Press Release, 10.05.2023

Photo: Yelena Osipova at the opening of the exhibition in the office of the St. Petersburg Yabloko / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The complaint of the lawyer of the St. Petersburg Yabloko Andrei Chertkov against the actions of the investigator, who seized the paintings of the artist Yelena Osipova, is subject to consideration on the merits in the Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg. This decision was made by the St. Petersburg City Court on Wednesday, 10 May. The hearings were also attended by Alexander Shishlov, head of the regional branch of the Yabloko party and the leader of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg.

Earlier, Yabloko lawyer Chertkov twice filed a complaint against the actions of the investigator with the Dzerzhinsky District Court. However, the complaint was returned each time under various far-fetched pretexts, which, according to Chertkov, was a denial of justice.

“The complaint indicated that it was a clear police provocation. That the investigation had no reason to come to the office of the Yabloko party, because, most likely, there were no reports of an act of terror [being prepared], and all this was dictated only by the desire to disrupt the exhibition which was undesirable for the authorities, that is, to interfere with the legitimate activities of a political party. The return of our complaint by the district court is completely unmotivated. Our point of view was supported not only by the court, but also by a representative of the city Public Prosecutor’s Office,” Andrei Chertkov said.

Now the complaint will be returned to the Dzerzhinsky District Court and will be considered on its merits. “This is not a victory yet, but a reasonable step towards the administration of justice”, Chertkov noted.

It should be noted that on 1 February, police officers came to the Yabloko office, cordoned off the premises and said that they had received a call about an alleged bomb threat. Police officers did not find any explosive objects in the office, but they seized 19 Yelena Osipova’s artworks, which she provided to Yabloko for an exhibition which opened on 31 January. The Yabloko office was blocked for five hours, police did not allow Yabloko activists to return to their working places and prepare documents for the candidates nominated by Yabloko in the by-elections of municipal deputies for submission to the electoral commissions. According to the police report, the paintings were confiscated because they “possibly contained deliberately false information, data on the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in order to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens.”

Alexander Shishlov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, sent appeals to Roman Plugin, head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, and the city Public Prosecutor Viktor Melnik. Shishlov demanded that Osipova’s paintings, that had been illegally confiscated from the office of the party, be returned, the consideration of the appeals of Yabloko’s lawyer Andrei Chertkov be taken under control, and a criminal case on a knowingly false report of mining be initiated.

At the end of March, Roman Plugin, head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, promised that the paintings by the artist Yelena Osipova would be returned in early May. He said this at his annual report to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg. But the paintings still have not been returned.

Last week, Yelena Osipova was taken to hospital with a suspected stroke. Later it was reported that the vital centres were not affected.