Press Release, 31.05.2024

Photo: Boris Vishnevsky / Photo by the St.Petersburg branch of Yabloko

On 31 May, the Vasileostrovsky District Court held the first hearing in the lawsuit filed by Boris Vishnevsky, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party and deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, against the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Roskomnadzor (the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media). Vishnevsky disputes the status of “foreign agent” unlawfully assigned to him. The hearing was postponed because representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Roskomnadzor did not appear in court.

The plaintiff had read the objections of the Ministry of Justice in the case, 99% of over one hundred pages of the document consists of the Ministry’s retelling of the biography of Boris Vishnevsky, as well as evidence that Boris Vishnevsky, being a professional politician, a member of a political party, and deputy, had been engaged in political activities. The rest was evidence of “foreign influence”: broadcasts by Russian publicist Oleg Kashin, Russian journalist Alexander Plyushchev, commentary in Russian for the Bild, as well as an indication of the use of Internet platforms Facebook and YouTube.

There are even obvious contradictions in the inconsistent evidence base of the Ministry of Justice:

The difference between the definitions of activities “participates in the creation of messages and materials” and “participates as a respondent” is unclear. The Ministry of Justice indicated this as two independent grounds in which foreign influence was manifested.

It is unclear why the Novaya Gazeta web-site blocked on the territory of the Russian Federation was classified as a source intended for an unlimited number of people.

The Ministry of Justice wrote that inclusion in the Foreign Agents Register would not impose any additional responsibilities, while at the same time imposing such responsibilities on Vishnevsky.

According to Vishnevsky’s representatives in court, Alexander Kobrinsky and Vitaly Isakov, such quality of the Ministry of Justice’s arguments means that the grounds for including Boris Vishnevsky in the Register were chosen arbitrary.

“We will consistently prove the complete unlawfulness of the decision to include me in the register of “foreign agents,” Boris Vishnevsky emphasised.

Lawyers Alexander Kobrinsky and Vitaly Isakov asked to postpone the court hearing due to the fact that they needed to ask a number of questions to representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Roskomnadzor, who did not come. The trial in the Vasileostrovsky District Court will resume on 18 July at 16:30.

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