Press Release, 9.06.2023

Photo: Ruslan Mutsolgov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On 29 September, 2018, the Nazran City Court found the leader of the Ingush Yabloko, Ruslan Mutsolgov, guilty of violating the procedure for holding public events and fined him 10,000 roubles. The Supreme Court of Ingushetia approved the fine, and Mutsolgov filed a complaint against this decision with the European Court of Human Rights.

On 26 September, 2018, an agreement was signed between the head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, and the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, on changing the borders between the two subjects of the Russian Federation. The leaders of the regions did not ask the residents of these regions about their opinions. On the same day, alarmed residents of Ingushetia gathered in Magas, the capital of Ingushetia. Four participants in the gathering were fined for participating in an “unauthorised public event”.

“Nothing illegal happened that day – people just gathered when they found out that such an agreement was planned to be signed. Being a professional lawyer, I understood from the very beginning that my actions were absolutely legal, I was brought to justice unlawfully, and the ECHR, certainly, should have made exactly such a decision. This is what happened. Justice has triumphed,” Mutsolgov said.

Mutsolgov was awarded compensation in the amount of 3,500 Euro, but since 15 March, 2022, Russia has not complied with the decisions of the ECHR. The leader of the Yabloko branch in Ingushetia hopes that our country will review its relations with the ECHR.

“Our citizens will have hope to find justice, if not in our courts, then at least in international institutions,” Ruslan Mutsolgov says.

It should be noted that Ruslan Mutsolgov and other civil activists had to face different kinds of persecution in connection with the protest against the transfer of Ingush lands to Chechnya. On 2 October, 2018, Mutsolgov’s house was searched on a contrived pretext.