"The queue, bitches, in line! .."

The Constitutional Court decided to relieve alternate single pickets, but something prevents us from rejoicing in this victory of democracy

The KS ship, coined contrary to the desire of judges off the coast of the Neva 13 years ago, can only go against the wind with tacks, and the political wind has since blowed from Moscow most often in the direction that, probably, the judges would like.

So, on New Year's Eve, December 30, 2020, in the law “On meetings, rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets” some changes were made, immediately and entered into force. Single pickets, previously admitted without notification of the authorities, can now be recognized as a “court decision in a specific civil, administrative or criminal case” by mass events if their participants are “united by a common plan and (or) general organization” - and here the lack of approval will be drawn to part 2 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. For citizens, this is a fine of 20 to 30 thousand rubles, which is tolerant, but fraught with further complications.

The so -called "package of the deputy Vyatkin", which included this legislative innovation, actually only elevated the practice of regional courts to the law, which has already been formed before.

So, in February 2020, in Kazan, single pickets were held against the construction of a garbage plant, the organizer of which the authorities considered the eco -activist Irina Nikiforova within two weeks. She did not deny that she made a schedule for picketers, but just so that only one person enters the picket every day. The court in Kazan nevertheless imposed a fine on her, and this decision was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Tatarstan.

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation by the Decree of May 17 ordered the courts of general jurisdiction to reconsider the decisions in the case of Nikiforova, substantiating this by the fact that all the pickets of the series were actually solitary, and under such circumstances she was not only not obliged, but she could not even file a notification, because she did not know at what hours who would stand in the picket. Bravo, ks, but ...

A similar and even more understandable story happened in Moscow, where in July 2020 the court wrote out a fine to another picketer-Ilya Shablinsky, a doctor of legal and candidate of philosophical sciences, a professor, ex-member of the HRC, a constitutionalist who has repeatedly played in the Constitutional Court in support of other applicants. He was punished for a picket on May 30 in support of the Ombudsman of the Police, Vorontsov, and the courts considered the fact that on May 28, that is, two days earlier, other activists, including journalist Ilya Azar, took a sign of “mass”.

Everyone hoped that the Shablinsky case in the Constitutional Court would be united with the case of Nikiforova, everything went to that (the general position was prepared by the Institute of Law and Public Policy), but at the last moment the judges removed the professor from the distance, indicating that they had not yet received a decision of the cassation court (previously an appeal). And it seems that the result of the “Shablinsky case” in the Constitutional Court is now predetermined, but the political wind is very changeable, and who knows what judges will succeed in the next “tie” - and the decision will be loud.

Until recently, analyzing similar stories related to the application of the legislation on mass events, in particular, in the affairs of Ildar Dadin and who served his term according to the “Dadinsky article” by Konstantin Kotov (this “swan song” was sung by the KS on January 27, 2020, just on the eve of “zeroing”), the judges have in detail their decisions that any public shares could be in detail that any public shares could To be considered unlawful only if they create a danger or at least inconvenience to society. In the decision in the "case of Nikiforova", only the echoes of such an argument are heard: the angle of "Galsa" has become a little dull.

The resolution of the Constitutional Court of May 17, issued in the absence of hearings, does not concern the main innovation from the Vyatkin Package: all the same, street queues for single pickets will relate to the “mass events”, namely, they proved their effectiveness and persuasiveness for “instances”: in June 2019, when journalist Ivan Kolunov was detained and soon in September of the same year, when a whole crowd was a whole considerable year The artists stood in line for Lubyanka in support of her colleague Pavel Ustinov - the 3.5 years of imprisonment appointed to him by the court were replaced by a conditional annual period.

Tools for expressing peaceful protest, the right to which is provided for in Article 31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, is becoming less and less, and the Constitutional Court can afford to express themselves in their defense.