Supreme Court: appealing for immediate execution of a decision to ban an organization is not the same as its entry into force

The Supreme Court agreed with the important argument of Oleg Stepanov, who was removed from the elections for "involvement" in an extremist organization, but did not satisfy his cassation appeal.

On October 4, 2021, the former head of Navalny's Moscow headquarters, Oleg Stepanov, published on Twitter a fragment of the ruling of the Russian Supreme Court on his cassation complaint.

On June 22, the electoral committee forbade Stepanov to open an electoral account for nomination to the State Duma. The refusal was based on the ban imposed the day before on participation in elections for persons "involved" in the activities of organizations recognized as extremist and terrorist. The Electoral Committee considered that the court had previously established Stepanov's involvement in the activities of banned organizations in the decision to recognize the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK), the Fund for the Protection of Citizens' Rights (FZPG) and the headquarters of Alexei Navalny as extremist.

Stepanov, in a complaint to the Moscow City Court, argued that the decision to ban the FBK, the FZPG and Navalny's headquarters of June 9, 2021 had not yet entered into force at that time. The Electoral Committee, however, believed that since this decision was subject to immediate execution regarding the termination of the activities of organizations, then in relation to the persons involved in their activities, " failure to make decisions would lead to significant damage to protected interests and violation of the rights of voters ," since it would allow candidates to introduce voters are misled about their status. The Moscow City Court on July 9 took the side of the electoral committee .

On August 20, the Supreme Court considered Stepanov's cassation complaint. The court noted that the immediate execution of a court decision that has not entered into legal force does not endow it with irrefutability, universal validity, or prejudice. In other words, it is not identical with the entry into force. However, the Supreme Court denied Stepanov's cassation appeal, since the decision to ban Navalny's structures actually entered into force on August 4 anyway and deprived him of his passive electoral right before the election days.

The FBK, the FZPG and the headquarters of Alexei Navalny were recognized as extremist organizations on June 9, 2021. We believe that there are no legal grounds for banning Navalny's organizations as extremist. You can read more about our position here . We also believe that the amendments prohibiting those "involved" in the activities of extremist organizations from participating in elections unduly restrict freedom of association.

Sources

• Based on social media.
• Case card No. 5-IKAD21-6-A1 // Website of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. 2021. August 20.