Law professors considered Kotov's sentence to be contrary to the ruling of the Constitutional Court

Professors, candidates and doctors of legal sciences wrote a letter to the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Russia Valery Zorkin. They considered that the sentence against activist Konstantin Kotov under the article on repeated violation of the order of organizing or holding a public event (Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code) violated the decisions of the Constitutional Court. The text of the letter was published on the Echo of Moscow website.

The appeal was signed by 21 people. Among them are two ordinary professors of the Higher School of Economics, Mikhail Krasnov and Alexander Obolonsky, Doctor of Law Elena Lukyanova, and Director of the Institute of Law and Public Policy Olga Sidorovich.

In their opinion, in the case of Konstantin Kotov, the resolution of February 10, 2017 No. 2-P “In the case of verifying the constitutionality of the provisions of Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in connection with the complaint of citizen I.I. Dadina."

The letter cites provisions from the Constitutional Court's ruling in the Dadin case. It states that authorities must respond “neutrally” to the preparation of public events, the approval of actions must not interfere with the expression of freedom of assembly, authorities must “show a certain tolerance” even if a peaceful assembly disrupts “everyday life” and leads to traffic disruptions, and for Restrictions on political speech on social issues require compelling reasons.

In addition, according to the resolution, government actions aimed at creating conditions for civil initiatives should not lead to excessive control. The signatories to the letter add that “massive police escort of protesters in itself does not create the necessary atmosphere of peaceful dialogue.”

The Constitutional Court wrote that if a person’s actions do not contain a “criminal public danger” and violations of the procedure for holding an action were of a “formal nature,” his actions should not be considered a crime.

In 2019, a protocol was drawn up against Konstantin Kotov several times under an administrative article for violating the rules of holding a rally (Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code). Only one of the protocols was under Part 6.1 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the rules of the rally, resulting in interference with traffic), the rest, the authors of the letter emphasize, were not “involved with causing or a real threat of causing harm to the health of citizens, the property of individuals and legal entities,” they emphasize authors of the letter.

“Actions and decisions of executive and judicial bodies of state power, incl. the sentence to K. Kotov clearly does not correspond to the above and other decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation,” the letter says.

The authors of the letter propose that the Chairman of the Constitutional Court address the Federal Assembly with a message about the failure to implement the decision of the Constitutional Court and that the parliament also did not listen to the recommendations of the court and did not clarify the penalties and grounds on which people can be held criminally liable under Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code.

On September 5, 34-year-old programmer and Moscow activist Konstantin Kotov was sentenced to four years in prison. The case was based on several decisions in administrative cases regarding violation of the rules for holding public events (Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code).