Translated material
Lawyers against "agents"
Than the precedent of the recognition of lawyers with “individuals - foreign agents” threatens the Ministry of Justice itself
The recognition of the “individuals - foreign agents” of five members of the informal and recognized “unwanted” “team 29”, two of which - Ivan Pavlov and Valery Vetoshkin - have the status of a lawyer, can become an important line for both the lawyer community and the Ministry of Justice.
Pavlov, better known to the general public as a lawyer working in cases of violation of state secrets, among colleagues has another hypostasis: one of the leaders of the lawyer opposition in relation to the formal leaders of the community. The internal discord in the advocacy arose in 2018, when a number of lawyers, among whom were very famous, on the initiative of Pavlov created their own Prague Club and the informal association of initiative-2018. Most members of the regional chambers prefer to take a neutral position in this dispute, but part of the active community presented the leadership of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers and the regional chambers that the “bonzes” were torn away from the masses, live on their contributions and poorly protect ordinary lawyers when they have conflicts with judicial investigative bodies and justice bodies when working on cases of political ground. In connection with the deprivation of the status of a member of the Bashkortostan, Vitaly Burkin, in fact, in fact, for criticism of the leadership of the chamber (see No. 63 for June 14, 2019) came to the public plane.
In the FPA and the St. Petersburg Lawyer Chamber, a member of which is Pavlov, on this basis they are ambiguous, reproaching him for his political activity, he complicates the work of colleagues who prefer to use purely legal, but not political arguments in protecting the interests of customers. In particular, the President of the Bar Chamber of St. Petersburg, Yevgeny Semenyako, a month ago, commented on the “new” idea of the Ministry of Justice about the deprivation of Pavlov’s status of a lawyer, which was sent to the ward in October, but has not yet been examined by it.
Someone could have a vain about Pavlov’s recognition as an “agent”, but the president of the Federal Lawyer Chamber, Yuri Pilipenko, has not yet expressed an official opinion on this matter, referring to the fact that it should be formulated by the Council of the Chamber. His colleague from St. Petersburg was more derive: not forgetting to once again criticize Pavlov “for politics”, Semenyako at the same time noticed that this decision of the Ministry of Justice raises the question of the quality of the law on “individuals-foreign agents”.
For the community, this is a dangerous precedent: many lawyers can be “convicted” in receiving money from foreign customers, and the “political activity” of the justice or those who stand behind them are inclined to interpret very widely. However, the Ministry of Justice himself crossed the dangerous line: lawyers are not journalists, they are much more organized and have much more serious lobbying capabilities, in particular through their colleagues in the Federal Assembly.
The story on the topic “If you are not interested in politics, it will become interested in you” is quite natural and confirms the insight of the law opposition. Until some point, while the investigating authorities and courts have more or less adhered to the procedural law, lawyers could stand on the fact that they "do not engage in politics." But where the law no longer acts, and the investigation and the court turn into arbitrariness, any opposition to it and arbitrariness is - behind the absence of other instruments - political activity.