Konstantin Markin: “I learned the basics of human rights from myself”

Before becoming a lawyer, Novgorodian Konstantin Markin was a GRU officer. He left the intelligence service because they refused to grant him parental leave. Through the ECHR, he achieved both leave and dismissal with compensation and housing. Now Markin defends detainees at protests.

* — How did you start working with OVD-Info? *

In January 2017, by chance, I ended up at Chistye Prudy, Mark Galperin held an action there . At the event, I met [OVD-Info legal assistance coordinator] Alla Frolova, who was detained that day: she was giving an interview, and law enforcement officers did not like it. I followed her to the police department to help. At the same time, Galperin and several of his supporters were detained, I helped them in court. Since then, we have been cooperating with Alla and OVD-Info. I was also a defender of Vyacheslav Shatrovsky recognized as a political prisoner .

* - What do you remember about the Shatrovsky case? *

Vyacheslav Shatrovsky is no longer a young man, he was under fifty. A man who stands firmly on his feet. Father of many children. I remember that in his case, the court carefully ignored the fact that, as follows from the documents, the same policeman (recognized as a victim in the case) was allegedly at the same time with Shatrovsky in the hospital and at the same time was processing documents in the police department for administrative cases . I remember that Vyacheslav was sent to the colony to serve his sentence even before the appeal against the verdict was considered. Now these and other violations are being considered by the ECtHR, where I filed a complaint. Even after Vyacheslav was released, we keep in touch with him.

*— How is the topic of freedom of assembly similar or different from other areas in which you work? What kind of "political" affairs do you have to deal with in Veliky Novgorod, how do they differ from the same stories in Moscow? *

The topic of freedom of assembly is more public, it is widely heard, excites society, causes discussions. I think that the authorities, law enforcement officers, and the courts often sincerely believe that they are not fighting dissent, they simply do not allow “rocking the boat of stability”.

The other day, I sent the first complaint to the ECHR about the winter protests of 2021, other complaints about the events in Novgorod are in the process of preparation. Thank God, there are no criminal cases on shares here yet. In Novgorod courts, cases are considered, as a rule, with a full study of all documents, very often with the call of police witnesses. Judges try to carry out all procedures with the maximum observance of all formalities.

I have a lot of experience working on similar cases in different cities for several years. The fastest courts are in Moscow. Most often, in my opinion, procedural norms are violated. In other cities where I worked on “rally” cases, they try to sort things out at least formally, although very often this is only an appearance. This is not only about freedom of assembly. I dealt, for example, with disputes between citizens and the traffic police. The courts also carefully consider everything, but often still take the side of the state.

* - How did you become a lawyer, how did the long-term courts on your claim to the Constitutional Court, the ECHR go? *

This year marks ten years since I received the status of a lawyer. It was not by chance that he became a lawyer, but initially he did not even think about this profession. In 1999 he graduated from the Mozhaisky Military Academy in St. Petersburg, faculty of collecting and processing information, received lieutenant shoulder straps and was going to serve. It was still under Yeltsin, the times are politically completely different. And then I faced a clear violation of my rights and the rights of my family members. And, having decided to fight for them, I realized that I could no longer serve normally. He enrolled in law school. As a result, he retired from the army with the rank of captain in December 2008, already a certified lawyer. At first, he was mainly engaged in civil cases to uphold the rights of military personnel, and then he completed an internship, passed an exam and received a lawyer's "crust".

Of course, the cornerstone in choosing a second profession for me was my family business, from which everything began for me - first in the courts of Russia, and then in the ECtHR. In 2005, my third son was born, and I asked the command to give me parental leave, there were reasons for that. I was refused on one single basis: that I am a male soldier. I did not agree with this. He challenged the refusal in the courts of Russia and, not finding justice at the national level, in May 2006 he applied to the ECtHR. The complaint was made a priority, they communicated to the Russian authorities very quickly, and a year after the birth of my son, I was granted parental leave.

In 2008, he appealed to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, demanding that the provisions of laws that do not allow military men to take leave to care for a child be recognized as discriminatory. The Constitutional Court did not see discrimination in this and refused me in January 2009. But in 2012, the ECtHR recognized that in my case there was discrimination based on gender, coupled with interference with family life. The European Court concluded that preventing the use of parental leave by male military personnel, while female military personnel are entitled to it, cannot be reasonably or objectively justified. And it really is.

* - Was the situation with the parental leave the only reason for your leaving the army? *

Basic. But not the only one. After Anatoly Serdyukov became the Minister of Defense of the country, a lot has changed in the armed forces. And not in a good way. The provision of monetary allowances has changed a lot: servicemen who were in the same positions began to receive different money, often only at the whim of the command. This made people very angry.

I retired from the army, having achieved the realization of all my rights and the rights of family members. It was the army, one might say, that pushed me to human rights: I began to comprehend the basics of human rights from myself. I think my experience is somewhat unique. Having retired from the army, I received a court decision obliging the Ministry of Defense to provide my family with housing at our chosen place of residence, in Moscow. Since this decision was not enforced for several years, the ECtHR helped my family once again, this time all members of my family (six people) received monetary compensation by the decision of the ECtHR in 2018 for a long non-enforcement of the court decision (which was executed in 2014). I believed and continue to believe that one must fight for one's rights if the authorities are in no hurry to implement them. And not only for "political" rights, not only they are violated.

During the course of the ECHR proceedings, I cooperated with a team of lawyers led by Karinna Moskalenko and Natasha Lisman (USA), and my gratitude to them and my other colleagues who helped in this case is boundless. The case turned out to be high-profile, it is being studied at law schools, and not only Russian ones. I won't lie, I like it. I managed to beat the system, it doesn't happen often. The Minister of Defense ended up trying to amend the Law on the Status of Military Personnel to regulate the right to parental leave. But the year 2014 came and everything remained as it was. Although, at the same time, our courts in such situations should now be guided by the position expressed by the ECtHR in my case.

* — What do you do besides advocacy? *

There is no time to do anything else right now. I have a big family, three sons and a daughter. For almost 20 years, together with like-minded people, he was engaged in search activities in the battlefields of the Second World War - until the state bureaucratized this activity, took it into its own hands. And so - I love fishing - however, there is almost never enough time for it. But sometimes it is possible to get out into the forest for mushrooms and berries. I love Novgorod forests very much.