Press Release, 28.03.2024

Photo: Alexei Ovsyannikov, head of the Pskov Region Interior Department / Photo by the Press Service of the Pskov Regional Assembly of Deputies

After the report of the head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Pskov Region Alexei Ovsyannikov to the regional parliament on the police performance for 2023, Artur Gaiduk, Deputy of the Pskov Regional Assembly from Yabloko, asked whether to expect police visits to the party office on the eve of the next elections, since in the previous two years  police inspected the premises of the Pskov Yabloko twice and confiscated all office equipment.

“In the past years, before almost every election, they come to our party office for inspection and confiscate office equipment, returning it not a month later, as expected, but three months later, when the elections have already passed. Some of the equipment is returned damaged. It is clear that this significantly interferes with our election campaign. My question is as follows: now we are most likely participate in the municipal elections. Tell me, please, should we expect that you visit us again?” Arthur Gaiduk asked.

Alexei Ovsyannikov avoided a direct answer, but recalled the case of the detention of The Echo of Pskov journalists in Pechory, calling them provocateurs. The incident occurred on 15 March while journalists were filming a mobile polling station to prepare a story about the elections. It should be noted here that to photograph buses used as mobile polling stations located outside the border zone, one does not need to have the status of a journalist or a special pass to the border zone. Access to mobile polling stations is free and not limited by law.

In addition, photographs of journalists’ personal IDs taken on a police officer’s phone ended up on an anonymous Telegram channel specialising in dishonest publications.

“I will give a small example from the past elections, when three provocateurs came to Pechory, I can’t call them anything else, who were taken to the interior departments. And 20 minutes after you and Kuzmin arrived, a photograph of the Pechora police department with bars ended up in the Baltic public pages, and ultimately it ended up with Mr. Ponomarev and others like him, who is now actively engaged in nothing more than terrorism against the Russian Federation. Do you think we are obligated to stop such moments or not?  And when exactly we may come to you, will depend on how you behave” That’s it,” Alexei Ovsyannikov said in response to Arthur Gaiduk’s question.

The creative group The Echo of Pskov is part of the information holding of the Pskov Yabloko. At the same time, Arthur Gaiduk did not go to Pechory with the Echo of Pskov journalists on 15 March. The journalists did not violate the media laws or the laws border control. After communication with employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Security Service (FSB), which lasted more than three hours, the journalists were released without any comments or any protocols of violation drawn up against them. The journalists did not publish any materials from their trip.

Nikolai Kuzmin, a deputy i the Zavelichenskaya volost (district) of the Pskov region from Yabloko, mentioned by Alexei Ovsyannikov, brought a lawyer hired by Yabloko to Pechory on the day the journalists were detained, and did not take part in communication with the police.

It should be noted that on 5 March, 2022, police seized all equipment from the office of the Pskov Yabloko, initiating administrative proceedings based on the denunciation of a citizen who reported knowingly false information to the police. After 32 days, as no violations were established, the equipment was returned to Pskov Yabloko, but with physical damage.

On 5 July, 2023, the police again came to the party office with an inspection in an administrative case of alleged abuse of freedom of the media, the maximum sanction for which was a fine of up to 2,500 roubles, and seized seven desktop computers, three office laptops, as well as four personal laptops and two personal mobile phones. Again no violations were established and the equipment was returned almost four months later, but also with physical damage.