"I will not pay." The court appreciated the work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on protests of 4 million

By a court decision, the former head of the Navalny headquarters in St. Petersburg, Irina Fatyanova, must pay 4 million rubles for the work of the police at protest rallies in 2021. The court did not take into account any of the arguments of the defense. Irina Fatyanova told the correspondent of the North. Reali that she considers the decision illegal and will not pay anything.

Mass protests in support of the politician Alexei Navalny and against the current government in Russia began in January 2021. After poisoning, Navalny returned from Germany, and the Russian court changed him the punishment in the case of "Yves Rocher" from the conditional to the real one. The first protest took place on January 23 in dozens of cities of the country: people took to the central streets with posters, chanted slogans against President Putin. According to the OVD-Info, more than 10 thousand people were detained throughout Russia for three days of protests. The Ministry of Internal Affairs did not reveal the exact statistics about the number of detainees.

Irina Fatyanova was detained on the evening of January 23. A day later, the court in St. Petersburg arrested her for six days. Fatyanov was called the organizer of the protest campaign due to the publication of a post on social networks calling to take to the streets. In April 2021, the court repeatedly arrested Fatyanov for 10 days, again recognizing it by the organizer of the protest, but already another, which was held on January 31. The accusation, according to Fatyanova, boiled down to the fact that she allegedly published a post on social networks calling for protest. The judge was not embarrassed that on the day of the rally, January 31, she herself was in a special reception.

A year after the protests of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of St. Petersburg, he appealed to the court, demanding to recover 4 million rubles from Fatyanova for extracurricular work of police during rallies. April 29, 2022, the court satisfied the requirements of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The judge closed the meetings from the press and listeners, considering that the names of the police could be disclosed at the meetings. Apology of Protest, lawyer Sergei Loktev , who represented the interests of the activist, told North. Realiy that he considers the closure of the court session “Limiting freedom of speech”, since there were no real grounds for this.

- The Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights have repeatedly said that it is impossible to collect money from citizens for the fulfillment of the so -called positive obligations (the obligations of the state to protect citizens). Secondly, we believe that Fatyanova is charged with non-fulfillment of obligations to protect public order, to ensure the safety of citizens - this cannot be fully controlled by the organizer. Based on the general norms and rules, Fatyanova could not carry out the functions of the organizer at public events. In addition, on January 31, Fatyanova was in a special reception and objectively, being there, she could not organize an event, ”explains Loktev.

Irina Fatyanova told North. Realiy that she did not agree with the court decision and did not plan to pay police officers.

- I believe that the protection of people and the protection of public order is included in the duties of police officers. Both I and other Petersburgers paid for their work from their taxes. And if it is decided to dispose of additional employees to the event of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then they should pay for this from their budget, because this work was already paid by me and other Petersburgers.

- Do you consider yourself the organizer of these rallies?

-Officially, both the district and the city court recognized me as the organizer of the rallies and on the 23rd and January 31. I believe that it is quite difficult for me to consider the organizer especially from a legal point of view, because notifications about the rally were not submitted. How did I have to control the order if no one recognized me by the organizer? In principle, even if I were the organizer of the official one, I still do not have to pay for the police. These are their job responsibilities. We have the right to a peaceful protest, and police officers are obliged to protect people who have come out to express this opinion. Regarding January 31, this is generally a separate story, because I was in a special projector and was serving administrative arrest. I was charged that I am the organizer, that I urged people to go out with the help of a video that I published on social networks. Like any person who is in a special reception, I did not have access to phones and social networks. How I turned out to be the organizer of the action on January 31, I am generally not clear to me.

- Why, in your opinion, the case was opened against you?

- Everything is clear here. I am a former coordinator of the headquarters of Navalny in St. Petersburg. I led the election campaign, actively spoke about politics in St. Petersburg and the country. I think that it is obvious why I became this person who was accused of organizing rallies and hanging this money.

- Are you going to pay a fine?

- No. I do not have such a goal, I will not pay. I plan to file an appeal with a lawyer. And I do not consider it necessary to declare a fundraiser to pay for the police, which was not engaged in the protection of order, but by the fact that she beat and delayed people. I do not consider it necessary to pay for their work in the second round. Everything has already been paid from taxes.

-You left Russia in November 2021 and because of the non-payment of the fine, you risk not returning to the country ...

-In my opinion, for many other reasons I risk not returning to Russia. I left without a return ticket, while Putin was in power, while there was a war, while criminal cases for extremism are appearing, there are much more serious threats - in contrast to non -payment of a fine. If it were the only risk for me, then I would have dealt with it. Bogdan Litvin and Denis Mikhailov ( former activists of Navalny’s headquarters in St. Petersburg, from which 7 million rubles were collected for damage to lawns during the campaign “He is not a king” on May 5, 2018. - SR ) were supposed to be 7.5 million and nothing, they lived. Yes, of course, it is impossible to receive money on your salary cards, it is impossible to do anything with property. You are simply deprived of all rights, but you can live in Russia calmly with this. This is not a criminal case and not real imprisonment. Since I am no longer in Russia, I simply consider this fine an additional discomfort for myself. Now I have no way to work in Russia and receive a salary there, like any other citizen.

-Do you have some kind of real estate in Russia?

- In principle, I did not have any real estate, there was 1/8 of the share in the apartment, but after the lawsuit I gave it.

- Do you have hopes for an appeal?

- I, of course, are an optimist. I hope that the amount will be reduced. In the district court, no petitions satisfied us, they did not introduce us to anything, although the side of the defense had a huge number of arguments: from some procedural inconsistencies to simply we were not given calculations, on the basis of which such amounts. This is at least serious grounds for reducing the amount, not to mention the fact that this decision should be canceled. But I'm not crazy, I understand that this case arose for a reason. If it appears, then this is not just.