Press Release, 20.07.2022

Photo: Andrei Morev / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Andrei Morev, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow branch of Yabloko and head of the Yakimanka district of Moscow, was arrested for 15 days for “demonstrating extremist symbols”.

On 7 July, unidentified persons stuck a sticker with the Smart Voting symbols on the glass of Morev’s car [the so-called Smart Voting was promoted by Alexei Navalny’s team asking to vote for any political parties, including all the pro-government  parliamentary parties, but for the ruling United Russia, in the 2021 parliamentary election many dissenting people voted “smartly” picking only the candidates listed by Navlany’s team, which led to the increase of mandates of communists-Stalinists in the parliament, none of the democrats managed to win a mandate].

Andrei Morev presented to the court recordings from the surveillance cameras on the entrance to his house showing that there was no sticker on his car until early in the morning of 7 July, when three men came to the parking lot in the courtyard of Morev’s house. The recording shows that Morev did not approach his car.

In addition to administrative arrest, a person brought to responsibility under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses is deprived of the right to participate in elections within a year after the court decision comes into force. On 7 July, the Yabloko party nominated Andrei Morev and other Yabloko candidates to run from the party in the forthcoming municipal elections in Moscow.

Obviously, this whole story with the Smart Voting sticker was invented solely to prevent Morev from being elected as a municipal deputy again. On 24 June, Nikolai Kavkazsky, a candidate for deputies in the Basmanny district in Moscow, was arrested for ten days under this article, and on 8 July, Maya Baidakova, a candidate for the Khamovniki district in Moscow, received ten days of administrative arrest.

Earlier, Nikolai Kavkazsky, a member of the Regional Council of the Moscow Yabloko, spent ten days in a special detention centre under the same Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. Kavkazsky was also nominated as Yabloko candidate for the municipal elections in Moscow. Now the human rights activist is appealing the court’s decision, and until it comes into force, he plans to apply for registration as a candidate.

Andrei Morev is appealing against the decision of the Zamoskvoretsky Court in the Moscow City Court. The decision of the court will enter into force only after consideration of the appeal.

Read more about the persecution of Yabloko members after the start of the “special operation”.