Statement by the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, 15.03.2021

Photo: Detention of Sergei Mitorkhin

These days, the whole country has been witnessing a new round of a systemic campaign aimed at suppressing opposition politics in Russia.

Past week, Oleg Baranov, head of the Moscow police, presented to the Moscow City Duma his report on his work in 2020. Opposition deputies criticised the actions of the law enforcement, recalled numerous violations of the statute and the law on the police at winter opposition rallies, obstruction to the work of lawyers and journalists, the cynical Fortress Plan, unlawful detentions of Muscovites and the morally controversial use of urban video surveillance and face identification systems.

The Yabloko faction and a number of opposition MPs voted against the adoption of this report.

Finally, instead of working on their mistakes, the top officials of the law enforcement agencies decided to once again try to intimidate representatives of the opposition.

Three days after the report by the head of the Moscow department of the interior, on 12 March, Sergei Mitrokhin, a member of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, was detained. The police rudely interrupted his meeting with the voters from the Moscow district Kamushki. Our colleague, who has been defending the interests of the city’s residents for decades, faces criminal prosecution under Article 212.1 – journalists named this article after the activist Ildar Dadin [who was sentenced to three years of imprisonment under this article, and the appeal managed cut the term by only six months for his, this article has been widely used since then]. After the detention of Mitrokhin, the police detained Yekaterina Yengalycheva, a deputy of the Moscow City Duma from the Communist Party faction: [she was detained] without protocols, without a lawyer, but deliberate disregard for the legal procedure.

The next day, the police disrupted the Forum of Municipal Deputies [in Moscow], more than 170 legal representatives of citizens were detained. Among them were Moscow City Duma deputy Mikhail Timonov, deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly Maxim Reznik, a number of municipal deputies elected from the Yabloko party, and many well-known and respected political figures and journalists.

The police used various grounds to detain the Moscow City Duma deputies and the participants of the Forum of Municipal Deputies. In the case of Sergei Mitrokhin and Yekaterina Yengalycheva it was their participation in the January rallies. In the case of the arrests on 13 March, the reason was “cooperation with an undesirable organisation,” which was not even the formal organiser of the event. This is an obvious planned attack by the security forces on the city self-government, and an attempt to intimidate deputies of all levels who are independent of the government.

In 2019, we were elected by free and independent Muscovites. The elections were not easy: citizens fought for our admission to the campaign, put their signatures in our support, helped to collect these signatures, sought their recognition through rallies, and helped for days as observers over counting of the votes. Those few of us who could not be stopped through the administrative resource and manipulation of voting, are today facing the government’s attempt to neutralise us with openly forceful and unlawful methods, brushing away the principle of parliamentary immunity and democratic norms. We demand an end to the persecution of participants in the Forum of Municipal Deputies and an end to repressions against Sergei Mitrokhin and Yekaterina Yengalycheva, and an investigation in regard of the law enforcement officers who committed these violations.

Maxim Kruglov

head of the Yabloko faction

In the Moscow City Duma

Sergei Mitrokhin

is Deputy of the Moscow City Duma.

Member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party.

Yabloko party Chairman in 2008-2015.

Candidate of Political Sciences.