Which is exactly what it reports on its website.
Earlier, I wrote that the case had been given priority.
Let me say right away that this will in no way affect the presidential election or my participation in it. There is a 99% chance that the decision will be made after the election, and even if it comes before then, the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) has no mechanism to force the Russian authorities to hold a fair election instead of the rigged process planned for March 18.
The assumption is that countries recognizing the jurisdiction of the ECHR themselves want the rule of law and are trying to improve their legal systems. Putin’s Russia does not want that, and no Europe is going to solve our problems for us.
Our political plan remains unchanged: a voters’ strike.
- don’t go to these “elections”;
- campaign against these “elections”;
- monitor these “elections.”
Nevertheless, this is important news: we are consistently proving that the law is on our side. In an honest court, we will prove that I was unlawfully barred from the election, and therefore such an election cannot be recognized as legitimate. Nor can the authorities who took office as a result of these “elections” be recognized as legitimate.
Let me remind you that we won the “Kirovles-1” case outright against Putin’s crooks.
Just as we won the “Yves Rocher case,” proving that it was fabricated. Despite that victory, my brother Oleg is still in prison, with documents in hand confirming his innocence. I visited him on Saturday, by the way, and he sends his best to everyone.
And in exactly the same way, we won every case concerning my administrative arrests at rallies—all of them are legally unlawful. And note this: on January 24, the Grand Chamber of the ECHR in Strasbourg will hold a hearing at which the political motivation behind five such arrests/detentions will be examined.
In other words, we have already won these cases (they were handled by my lawyers Olga Mikhailova and Konstantin Terekhov), but now we want to secure recognition of their specifically political motive. It is obvious to anyone in Russia; we will try to prove it to the court.
The Grand Chamber is an interesting procedure. Not many cases make it that far. It will be interesting to see from the inside how everything works there—I will be speaking at the hearing.
And in turn, this hearing will be very important for all cases involving the detentions/arrests of March 26, June 12, and October 7, 2017.
By the way, today we are filing applications—fully in accordance with the law—to hold the January 28 protest. We are acting like perfectly law-abiding citizens. But if they once again illegally refuse to authorize it, we will come out anyway.
Moscow: Tverskaya Street at 2:00 p.m. (group on VKontakte, on Facebook)
St. Petersburg: route from Kirochnaya Street to Smolny at 2:00 p.m. (group on VKontakte, on Facebook)
Find your city in this list and take part. We will never accept the stripping away of our political rights.