The Moscow City Court overturned the fine for a participant in a protest against amendments to the Constitution

The Moscow City Court canceled the fine and returned for a new trial the case of Karina Tamrazyan, who was detained at a protest against amendments to the Constitution on July 15, 2020. This was reported by OVD-Info lawyer Ekaterina Selezneva, who defended the protester.

Earlier, the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow found Tamrazyan guilty under the article on interfering with infrastructure and transport (part 6.1 of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) and imposed a fine of 10 thousand rubles. The Moscow City Court canceled the fine and returned the case for a new trial, since Tamrazyan was not notified of the decision of the first instance.

After Karina Tamrazyan was detained at the demonstration, she was taken to the Danilovsky Police Department and released from there only the next morning. OVD-Info lawyers Maria Eismont and Sergey Telnov came to help the detainees.

• On July 15, 2020, actions were planned in a number of cities against the amendments to the Constitution, which entered into force on July 4, giving new powers to the president and allowing him to re-claim this post in 2024. The authorities refused to approve the protests. In Moscow, the action first took place in the format of collecting signatures, after which the procession began. According to OVD-Info, 147 people were detained.
• Amendments to the Constitution were put to the vote as a single package - the opportunity to support some initiatives and oppose others was not provided. Putin promised that the amendments would come into force if they were approved by more than 50% of the voters. According to the CEC, the amendments were supported by almost 78% of Russians. Sergey Shpilkin, a researcher of Russian election statistics, spoke to the independent media Proekt about possible fraud.