Oppositionist Nikolai Lyaskin was fined for a post about “Smart Voting”; he was not warned about the meeting

At the end of August, the Perovsky District Court of Moscow fined oppositionist Nikolai Lyaskin one thousand rubles for a Facebook post about “Smart Voting.” The resolution was published on the website of the Moscow courts.

On August 25, employees of Center “E” sent Lyaskin a summons via WhatsApp to draw up a protocol on the distribution of symbols of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code).

He did not go there on August 26, and on the same day the police submitted the report to the court. The meeting was held three days later, on August 30. “They didn’t even notify me so that I could attend the meeting and somehow defend myself,” the politician said.

The decision under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses that has entered into force prohibits a person from participating in elections for a year. “It looks like they want to remove me from elections that I had no intention of participating in,” Lyaskin commented.

According to the court ruling, the protocol was drawn up because of a photograph with the logo of “Smart Voting,” a project with election recommendations from Alexei Navalny’s associates. The date of publication and other details about the post were not given in the court order.

Before the September municipal elections in Moscow, similar protocols were drawn up for several dozen current deputies , candidates and politicians who were not going to vote.