Press Release, 10.04.2025

Photo: Ruslan Zinatullin (centre) with the Tatarstan Yabloko team / Photo by the regional branch of Yabloko

On 9 April, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan considered the appeals of the Chairman of the Tatarstan Yabloko Ruslan Zinatullin and candidate for party membership Sofia Fyodorova. They were found guilty of administrative offenses for participating in the permitted picket on 1 February “For Freedom of Speech and the Media”.

Однако позже силовики решили, что он «не соответствовал заявленной теме». Софья Федорова выступала организатором пикета.

It should be noted that Ruslan Zinatullin was found guilty under Article 20.2 Part 8 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (a repeated administrative violation) and was fined 250,000 roubles. Sofia Fyodorova was fined 20,000 roubles under Article 20.2 Part 1  of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (violation by the organiser of a public event of the established procedure for organizing or holding a meeting, rally, demonstration or picketing). The reason for the persecution of Zinatullin was the poster of the leader of the Tatarstan Yabloko with the inscription of imprisoned leader of the Ryazan Yabloko: “Konstantin Smirnov is a journalist, not a criminal”. The day before, Konstantin Smirnov, the Editor-in-Chief of the Ryazan online media Vid Sboku and Zinatullin’s colleague in the Federal Bureau of Yabloko, was arrested on a fabricated case of extortion. During the picket no complaints were made about the poster – neither by the police, nor by the representative of the Executive Committee of Kazan. However, later the police decided that the poster “did not correspond to the topic of the picket” (https://eng.yabloko.ru/35202-2/ ). Sofia Fedorova was the organiser of the picket.

Yabloko and public activists announced fundraising to help Zinatullin to pay the fine.