Press Release, 28.08.2020

Natalya Pochinok, Rector of the Russian State Social University, had to cancel her order on the expulsion of Anton Ocheretin and Danila Petrov from the university, after the Public Prosecutor General’s Office proposed her to eliminate violations of the legislation on education. Students were expelled in April this year for trying to leave the hostel for the pharmacy. From the point of view of the management of the university, this was a gross violation of the temporary rules for living in a hostel, introduced in connection with the quarantine.

The Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma consistently sought such a decision from the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The question was first raised at a meeting of the Moscow parliament, and later was formalised in the form of a request to the Public Prosecutor of Moscow on April 30. This was also the subject of a conversation of deputies of the Moscow parliament with Oleg Manakov, the First Deputy Public Prosecutor of Moscow. However, the Moscow Public Prosecutor’s Office gave a formal reply, and on August 6, Maxim Kruglov, leader of the Yabloko faction of the Moscow City Duma, sent an inquiry Igor Krasnov, Public Prosecutor General. Apparently, this made the supreme supervisory authority pay attention to the situation and conduct an inspection. Prior to this, no inspection had been carried out, despite the great attention to the scandal from the media.

In his inquiry, Kruglov drew attention to the fact that the Rector’s order, which actually introduced a prison regime in the hostel with a complete ban on leaving the building, was an abuse of office, and the actions of the security officers who forcefully prevented Ocheretin and Popov from going to the pharmacy contained signs of corpus delicti under Article 127 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Unlawful deprivation of liberty).

“Simply reading the text of the order is enough to raise one’s hair,” faction leader Maxim Kruglov said. “Students were actually obliged to sit in their rooms without going out into the corridors, and eat only in the university canteen. This is not only much tougher than the measures introduced by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, it is simply a violation of the constitutional right to freedom of movement. I am glad that we managed to help achieve justice,” Kruglov noted.

MAXIM KRUGLOV

Member of the Federal Bureau of the Yabloko party, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow branch of Yabloko. Head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma. Candidate of Political Science.