Press Release, 24.08.2018

Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky sent an appeal to Public Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, in which he called to investigate the illegal provocation of crimes by law enforcement agencies. The reason for the appeal was the so-called case of “The New Greatness” organisaiton.

Anna Pavlikova. Photo: Anna Artemyeva / “Novaya Gazeta”

In the appeal, Grigory Yavlinsky recalls that the unlawful intentions of the defendants of the case of the “New Greatness”, if they existed, were totally provoked by an unknown person who was being held as a secret witness in the case, as well as by two other witnesses officially included in the state of law enforcement bodies.

In case of confirming the assumptions about the provocation, Yavlinsky demands immediately to protest the initiation of criminal proceedings against Anna Pavlikova and other defendants in the case due to the absence of the crime event, as well as to bring to justice the perpetrators of planning, organizing and conducting the provocation.

In the appeal, the politician refers to the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (No. 14 of June 15, 2006), which explained the inadmissibility of actions of law enforcement officers if they push citizens to commit a crime allegedly in order to combat a crime and identify criminal intentions. “The task of the law enforcement system is to reduce, limit, prevent crime, and not to strengthen and expand it, to lead people off the path of crime, and not to push on this path,” Yavlinsky writes.

The expansion of the practice of falsification and provocation of crimes is connected with the dependence of law enforcement bodies on the executive power, as well as their desire to improve accountability. Such a system is profoundly vicious and inherently can be classified as corruption, abuse of power and other crimes, Yavlinsky stresses. It is the direct duty of the prosecutor’s office, as the state supervisory authority, to prevent such crimes in the most thorough way and to bring the perpetrators to strict liability.

The Yabloko leader calls on the Public Prosecutor General to immediately take measures to stop the practice of illegal provocations, in particular, to create an ad hoc working group that includes both public prosecutors and members of the public. This group should investigate in detail and publicly in all cases of alleged falsifications and the provocation of crimes.