Press Release, 26.11.2020

Photo: Vladimir Dorokhov, Chairman of the Tula branch of Yabloko, at a picket against the amendments to the Constitution, on 23 June, 2020

A year after Yabloko’s appeal to the Public Prosecutor’s Offices of 43 Russian Federation subjects with a demand to bring regional laws on rallies in line with the Constitution, the necessary amendments were adopted in 26 regions.

In 2019, the Constitutional Court adopted a resolution that effectively prohibited the regional authorities from turning down the requests of the organisers of public events [on a getting a permission to conduct such events] referring to the proximity of actions to government buildings, interferance with transport or hindering access to social institutions.

On 3 December, 2019, Yabloko Chairman Emilia Slabunova appealed to the public prosecutors of those regions whose legislation contradicted the position of the Constitutional Court. There were 43 such regions. In a number of regions, the local branches of the party also sent corresponding appeals to the governors and legislative assemblies.

As shown by a study conducted by the Analytical Department of the Yabloko party, a year after Slabunova’s appeal, 26 federal subjects of the Russian Federation brought their laws in line with the Constitution.

The changes were adopted in Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Belgorod, Bryansk, Volgograd, Vologda, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Kurgan, Magadan, Novgorod, Oryol, Pskov, Ryazan, Saratov, Smolensk,  and Tula regions, the republics of Bashkiria, Komi, North Ossetia, and Tatarstan, the Krasnodar Territory, St. Petersburg, Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District.

However, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Voronezh region considered that the legislation of the region did not contradict the Constitution, and the ruling of the Constitutional Court did not apply to them.

There was no response from the Public Prosecutor’s Offices of 16 federal subjects. Yabloko informed the Public Prosecutor General’s Office of a violation of the law by a number of its regional offices.

“We have driven the regional authorities into a legal impasse,” Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov says. “For many years they have been restricting by all ways and means the freedom of assembly, the freedom of expression by citizens of their political position. They were simply afraid to object to the decision of the Constitutional Court.

Freedom of assembly in any modern society is an integral mechanism for citizens’ participation in politics, and we will continue to protect it. And it would be good for the authorities to understand that the more such prohibitions they create, the closer comes the moment when so many people take to the streets, and all their prohibitive laws will turn into waste paper. That is why real political dialogue and fair elections are vital for our country. ”

Earlier, the Yabloko Party Bureau appealed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Public Prosecutor General’s Office with an appeal to take measures of the prosecutor’s and departmental response aimed at stopping unlawful detentions of participants in single pickets (that do not require any permissions from the authorities), and preventing the use of the police in fighting the dissent.