Press Release, 3.12.2019

Yabloko Chair Emilia Slabunova, appealed to public prosecutors of 43 regions of Russia with a request to control the changes in regional laws on rallies in order to bring them in line with the Russian Constitution. Earlier this year, the Constitutional Court passed a ruling that effectively prohibits regional authorities from refusing to hold public rallies because of the proximity of rallies to government buildings, obstruction of transport, or difficulty in accessing social institutions.

The politician sent appeals to public prosecutors of the Amur, Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Belgorod, Bryansk, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Kostroma, Kurgan, Leningrad, Magadan, Novgorod, Oryol, Pskov, Rovsk Smolensk, Tver, Tula and Ulyanovsk regions. Similar appeals were sent to public prosecutors of the St. Petersburg, Altai, Kamchatka and Krasnodar Territories, and the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Districts. Emilia Slabunova also appealed to public prosecutors of the following republics: Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, Adygea, Bashkortostan, Dagestan, Komi, North Ossetia, Tatarstan, Udmurtia and Chuvashia.

Earlier, the Yabloko party launched a campaign targeted at liberalization of regional laws on rallies. Several regional branches of Yabloko sent appeals to the parliaments of their regions with a request to expand the list of places allowed for public mass events.

In addition, Lev Shlosberg and Arthur Gaiduk, deputies from Yabloko in the Pskov Oblast Assembly, introduced a draft law to the regional parliament that would bring regional legislation in line with the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

It should be noted that on 1 November, 2019, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation adopted Resolution No. 33-P, according to which the provisions of the law on rallies of the Komi Republic restricting freedom of assembly were recognised as unconstitutional. Similar norms are contained in many regional laws, and they must be repealed in accordance with the same provision of the Constitutional Court.