A new word in Russian repressions: 15 days for a picture with «extremist» symbols. On February 7, at the exit from the inspection of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina was detained. She received 15 days of arrest. On February 8, the writer and feminist Daria Serenko received her 15 days. They and several other activists are charged with administrative article 20.3 — «Demonstration of prohibited symbols.»
In the latest edition of the What's New? discussed why the security forces began to look for «extremist» publications in the social networks of activists and what other surprises we can expect from Russian politics.
First, let's talk with Novaya Gazeta Politics correspondent Daria Kozlova, who wrote an article on this topic, look for a link to it in the podcast description. Dasha, hello.
Daria Kozlova: Yes, hello.
Nadezhda Yurova: I sort of explained it with Serenko, but what was found extremist, for example, with Alyokhina?
Daria Kozlova: They found a photo of Alekhina from 2015, which shows three girls who are standing in hijabs, one says “vodka, dudelka”, at the bottom of the photo there is an Arabic script, and on the edges of it there are two symbols that resemble the Nazi swastika, although this Hindu signs — this was the line of defense. And in general, that's all, for this photo of the 15th year. And there are a lot of questions about this decision. For starters, there is not a Nazi swastika at all, and then there is a statute of limitations. But the court did not take all this into account.
Nadezhda Yurova: I see. What about the rest? You can do it in order: a person is the reason.
Daria Kozlova: Lucy Stein and Maria Alyokhina already had administrative arrests under the same article back in December. And Lucy Stein was charged with a photograph where some kind of photoshop is incomprehensible: she is in a Nazi cap, and it is written that Stein is a fascist deputy. At the same time, it was not her doing, she said that it was some kind of photoshop. Maria Alekhina, in my opinion, also had something to do with the swastika, but obviously not promoting any kind of Nazism in a serious way. And there were also cases related to the Other Russia activists, one of the guys had a tattoo with the logo of the Death in June group. » class=»SingleImage_image__3qIDn» alt=»» />
Maria Alekhina in the courtroom with her lawyer. Photo: press service of the Tver Court
Nadezhda Yurova: And when was the guy detained?
Daria Kozlova: The guy for the tattoo was also arrested on February 8. There was a rune that was used by the Nazis, but also not actually Nazi. And Death in June is actually a band that doesn't share Nazi ideology.
Nadezhda Yurova: And what happened to him?
Daria Kozlova: He is also under arrest for 15 days. And a call was sent to the police to the press secretary of the LPR, Nadya Eva, but it is still unknown what exactly she is charged with. Because there was about some kind of administrative offense, but it was not indicated on the agenda. It was sent to her and Dasha Serenko at the same time to the same police department, so there is reason to believe that the same article will be there. But I spoke with Nadia, she said she was in quarantine because of covid, and therefore she did not go to the police, and she and her lawyer still do not know what it was connected with.
< strong>Nadezhda Yurova: Actually, the logical question is: why now? What is this new wave? What do you think or how did the experts tell you about it.
Daria Kozlova: There is an option that it is necessary that all activists be preventively closed before February 14, so that there are no actions. There is another suggestion that this is a special purge before the municipal elections in Moscow this year. Despite the fact that none of the listed activists have yet officially declared themselves there, in general, Dasha Serenko and Nadya Eva were involved in politics a lot, and they had some political ambitions, albeit unofficial ones so far. But because of this arrest article, they will not be able to be elected for one year.
Nadezhda Yurova: We talked about the case of Dasha Serenko with the lawyer Petr Khromov, who led this case. Hello Peter.
Peter Khromov: Good evening.
Nadezhda Yurova: Well, tell me, just an hour ago, maybe even less, the trial ended. How did all this happen? What were the debates like, how did the court behave in general? From the scene, so to speak, tell us.
Pyotr Khromov: How was this trial. At first it was a very long wait, but during which we at least saw Daria, were able to somehow support her, were able to prepare ourselves for the process. We were attended today by three defenders consolidated: me, the lawyer of the «Apology of Protest» Berman and lawyer Olga Podoplelova. We coordinated our position, and each spoke in his own bloc. Unfortunately, like most administrative trials in Russia, this one took place without respect for the equality of the parties, that is, we did not have a prosecution side. All the materials were presented directly by the judge herself, so we, in fact, had no one to oppose, we turned exclusively to the court. Most of our applications were denied, in particular, to call and interrogate police officers, to appoint an expert examination and to attach judicial practice, and the like. The only thing we were satisfied with was the inclusion of medical documents that characterize Darya's condition now, and the interrogation of one police officer who drew up an administrative report.
Nadezhda Yurova: Tell us what were actually yours … What is wrong with this case, how did you oppose it?
Pyotr Khromov: In this case, if I may say so, everything is not so, starting with what is imputed to Daria. Article 20.3 is a demonstration of Nazi or similar or extremist symbols. She is accused of posting an image on Instagram on September 14 last year that had a small Smart Vote logo on it. Accordingly, we have the logos of «Smart Voting» and Navalny's headquarters, which were recognized by the Moscow City Court as an extremist organization and liquidated, they differ purely visually — in color, in that there is a different color of this sign, a different inclination, and so on. However, the case materials contain the conclusion of a specialist who concludes that these two different images are one and the same. At the same time, he analyzes color images, while we see black-and-white photographs in the materials. Many questions arose regarding the qualifications of this specialist, but all this reasoning was dismissed by the court on the grounds that such requirements cannot be made to this conclusion as to an examination, since this is a different type of evidence. In what other way, the court did not explain to us. Accordingly, the court was satisfied with this conclusion.
Daria Serenko at the building court. Photo: Elizaveta Orlovskaya/DOXA
Separately, I would like to note that the Smart Voting logo, in addition to the fact that it did not receive a judicial assessment in last year’s process against the FBK (recognized by the Moscow City Court as an extremist structure, is included in the register of NGOs that perform the function of a foreign agent, activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation), which is recognized as extremist organization, in addition, this logo was registered at the end of last year as a trademark. That is, he passed the state registration as a trademark. A logo that reflects some kind of extremist ideology could not have passed such a registration. A separate issue is the statute of limitations for bringing to administrative responsibility. There is, for example, judicial practice that has developed in the regions, and there is an instruction from the Supreme Court — however, in criminal cases, and not administrative ones — about the moment from which the statute of limitations for bringing to justice should be considered. And we insisted that it should be considered from the moment of publication. Thus, it expired on December 14th.
The police department and the court are in the position that it should be counted from the moment it was discovered, and in general that this event is ongoing, although the Code of Administrative Offenses does not contain the concept of a “lasting” offense. And again, the judicial practice in extremist cases, including administrative offenses, clearly indicates that calls for extremist activity should be proven. That is, it is not enough just to publish something, there must be some kind of assessment of an extremist organization or extremist materials. There is nothing of this in the post of Daria Serenko on Instagram. They don't talk about any extremist organizations at all, they talk about a candidate for the State Duma from United Russia. And actually the main object of the image is a portrait of this candidate. That is, if you go over the main points, then they are. In addition to the fact that the court absolutely did not take into account the state of health, and even if we assume that one can be prosecuted for something, the court did not take into account the degree of social danger of this offense. Still, the punishment there is quite differentiated: either a fine of 1,000 to 2,000 rubles, or administrative arrest for up to 15 days. It turns out that for publishing an image without calling for any violent actions, even if we discard the fact that this particular image is not extremist, she was still sentenced to the highest standard, just like Maria Alyokhina was yesterday.
< p>Nadezhda Yurova: Peter, such a question: you have already mentioned Daria's state of health twice. How was she in general, how did she generally feel throughout this whole process? You were there, we can't communicate with her, unfortunately. Tell us about it.
Pyotr Khromov: Look, thank God, we managed to get and attach medical documents that she visited a medical center yesterday morning, in particular, an otolaryngologist due to ear pain, and she was diagnosed with otitis media, treatment was prescribed. A second appointment was scheduled for February 11, that is, the day after tomorrow. And after this reception, 6 hours later, she was detained. Further events with the preparation of administrative material, spending the night at the Ministry of Internal Affairs is a rather stressful state, which does not have the best effect on a person’s well-being. On the positive side, she managed to hand over the medicines just prescribed by the doctor, but she still experienced pain — either yesterday when filling out the materials, or today, when we were waiting for the court session, at the court session itself, because, nevertheless, at this time the current the disease also causes pain to a person.
Nadezhda Yurova: What can you say about Dasha's emotional state?
Pyotr KhromovA: She is holding up very well. Although I do not understand what a person should experience who receives such a sudden administrative arrest for something that is not an offense in fact. But she's holding up very well. I am very grateful to everyone who supports her, to everyone who wrote, called, when defenders were not allowed into the department yesterday, she thanks her defenders. And here I note that I was not the only one who defended Daria today, I was defended by the Apology of Protest lawyer Berman and lawyer Olga Podoplelova, respectively.
Nadezhda Yurova: Let's take a slightly broader look at the situation . In general, we have recently seen a large number of arrests under this article. What could be their reason? And what can we expect next? How should we behave, maybe it's better not to publish anything at all?
Peter Khromov: It seems to me that yes, from a certain point of view, the goal of the police officers who initiate these materials (primarily the Center for Combating Extremism) is precisely to generate fear and intimidation of activists. This composition is very convenient for police officers, as it is used in practice, because, according to the court, as we saw today, only the fact of posting the material is important. The Court completely ignores the need to establish an appeal or approval of extremist activity. It is enough for them that the material is posted, while this material may not be extremist, but it is very similar to extremist. The necessary specialist will give a conclusion that this is extremist symbolism. So, unlike even the previously more common Article 19.3 — failure to comply with the lawful demand of a police officer — this is a more convenient composition, a little longer in terms of execution time in order to prepare a conclusion, but more reliable, as we see — at least measure in the practice of recent months. In general, OVD-Info (included by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the register of NGOs performing the function of a foreign agent) noted that over the past two years there has been an increase in the practice of applying this article.
Nadezhda Yurova: Who's next?
Pyotr Khromov: You know, today, while we were waiting for a decision, we were sitting in the process, this is a bit of black humor, but we just went over that writers, theater figures, musicians have already been persecuted in our country — it is no longer clear who is next. That is, there is no group that is under pressure, in principle, any groups of people who express their opinion are under pressure. As, for example, Maria Alyokhina received administrative punishment under this article at the same time in the form of administrative arrest, respectively, today — Daria Serenko, and before that — several activists of the Other Russia. That is, people doing completely different things, in completely different directions and not always intersecting. That is, it is quite difficult to guess who will be next.
Nadezhda Yurova: a five-minute summary and almost even a finished column, a part of our podcast called «Kirill Martynov», which explains five minutes, what does it all mean, you will hear right now.
Kirill Martynov: On the one hand, it seems to me that the state gives us a very clear message, such a message, a black mark. And it lies in the fact that there should be an absolutely dead country here, that no one should do anything: no activism, no social life, and, God forbid, no politics. And people who, somehow by inertia and by virtue of their vocation, and by virtue of their convictions, continue to do this, they must be ready to be in the place of Daria Serenko and all other activists who are detained, given a day of administrative arrest and squeezed out of the country. I wonder what Serenko herself thinks about this. Probably, some philosophers would say that in the end it is a question of the loss of subjectivity, that the only subject, the only actor, the only party that makes any decisions in our life is the authorities, which, as in the classic Russian phrase — some kind of many-headed monster. It barks, it does not have specific names, it is either the police, or some special services, or someone else. And we must endure, we must be silent, we must accept, we must stay at home.
All this is connected in a rather curious way with the gender agenda, which Serenko is particularly involved in, because this is exactly the kind of behavior in a patriarchal society that is expected and expected from women: do not stick your head out, do not take responsibility, smart guys from the presidential administration or from the Lubyanka will decide everything. And the second thing, it seems to me, is a very important plot with this Smart Vote symbol, because if you remember the whole chain of events, it looked like this. We had a group of people gathered around Alexei Navalny whose sole purpose was to participate in Russian politics, using the rights that Russian citizens have under the Constitution. That is, “I have certain convictions, I believe that I need to go to put forward my candidacy in some elections, collect supporters, collect signatures, in short, do everything according to the law, participate in peaceful rallies, also according to the law, using the freedom of assembly «. Further these people, because they are very tired of someone from our bosses from the Kremlin, are declared extremists. Their extremism lies in the fact that they threatened the order of the Russian Federation, that is, they actually called for a change of power in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation. Now this is extremism.
This in itself is a very fascinating story, how the legal involvement in politics becomes extremist activity, this is very clearly seen in the fate of activists (like Lilia Chanysheva), who really did not commit any crimes at all, but simply wanted to do their work and their activities for the good of the country, how they imagine it to be. And then the following happens: Serenko has a small “Smart Voting” symbol on her Instagram, some kind of activist poster. This symbol is just a red exclamation mark, a fat one. And here are some people who really wanted to attract her to something and detain her for something, they carefully study her social networks, find this little exclamation mark and say: yeah, this is a public image of extremist symbols. There, the title of the article still looks very impressive: “The image of the symbols of Nazi organizations, as well as organizations recognized as extremist on the territory of the Russian Federation.”
The law is supposed to be retroactive, of course, meaning we had to double-check all our social media to see if we had any red exclamation marks in the past a few years ago, you never know how it ends now. And then they put Serenko in a police car, leave her at the police station for the night and give her this administrative article. Interestingly, by and large, this can be done with respect to anything at any time and with any person. That is, you can recognize anything as extremist activity, declare that any symbolism — now it will no longer be an exclamation mark, but a comma, for example — is extremist. Find these commas for all past years and distribute them to everyone quite calmly, well, not yet criminal articles, probably, fortunately, thanks for this humanism, but administrative punishment. This is an amazing machine for the destruction of public life, which some wise men from specialized organizations, special services, from the E Center came up with in order to basically ruin Russia.
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