Press Release, 6.02.2026

Photo: Ruslan Zinatullin, 1 February 2025 / Photo by the Tatarstan branch of Yabloko

Ruslan Zinatullin, leader of Yabloko in Tatarstan, is asking the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation to issue a separate Judgement that would make it impossible to hold participants in street actions liable for using placards that the police deem inconsistent with the declared theme of the action.

The reason for the appeal to the Constitutional Court was a fine of 250,000 roubles that Zinatullin received for attending a picket for press freedom with a placard in support of Yabloko’s Konstantin Smirnov, the arrested editor-in-chief of the Ryazan publication Vid Sboku.

The placard with which Ruslan Zinatullin went out to Karim Tinchurin Park in Kazan on 1 February 2025 ran: “Konstantin Smirnov is a journalist, not a criminal”. In this way, Zinatullin publicly supported his colleague – Konstantin Smirnov, the leader of Yabloko in Ryazan and editor-in-chief of the regional Ryazan media Vid Sboku, who had been arrested on fabricated charges of extortion. Konstantin remains in a pre-trial detention centre; he is being persecuted for actively fighting municipal reform in the region (https://eng.yabloko.ru/37180-2/ ).

The picket in which Ruslan Zinatullin and other Yabloko activists participated was agreed on with the authorities and took place under the slogan “For Freedom of Speech and the Press!”, the authorities and police had no questions for those gathered during the action. However, several days later, a report was drawn up against the leader of Tatarstan Yabloko under the article on violation of the rules for conducting public events (Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences). Zinatullin was then fined 250,000 roubles. The prosecution in court presented arguments that the content of the placard “did not correspond to the declared theme” of the action.

In April 2025, Ruslan Zinatullin appealed against the imposition of the fine to the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan, but the court agreed with the prosecution’s position. Zinatullin then filed a complaint with the Sixth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction, but in July 2025, the court left the complaint without satisfaction. The leader of Tatarstan Yabloko then appealed to the Supreme Court of Russia in October 2025, but there too the complaint was left without satisfaction.

All stages of appealing the unjust court decision had been completed, and Ruslan Zinatullin sent a complaint to the Constitutional Court. The complaint was prepared by Alexander Kobrinsky, Deputy Chairman of St.Petersburg Yabloko and a lawyer.

The document does not challenge the imposed fine, but rather the very provision whose application made the persecution possible: Ruslan Zinatullin is asking the Constitutional Court to recognise the inconsistency of the law “On Assemblies, Rallies, Demonstrations, Processions and Picketing” with the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

In the complaint Ruslan Zinatullin refers to the position of the Constitutional Court, which the Court had expressed earlier: only the actions of organisers or participants of a rally or picket can be recognised as violating the legislation of the Russian Federation when they behave destructively – intend to commit or, moreover, do commit any actions threatening public order.

According to the text of the Constitutional Court’s earlier ruling of 2018 (with reference to the “protest” legislation), participants in a public event have the right to use “various symbols and other means of public expression of collective or individual opinion, as well as means of campaigning not prohibited by the legislation of the Russian Federation”. The use of prohibited symbols and campaigning would be considered a violation of order.

The text of the placard in support of Konstantin Smirnov not only did not violate Russian laws, it also contained no extremist, offensive, defamatory or obscene elements, nor did it contain any calls to break the law.

This virtually means that contrary to the legal position of the Constitutional Court, the leader of Tatarstan Yabloko was held liable solely on the basis of the courts’ recognition of the placard as inconsistent with the purposes of the picket. That is, a placard in defence of a journalist and editor-in-chief of a large media in the region was deemed inconsistent with the theme of the picket “For Freedom of Speech and the Press!”.

It should be noted that if Ruslan Zinatullin’s complaint is accepted for consideration, the Constitutional Court may issue a judgement in which it will have to reiterate its position from its 2018 ruling on the inadmissibility of subjective assessment. This could subsequently affect both the review of the decision to fine Ruslan Zinatullin and thousands of administrative cases for allegedly unlawful participation in rallies and pickets across the country.