Honestly, I didn’t expect this myself. Right now, as many as 98 cities across the country want to take part in the “He Is Not Dimon to Us” protests.
I can’t remember the last time anything like this happened. For example, I’m looking at the group for the rally in Nizhny Tagil and thinking: this is the very city that was used to scare people during the 2012 “Bolotnaya” protests (the anti-government protest movement of 2011–2012), yet there have never really been rallies there in support of Putin and the authorities. At least not voluntary ones.
And yet 403 people have signed up for the anti-corruption rally.
Or take the city of Glazov—when was the last time there was a rally there? Yet 43 people have said they want to come out and raise questions about corruption.
This is really amazing, and we absolutely have to turn out for these rallies. We have no right not to.
The authorities, naturally, are impressed too—frightened, in fact—and are doing everything they can to make sure these rallies do not happen.
In most cities, they are using the standard tactic: they send a notice saying that the rally cannot be held at the requested location for one reason or another, but they do not offer an alternative venue.
A lot has already been said about how completely illegal this is, and the Constitutional Court states directly that in such a case, the rally is considered approved.
That is exactly how we see it as well. All 98 of our rallies are approved, and we must turn out for them no matter what.
And of course someone will immediately say: what if they detain us?
My answer is this: if they detain you, you may even end up making some money.
As you know, I took all of my detention cases to the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights). And now the government pays me fairly large sums for all of them.
I promise: our RosEuroCourt project will prepare an application to the ECHR for everyone who is unlawfully prosecuted for taking part in the March 26 rallies.
So if you are detained, taken to court, and fined, you will need to file an appeal yourself (it’s simple — we will provide step-by-step guidance). After that, we will prepare the complaint and see it through to the very end.
I am handling cases in exactly the same way for all my former cellmates.
In the same way, we recently won €10,000 for Igor Tarasov, who was unlawfully detained during a one-person protest.
The ECHR’s case law on freedom of assembly is clear. We are acting entirely peacefully and lawfully. We pose no threat to anyone, so I have no doubt we will succeed.
If we need to file a hundred complaints, we will file a hundred. If we need to file thousands, we will bring in ACF lawyers and attorneys from human rights organizations—we will draft and pursue thousands of complaints.
Twenty administrative lawsuits have already been filed in courts across various Russian regions, challenging the unlawful responses from local authorities regarding approval of the rallies. We will take those cases to the ECHR as well.
In the beautiful Russia of the future, rallies and marches will be organized no worse than they are in the United Kingdom today.
For example, Ashurkov submitted a notice for a picket outside the Russian embassy on the 26th. And the reply he got was basically: man, you don’t need permission, because in our country no permission is required for something like this.
You’re a human being—you have the right to stand peacefully in the street. What’s the problem?
And that is how it will be here too. Our average salary will also be like it is in the United Kingdom. We just need to spend a little more time standing out on Russia’s streets against corruption to make it happen.
Don’t be afraid. Cowards are the ones who are afraid.