Former municipal deputy of Moscow's Basmanny district arrested for 5 days

Pavel Ivanov was found guilty under Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses due to the symbols of Navalny’s headquarters.

On July 5, 2024, the Tagansky District Court of Moscow arrested Pavel Ivanov, a former municipal deputy of the Basmanny District of the capital from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, for five days. He was found guilty under Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (public display of prohibited symbols).

The reason for the arrest was a publication on the politician's Telegram channel, posted in August 2021. The post spoke about the arrest of picketers and published their photo, one of them had the inscription "Smart voting" and an exclamation mark on the poster. The court considered this to be the symbolism of Alexei Navalny's headquarters, which were banned as an extremist organization.

The Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), the Citizens' Rights Protection Foundation (CRPF) and Navalny's headquarterswere recognized as extremist organizations on June 9, 2021. The ban decision came into force on August 4, 2021. In our opinion, the court did not have sufficient legal grounds to ban Navalny's organizations as extremist. Therefore, we consider the prosecution for displaying the symbols of Navalny's team to be unlawful. We also remind you that persons brought to justice under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses are deprived of the right to be elected for a one-year term, counted from the moment the decision on the administrative offense is executed.

In June 2024, Ivanov was recognized as a “foreign agent”, after which the politician was stripped of his mandate as a municipal deputy.

Sources

• Former municipal deputy Ivanov has been sentenced to administrative arrest // Courts of general jurisdiction of the city of Moscow. 2024. July 5.