"I have to defend myself"

Over the past three rallies - in January and in April - I was detained four times.

Before the rally of January 23-when I just went on business to a business center on the other side of the city. I spent the night in the police department and did not even get to the action: at that time I was in a court, where I was fined 25 thousand. And before the rally on the 31rd, I was detained at once twice. First - in three days [before the action], January 28. Again I spent the night at the police, issued two administratives in court. I have a minor child, and they cannot arrest me the Rules of the Code of Administrative Offenses, only fine me. And on January 31, right in the morning they stopped me near the house.

Photo from the personal archive of Olga Komleva

They took the phone from me, pushed it into the car, took them to another part of the city, to the department where they didn’t even let the toilet go: “Until you tell the password from the phone, we won’t let you go to the toilet.” I felt bad in this department - sugar rose, I have diabetes. I rolled onto the floor, lay unconscious. The police called an ambulance, and my husband took me from the hospital.

I am not afraid of police officers - they come to me all the time. I have been supporting Alexei Navalny for many years. In 2019, I had a search at home - then the police came to activists throughout the country. I was presented that I was a witness in a criminal case. Allegedly, someone abducted 75 million rubles in bitcoins. So they came to my house, look for bitcoins in clothes, cabinets, pots and pockets of jeans. They took almost all the equipment, a computer’s hard drive, flash drive. They did not return, I had to restore it myself. Until now, almost all bank accounts in banks in the amount of 75 million rubles have been arrested. In 2018, I was detained at a rally, after which I filed a complaint with the ECHR - the Navalny team helped to prepare it. The ECHR communicated the complaint (accepted for consideration. - approx. "Cold") .

Basically, I protect myself in the courts myself. This year, when I was brought to the ambulance, I decided to appeal all the actions of the police, for all the detentions. I had different claims to them: they did not give food, they did not let them into the toilet. Therefore, I filed eight or nine lawsuits on detentions, then they were combined at four. All my claims against the police refused to accept: "Your rights have not been violated."

I appealed everything in the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court canceled all the court rulings, obliged the judges to take the claims for consideration. In these claims, judges partially satisfied my requirements for compensation for moral damage - there are five thousand rubles, there are fifteen. I think this is a victory: at least, decisions in my favor. Now in the Supreme Court there are fifteen of my claims. Four complaints have not yet been considered, but 11 were decided in my favor: I have never completely been completely refused.

I began to go to the courts with about 2004, at work. I have been working as a realtor for 22 years, five or six - a cadastral engineer: I arrange the land, I make boundary technical planes. When my clients were refused by guardianship authorities, or it was necessary to deal with the ownership of the plots, I went to the courts myself.

The fact that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Bashkortostan wants to demand compensation from me, I learned in June this year from their lawyer - I already sued them. In total, I have now a lawsuit for rallies for four million rubles. Six was fed to me in total, from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Russian Guard. I have already won one of them - a million hundred thousand.

As representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in this lawsuit wrote: since I was fined by the court for 25 thousand, then I am one of the organizers of the rallies. I, they say, have a lot of Facebook subscribers, I write posts with calls. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of his expert called, he gave a certificate: "Yes, these are calls to the rally." And since I am the organizer, then everything - the Ministry of Internal Affairs had to take 472 policemen to this rally, I have to compensate for their work. This figure has changed. In the certificate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs they wrote that they demand money from me for 472 police officers, and in the calculation table - to whom they paid for extracurricular work - there were 471 people.

On July seventh was the first meeting. Not a single document was attached to the lawsuit, and therefore I could not defend myself in any way: there was simply nothing in the case. And according to the law, they must provide the calculation there (Article 131 of the Code of Civil Procedure - the calculation of the amount of the amount is applied to the lawsuit). I stated a divert of the judge, filed petitions for the demand for different documents. Some judge rejected, some satisfied. But even where the judge satisfied my requirements, the Ministry of Internal Affairs simply did not provide documents. Last week, in the evening, we had a court, and they brought all these evidence only on Friday. The judge gave me - literally - a weekend to get acquainted with everything, and on Monday at two o’clock the court appointed a court. So all the weekend my husband and I sat and checked these calculations. My husband Vyacheslav supports me in everything. We are preparing these things together. It helps to compile all tables, calculations, some documents prepares. He was engaged in accounting, he had his own enterprise, now he is leading my accounting - so he is well versed in such matters.

The court itself was appointed on Monday, for two hours. By five in the evening, the judge retired to the deliberation room. I was not present at the decision itself: I had a deal appointed, I could not stay. Therefore, I learned about how it ended on Tuesday morning, having read on the court’s website that the Ministry of Internal Affairs was refused. And very surprised. Of course, I always hope for the best outcome, but I had no particular faith that I would win the process. I did not believe that the district court could immediately make a decision in my favor.

Courts for me are the same work as in ordinary life. So they filed a lawsuit for me. I have to defend myself, there is no choice. The Ministry of Internal Affairs puts me in a hopeless position.

At the same time, I have long been accustomed to the absurdity of the situation. When I am once again detained, I launch a live broadcast - my detentions are gaining a million views. Police are trying to be very polite. The last time they even bought the pillow to the department when they left me again for the night. "Here, our pillow is new, please." The police do not always act hard.

We always have about the same conversations. Me: "You act illegally, delaying me." The police answer me: "We must do that." “Well, what can you do,” I answer, “I will also have to sue you.”

This year I was fined 206 thousand rubles. I have already paid all the fines, completely outsiders helped - their donations covered this amount.

I don’t know if I can say that I am politically active. I just don't want people to be tormented. When people are tortured, and we are silent, this is wrong, and I talk about it. But I'm not going to be elected anywhere, I just protect my rights.

"I have to defend myself"

Activist Olga Komleva - about how the court won the Ministry of Internal Affairs