Press Release, 26.05.2021

Photo: Alexander Kobrinsky / Photo from the personal archive

During unpermitted rallies on 23 and 31 January, the majority of those detained were in St. Petersburg. St.Petersburg police not only dispersed peaceful people with inexplicable cruelty, but also drove them into police vans by hundreds, so that to draw up protocols of violation of the law and take them to court.

The Yabloko party has never called on people to go to unpermitted actions, however, the party has  always helped those who were detained at such actions and found themselves in a difficult situation.

Alexander Kobrinsky, a lawyer and one of the leaders of the Petersburg branch of Yabloko, has been defending detainees in courts for over 15 years. And now, after the January events, he defended people in more than ten cases. Not a single case was lost: five cases were closed due to lack of corpus delicti, in one case a previously assigned fine was canceled in the court of the higher instance. The rest of the cases are still in progress, but the defender hopes for a successful outcome.

According to Kobrinsky, “each case, regardless of whether we are talking about a huge fine or several thousand roubles, means a lot of legal work: it implies at least 4-5 sessions in the first instance and 1-2 in the second instance. It is necessary to demand records from street cameras, make printouts of scans from the most important shots, submit requests and motions that can be done only in written form, formulate and write written testimonies, bring witnesses and ensure their attendance. And much more. I think it is clear that such a number of cases takes a lot of time and effort. But it is good when you manage to prove a person’s innocence! This is also important for the party: after all, whatever you say, people feel grateful, and the help provided by Yabloko – and I always emphasise that I protect them as a representative of Yabloko – remains in their memory, they talk about it to their friends and families. Such stories help the party more than any propaganda.

Alexander also says that he never stops at dismissing the case. Each time after that, he files a civil lawsuit and seeks compensation for unlawful detention – albeit a small one.

– You see, now, as in the Soviet Union, the law does not play any role for the police. The main law for them is the order by their superiors, which they will carry out, even if it is completely clear to them that it is unlawful. Therefore, the only way to somehow make it clear that not everything goes unpunished is to recover moral damage. It is paid by the Russian treasury by a court decision, and at the expense of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but further this amount is supposed to be collected from the perpetrators. This is not always the case, but each such case of punishment will make the police think: if they will be made whipping boys when they have to answer for their actions.