Press Release, 25.01.2023

Photo: Yaroslav Shcherbakov / Photo from the personal archive

On 25 January, the Seventh Court of Cassation dismissed the complaint of the Chelyabinsk Mayor’s Office against the decision of the regional court. The decision remains in force: the refusal of the city administration to the Chairman of the Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko Yaroslav Shcherbakov to hold a rally “For Peace” on 1 May, 2022, was unlawful.

In April 2022, Yabloko filed notices about holding May Day marches under the slogan “For Peace” in several Russian cities. The action was permitted and held only in Miass, the Chelyabinsk region, in other cities the authorities refused to give permissions to organisers citing coronavirus restrictions. At the same time, the administrations of some municipalities offered Yabloko to join the pro-government “Za Mir” actions, which were permitted, apparently, their participants were not exposed to the threat of coronavirus. The regional branches of the party refused to participate in the public actions that expressed support for the so-called “special operation”.

Yaroslav Shcherbakov, the leader of the Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko, appealed to the Sovetsky District Court demanding that the Mayor’s Office’s decision be declared unlawful. But the district court considered that the Mayor’s Office knew better which of the events were more dangerous as regards catching the coronavirus infections: at the “For Peace” rally or at the “Za Mir” rally.

Yaroslav Shcherbakov had to defend the constitutional right to hold a rally in the Chelyabinsk Regional Court, which sided with the plaintiff. But Yabloko failed to hold the May Day rally: the Sovetsky District Court delayed the transfer of the case to the regional court, and the decision in favour of Yabloko was made after 1 May.

Nevertheless, the Mayor’s Office of Chelyabinsk wanted to have the last word on the issue, so the case was considered by the Seventh Court of Cassation. The court sided with the Chairman of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko Yaroslav Shcherbakov.

“You cannot remain indifferent to injustice. It is very important that not a single fact of violation of human rights and freedoms in the Chelyabinsk region go unnoticed. The practices I developed made it possible to deprive officials of their favorite opportunity to refer to the coronavirus and achieve justice in relation to the practices of similar refusals, for example, in Magnitogorsk,” Yaroslav Shcherbakov wrote in his Telegram channel.