Statement by Yabloko Chairman, 28.05.2020

Photo: Ilya Azar picketing in front of the Moscow Interior Department on Petrovka street on May 26.

The Yabloko party is outraged by the unlawful prosecution of the journalist and Moscow municipal deputy Ilya Azar, who was sentenced by court to 15 days of administrative arrest for a one-person picket [such pickets do not require any permissions from the authorities] today.

We consider the actions of the law enforcement unlawful and inadequate in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. It is quite obvious that the detention of the journalist, his delivery to the police department and sending him to a temporary detention centre pose more threats to the spread of the virus than a one-person picket, which is not a mass event.

The use of extraordinary circumstances to prosecute the dissenting is unacceptable.

We have repeatedly stated that a number of restrictive measures, such as electronic passes, a face recognition system, the mandatory installation of applications to monitor quarantine, are excessive, and their real goal is to put the lives of citizens under total control of the authorities. The situation develops in such a way that even after the removal of restrictive measures, people can finally lose even their limited right to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.

Declaring a gradual exit from quarantine and return to normal life, the country’s leadership should first of all think about how to fully restore the rights of citizens.

We demand the immediate release of Ilya Azar and the cessation of political repression.

Nikolai Rybakov,

Yabloko Chairman