Press Release, 27.12.2023

Photo: MP Gurulyov, a screenshot of the programme “Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov”

Boris Vishnevsky, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party and MP of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, appealed in the Izmailovsky District Court of Moscow the actions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which found no signs of extremism in the statements of State Duma deputy, General Andrei Gurulyov, who had proposed extermination of 20% of Russia’s population dissenting with Vladimir Putin’s policies

Complaint about illegal actions (inaction) of the Public Prosecutor General, the Public Prosecutor of the City of Moscow and the investigative body – the Office of the Interior Ministry for the Eastern Administrative District of Moscow, in accordance with Article 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, was filed by Vishnevsky’s lawyer Andrei Chertkov.

Vishnevsky asks the court to oblige these bodies and officials to immediately eliminate the violation of his rights and legitimate interests. In preparation for the court hearing, lawyer Chertkov asks the court to request the inspection materials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the request of Boris Vishnevsky.

The complaint also indicates that the Public Prosecutor General’s Office, in violation of the requirements of the law, sent Vishnevsky’s application not to the investigative authorities, but to the lower public prosecutor’s office, which was obviously not authorised to conduct an inspection.

The Moscow Public Prosecutor, in turn, in violation of the requirements of the law, also forwarded the application to another unauthorised body – the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the city of Moscow.

And the investigative body – the Office of the Interior Ministry for the Eastern Administrative District of Moscow, where the statement was eventually registered, evaded conducting a check on the report of the crime. The answer of the investigative body to Vishnevsky was completely unmotivated and did not contain any justification for the decision made.

Thus, the complaint states that, the indicated officials and bodies illegally and unreasonably virtually evaded proper verification of the report on a crime and the adoption of a procedural decision. Moreover, taking into account the factual circumstances of the case outlined above, it can be assumed that the pre-investigation check on Vishnevsky’s application was not carried out at all.

It should be noted that on 15 October, 2023, State Duma deputy Andrei Gurulyov, speaking live on the programme “Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov,” said that, in his opinion, President Vladimir Putin is supported by 80% of the population, noting the following about the remaining 20%: “…for all this rot that remains, it must be, if not isolated, then at least somehow destroyed”.

On 24 October, Boris Vishnevsky, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party and MP of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, sent an appeal to the Public Prosecutor General of Russia Igor Krasnov with a request to organise a check of Andrei Gurulyov’s statements.

“I believe that the inhumane and clearly illegal calls of deputy Andrei Gurulev are aimed not just at inciting hatred based on political enmity, but at undermining a number of provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation,” Boris Vishnevsky noted in his appeal.

On 4 December, it was announced that the law enforcement agencies “did not identify any violations of the legislation on countering extremist activities” in the statement of MP Andrei Gurulyov.

BORIS VISHNEVSKY

is Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko Party, member of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee and Bureau, and an MP of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg