Lawyers Ivan Pavlov (left) and Evgeny Smirnov
Human rights activists' website blocked for cooperation with unwanted Czechs
Roskomnadzor has blocked access to the portal of the well-known human rights group “Team 29”. Earlier, security officials conducted searches at the head of Team 29, Ivan Pavlov, who acts as a lawyer for journalist and advisor to the head of Roscosmos, Ivan Safronov (accused by the FSB of treason). Ivan Pavlov was banned from using communications for disclosing data from the preliminary investigation, and now access to the portal of the association he heads was closed at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. The reason is the cooperation with the Czech company Spolecnost Svobody Informace, on the eve of the recognized undesirable organization in the Russian Federation. Team 29 calls the authorities' actions “unprecedented pressure” on human rights defenders.
The portal of the human rights association “Team 29” was blocked on July 16 at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. This was stated by the members of the association, the information was confirmed to Kommersant in Roskomnadzor. “The site functioned as part of the activities of the international non-governmental organization Spolecnost Svobody Informace, ZS, included by the Russian Ministry of Justice in the list of foreign and international government organizations whose activities were recognized as undesirable in the Russian Federation,” Roskomnadzor said.
Team 29 lawyers represented the interests of Alexei Navalny's supporters in courts, and the head of the association, lawyer Ivan Pavlov, is the defender of the former special correspondent of Kommersant and Vedomosti, an adviser to Roscosmos, Ivan Safronov. In April 2021, searches were carried out in the apartment and in the dacha of Mr. Pavlov as part of the criminal prosecution on charges of divulging the secrets of the preliminary investigation. Investigators considered two episodes to be disclosed: Ivan Pavlov's transfer to the Vedomosti newspaper of a decision to bring Ivan Safronov as a defendant and a story to the press about the appearance in his case of a secret witness under the pseudonym Lander. Mr. Pavlov is now in the status of an accused in the case of divulging the secrets of the investigation; he is prohibited from communicating with witnesses and using communications, including the Internet. Now, at the request of the authorities, access to the Team 29 website is closed.
Note that the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation recognized the Czech company Spolecnost Svobody Informace as an undesirable organization on June 29. The Ministry of Justice entered the organization into the relevant register on July 9, and already on July 15, the supervisory authority demanded that Roskomnadzor oblige providers to block the site of “Team 29”.
Svetlana Kuzevanova, senior lawyer at the Center for the Protection of Media Rights (included in the register of foreign agents), previously explained to Kommersant that any cooperation with an undesirable organization entails administrative and criminal liability.
So, according to Art. 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation for participation in the activities of such an organization faces a fine from 15 thousand to 50 thousand rubles. After a single administrative violation, citizens face criminal liability under Art. 284.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. This article provides for sanctions in the form of fines in the amount of 300-500 thousand rubles, compulsory or forced labor, or imprisonment for up to six years.
As explained in “Team 29″, the supervisory authority believes that the site published materials from Spolecnost Svobody Informace (Freedom of Information Company). The members of the association themselves deny this. Olga Shakina, editor-in-chief of the Teams 29 website, assures that 20-25 materials are published on the portal every month, including “reminders like“ how to go to an interrogation and not screw up ”and a few news a week,” and no more than 100 thousand users per month. There were no warnings from Roskomnadzor before the blocking, they assured “Team 29”. At the same time, the association has experience of interaction with the department: in 2020, Roskomnadzor demanded to remove the material with the heading “Blue light: how to establish communication in prison”, which was done.
“We may not like the legislation, but we comply with it,” insist in the human rights association.
Roskomnadzor did not answer Kommersant's question which publications caused the blocking.
At the same time, Team 29 does not deny the connection with the Czech company. So, in the Telegram channel of Ivan Pavlov (it is run by the association's employees), information appeared with reference to a lawyer that six years ago he “was among the founders of this NGO, created to promote freedom of access to information.” According to the public registers of Czech companies, Spolecnost Svobody Informace, ZS was established in February 2015 in Prague. In 2015–2016, the company was headed by Daria Sukhikh, now a senior lawyer at Team 29. Ms Sukhikh could not answer Kommersant's questions about the type of activity of the company and her role in it, citing her employment. The lawyer of the association Valeria Vetoshkina only assured that “all legal and business relations” with Spolecnost Svobody Informace have now been terminated.
In Ivan Pavlov's Telegram channel, the blocking of the portal is called “a continuation of the attack on him and his colleagues, which began on April 30, the day of searches and the trial.”
The “Team 29” assessed the actions of the prosecutor's office “as an act of unprecedented political pressure on human rights institutions”, promising to appeal the blocking as “frankly illegal.”
“Since there is nothing to accuse me of – I always strictly abide by the law, – I have to suck stories out of my finger, hunt for all organizations where at least my name is mentioned, and prohibit them with the help of a large number of convenient newly adopted laws,” the master said. Pavlova colleagues.
Maria Litvinova, Ivan Tyazhlov
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