexei Navalny on his Facebook page.

“Let me tell you again the obvious things about why you can’t get used to this and consider it normal.

Let’s say (!) that someone actually committed several administrative offenses at once. But a protocol on an administrative offense, in accordance with the Code of Administrative Offences, is drawn up either at the scene of the offense, or, in exceptional cases, within two days after its detection. The courts have been spitting on this norm for a long time - I am the record holder here, a report was drawn up against me on June 10, 2019 for an “offence” dated September 9, 2018 (9 months!) - but previously they somehow tried to justify this by saying that, supposedly, There were problems; it was not possible to establish the location of the offender in order to bring him to justice.

But if a person is already in a special detention center - in an institution that belongs to the same department, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which investigates administrative offenses and draws up protocols. Nothing prevents, in fact, while the offender is in prison, drawing up as many reports against him as necessary.

Why doesn't this happen? Because the terms of administrative arrests do not add up. That is, if you were given 3 times 10 days at a time, you still serve 10 days. By arresting a person on the way out and sending him back to court, they get around this restriction by artificially lengthening the arrest period. Potentially, they get the opportunity to give out at least a life sentence “at retail”. (Well, not lifelong, there’s a one-year statute of limitations, but a year is easy, no problem at all).

But the main thing, of course, is that there is a purely repressive, tortured approach here. Consciously. The person has served his time, is ready to be released, his family and friends are waiting for him - and then they pack him up again, at the most joyful moment, in front of his loved ones. This is a very heavy psychological blow, a serious trauma for everyone (most of all, of course, for the prisoner himself, who had just counted the hours until his release - and here again without a phone in a paddy wagon in complete uncertainty) - and the terrorist state inflicts it completely deliberately.

This lawlessness is also very hypocritical. Because this is the same state that, when it needs to, professes a Jesuitical-legalistic approach (“there’s a scribble in your signature, we’ll reject it, the law is harsh - but it’s the law”) - it absolutely defiantly spits on its own laws in other cases. (In this case - to the Code of Administrative Offenses). We must never forget this when they once again explain to us that “well, what can we do, we can’t register you - maybe we would like to, but according to the letter of the law it’s impossible.”

In general, it is very important for all of us not to weaken intolerance. Just as we first got used to fines, then to arrests, we cannot get used in the same way to these “chains of arrests”, to other manifestations of outright state terrorism. It is critical not to forget and not to forgive. And the ECHR, of course."