The Bar Association of Moscow deprived Ilya Novikov of the status of a lawyer after the third submission filed by the Ministry of Justice due to Novikov's actions (or inaction) «aimed at undermining confidence in him or in the bar.» It is reported by TASS. The Council's decision is published on the website of the Moscow Bar Association.
According to a representative of the Moscow department of the Ministry of Justice, “the violation committed by lawyer N. is deliberate, gross, and indicates his unacceptable behavior, unworthy of a representative of the legal profession, undermining confidence in a lawyer and the legal profession, incompatible with the status of a lawyer.”
The document also contains Novikov's position. He noted that the claims against him are not connected with specific statements, but with his attitude towards the war in Ukraine as a whole. The lawyer drew attention to the date of publication of the video that caused the disciplinary proceedings — it appeared on the network in May 2022, but the materials about it, attached to the submission of the Ministry of Justice, are dated March 2023.
We are talking about «video interview May 02, 2022 on the channel "P." in the program "Ch.",» the decision says. Probably, the YouTube channel is called “Popular Politics”, where Novikov repeatedly acted as an expert, and the program is called “Honest Word”. On May 2, 2022, the video “Honestly with Ilya Novikov | Putin is Hitler with an atomic bomb.”
“I am a Ukrainian lawyer, I have been living in Kyiv since 2019, I passed the exam two years ago. My practice is a lawyer, it is Ukrainian, it does not depend on Russian at all. My practice in Russia ended on February 24th. On February 24, a fat cross was put on all matters. I will not appear in Russia in any foreseeable future, ”Novikov added.
In November 2022, the Ministry of Justice entered the lawyer into the register of «foreign agents». A week later, the Ministry of Internal Affairs put Novikov on the wanted list under a criminal article. What exactly he is charged with is still unknown. Lawyer and former connoisseur of the Russian version of the game “What? Where? When?» after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, he took an active anti-war position.