Press Release, 21.06.2022

Photo: Valentina Komkova / Photo by Sergei Krasnoeyev

The Miass City Court found Valentina Komkova, Chairwoman of the Miass branch of Yabloko, guilty of “failing to comply with the lawful demands by the police” and fined her 4,000 roubles. Komkova provided legal assistance to a woman detained for making an anti-war inscription on the pavement.

Human rights activist Vasily Moskovets defending Valentina Komkova intends to appeal this decision of the court.

It should be noted that, on 10 June, the Miass police detained Valentina Komkova, a human rights activist and Chairwoman of the Miass local branch of Yabloko. Police drew an administrative protocol against Komkova on “the failure to comply with the lawful demands by of the police”.

Earlier that day, human rights defender Komkova accompanied a woman, resident of Miass, to another police station who had been summoned there for drawing up of a protocol on “discrediting the army”.  Komkova’s client went out into one of Miass streets and wrote the inscription “No ** ***” on the pavement, after which she was called to the police. The woman turned to the Chair of the Miass Yabloko for legal assistance.

At the police station, where an administrative report on “discrediting the army” was drawn up against Komkova’s client, policemen asked Komkova to leave the office of the interrogating officer. The human rights defender did not immediately leave the office. However, already in the street, she was approached by employees of another police department and without explaining the reasons they detained her and took her to the police station.

Read more about the persecution of Yabloko members after the start of the “special operation”.