I met Igor Tarasov in a cell at Special Detention Center No. 2 in 2011. He, like me, was given 15 days in detention for taking part in the rally on December 5, 2011.
Igor is an entrepreneur working in IT. As I understand it, he earns quite well—well enough to buy himself a home in Slovenia. And what’s great is that Igor’s business activities do not in any way prevent him from having his own political views.
So when the State Duma was passing the disgusting “law of scoundrels” (also known as the “anti-orphan law” — Russia’s ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian children), Igor went out into the street and staged a one-person picket:
Naturally, they dragged him off to the police station—imagine that, speaking out against scoundrels and, on top of that, supposedly obstructing passersby.
Then he was tried by a “court” and found guilty.
But now Igor’s case was heard by a real court, without quotation marks. His application to the ECHR was prepared and presented by our RosEuroSud project.
I am pleased to report that in an honest court, as usual, the Russian authorities lost. And not only to Tarasov, but also to 23 other applicants from Russia. No matter how these crooks twisted and turned, calling black white and white green, the obvious has been established: a person has the right to stand peacefully with a placard and express their opinion.
For the violation of their rights, they were awarded a total of €174,000 in compensation. Tarasov received €18,800 (€10,000 for non-pecuniary damage, plus legal costs).
Congratulations to Igor, his lawyer Konstantin Terekhov, and all decent people who stand for freedom of assembly.
In the beautiful Russia of the future, people will take part in rallies and marches without problems or restrictions. It is their basic right. It is the foundation of the political system. The police will do nothing but help them.
The authorities will treat public street actions exactly as the ECHR clearly set out in its ruling on my similar complaints (full Russian translation here):
People must have genuine freedom of assembly, and it must not be restricted. If you are standing peacefully, then tolerance should be shown toward you, even if there is no official permit. If you are not bothering anyone, then by all means stand there with your placard. The police have more important things to do than copy down your slogan, report it “to the proper place,” and detain you.
If you support this, then you have a candidate in this election: