Press Release, 20.01.2023

Photo: The inscriptions run: Magnitogorsk. The right to a protest. Let’s return “hyde park” to the centre of the city.

The Chelyabinsk Region Court accepted the claim of Kira Belaya, Chairwoman of the Magnitogorsk local branch of Yabloko, against the Government of the Chelyabinsk Region on the return of a “hyde park” (a place for holding rallies without any permissions) to the centre of the city of Magnitogorsk. The first hearing is scheduled for 27 February.

Kira Belaya will be represented in court by Yaroslav Shcherbakov, Chairman of the Chelyabinsk Region branch of Yabloko, who in the Fall of 2022 won a similar lawsuit in the city of Chelyabinsk.

Then the Second Court of Appeal ruled out that the decision of the Government of the Chelyabinsk Region to exclude three places from the list of “hyde parks” in Chelyabinsk as unlawful.

The court noted the inadmissibility of introducing arbitrary changes, since the Government of the Chelyabinsk Region could not prove the validity of the reasons for excluding these sites from the list of “hyde parks”.

Yaroslav Shcherbakov  noted that the position of the court provides a very important precedent preventing the authorities from making decisions based on the imaginary expediency and understanding of it by officials, rather than law, the rights and interests of citizens. Their understanding bases on the fact that all protests and dissatisfaction of people can be expressed only where no one won’t see it. A “hyde park” in Magnitogorsk was moved from the city center to the outskirts, the government did not indicate the reasons for such a decision to residents, so there is every reason to believe that violations similar to those made in Chelyabinsk and found unlawful by court, were made in Magnitogorsk when adopting this decision.

It should be noted that a “hyde park” in Russia is a place where any public events (rallies, pickets, and meetings) with the participation of up to 100 people can be held without the consent or a permission of the authorities. The presence of “hyde parks” in convenient places is an additional guarantee for the exercise of the right to peaceful assembly (Article 31 of the Constitution), which is simply necessary for civil society in the current conditions: protection from unreasonable refusals by the authorities to give their permission to protest actions and initiation of criminal and administrative cases for holding such actions without such permission.