"United Russia" still wants to sue me for billions:
Alexei Navalny should prepare himself for the fact that in the near future he will have to pay damages in lawsuits filed by thousands of Russians who are members of United Russia. This opinion was voiced on Wednesday, October 10, by Andrei Isaev, deputy secretary of United Russia’s General Council, commenting to ER.RU on the Moscow City Court’s decision to reject Alexei Navalny’s appeal against the ruling ordering him to pay 30,000 rubles (about 750 USD at the time). “The Moscow City Court’s decision to reject opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s appeal concerning the recovery of 30,000 rubles from him in favor of a United Russia member for negative remarks about the Party is lawful. Moreover, it is a good signal. I am sure that thousands more of my fellow party members will go to court. These are honest, decent people whom Mr. Navalny branded crooks and thieves, thereby undermining their authority and business reputation,” the deputy secretary of the General Council noted. According to him, “Mr. Navalny should prepare himself for the fact that in the near future he will have to pay claims to thousands of United Russia representatives”. “These people will demand that justice be restored. In court, they will now be able to rely on this judicial precedent,” Isaev concluded. http://er.ru/news/2012/10/10/isaev-navalnyj-dolzhen-byt-gotovym-k-novym-iskam-ot-edinoj-rossii/
Vladimir Svirid’s victory is justified both morally and legally, according to Vladimir Burmatov, a member of United Russia’s General Council. In his words, Svirid’s latest victory shows what Alexei Navalny’s words are worth, as he is ready to fulfill a “contract” to insult millions of honest people. ... “Given that around 11,000 statements similar to the lawsuit filed by Vladimir Svirid have already been downloaded from the ‘Bring Navalny to Justice’ website, we can expect lawsuits against Navalny from other party members as well. But the point is not even the number of lawsuits; more important is that a precedent has been created, and Navalny has once again been put in his place. Perhaps after this he will start thinking about what he says,” Burmatov concluded. http://er.ru/news/2012/10/10/burmatov-nazval-zakonomernoj-pobedu-svirida/ Yes, yesterday the fairest and most independent court in the world—the Moscow City Court—upheld the decision of the Lyublino District Court that I must pay 30,000 rubles (about 750 USD at the time) to Svirid, a pensioner and United Russia member, whom I had never seen once in my life before, because I supposedly inflicted terrible moral suffering on him with my statement, “United Russia is the Party of Crooks and Thieves”***. Specifically, this referred to the “rules of life of Alexei Navalny” in Esquire magazine:
There are three things I want to say about this: The Lyublino court’s ruling is absurd and lawless, and the puppet Moscow City Court will rubber-stamp any nonsense as long as United Russia likes it. The same judge issued the exact opposite ruling in an identical lawsuit brought by the same hellish pensioner from United Russia. In effect, they have allowed lawsuits to defend the honor and dignity of an undefined group of people. And this wonderful exception has been made specifically for members of "United Russia." Remember how Zhirik (Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the nationalist politician) called all a) construction workers b) villagers c) residents of the Urals morons?
http://youtu.be/f3rPGI8gz54 The construction workers and villagers didn’t get upset, but the Urals residents did file a lawsuit. And what did the court tell them? That’s right: goodbye, Urals residents.
(full ruling) If someone says: Urals resident Ivanov, living at such-and-such address, is a moron—then yes, you can go to court. If there is no such specificity, then you can’t. You cannot go to court to defend honor and dignity over phrases like: All liberals are cowards and traitors. All nationalists are fascists and pogromists. All homosexuals are carriers of AIDS. All anti-homosexuals are closeted homosexuals. All communists are Stalinists. All Zhirinovsky supporters are pedophiles. All Orthodox Christians want to burn people at the stake. All atheists are children of Satan. and so on. But for the phrase "All United Russia members are thieves" you’ll end up in court, even though that is the plain truth, unlike the examples above. We have already applied to the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights), and of course we will win, although that will not happen anytime soon. The mass lawsuits promised by United Russia and Burmatov are just as fake as the forest fires Burmatov supposedly fought. Here too, the Party of Crooks and Thieves can’t do without cheating. I don’t know what 11,000 statements Burmatov is talking about, but anyone who contacts the Lyublino court clerk’s office can verify that since June, when Burmatov’s people announced a mass lawsuit campaign, 7 (seven) lawsuits have been filed, and all of them have been left without action. That gives us a sense of the real number of active United Russia supporters. Although this legal fuss takes up a lot of my time, on the whole I welcome it. The meme "United Russia is the Party of Crooks and Thieves" continues to gain ground, and any news helps that along. Soon we will prepare a new campaign leaflet on this subject. All this stuff spreads very well; we saw that from the example of the project http://5000000.mashina.org/ Update: don’t forget to register to take part in the Coordinating Council elections. It’s the best thing you can do right now to fight the rule of the Crooks and Thieves. https://election.cvk2012.org/account/signup