Communicated on 20 October 2020
Published on 9 November 2020
THIRD SECTION
Application no. 40763/19
Yuriy Dmitriyevich KARTYZHEV against Russia
and 16 other applications
(see list appended)
STATEMENT OF FACTS
1. The applicants are seventeen Russian nationals. Their personal details and the names of their representatives are set out in the appendix.
2. On 18 March 2019 the Code of Administrative Offences was amended by Federal Law no. 28-FZ. It created a new offence of showing flagrant disrespect for society, government bodies or State symbols by using profane language against them on the Internet (see Domestic Law below). The applicants were convicted under the new law in connection with their posts or comments on social media.
3. The facts of the individual cases, as submitted by the applicants, are as follows. Where the original application was not in either of the Court’s official languages, a translation of the comments was provided by the Registry of the Court and may be subject to further clarification by the parties.Facts of individual casesThe case of Mr Kartyzhev (application no. 40763/19)
4. On 31 March 2019 Mr Kartyzhev shared two YouTube videos on his social media account. The first video featured a survey of local residents’ views on the ruling United Russia party. It ended with a call for donations to pay for the medical treatment of a twelve-year-old Russian boy who had injured his spine. The second video reported on Russia’s decision to send 30 million United States dollars in foreign aid to Kyrgyzstan. Outraged by the allocation of large sums of money that could have been used to treat Russian children, and blaming President Putin for that decision, Mr Kartyzhev added the following comment on the first video:
“Everyone should see it. The mother has not abandoned her child. She is collecting money for his treatment. To make him walk on crutches. While Putin is getting started and having breakthroughs. The government owes us nothing. Putin is a fairy-tale dumbwit.”
His comment on the second video read:
“Russia gifted $30 million to Kyrgyzstan. Putin is a fairy-tale dumbwit.”
The expression “fairy-tale dumbwit” (сказочный долбоёб) was first used to describe the hapless Prince Myshkin in the 2001 Russian comedy film Down House, a spoof of Dostoyevsky’s novel The Idiot. Since then it has become a popular way of describing people who are so stupid that they could not possibly exist in the real world.
5. The police charged Mr Kartyzhev with the offence of showing flagrant disrespect for society and government bodies. They also interviewed a Russian professor at Novgorod State University. He stated that the word “dumbwit” was a slur against President Putin.
6. On 22 April 2019 the Chudovskiy District Court of the Novgorod Region found Mr Kartyzhev guilty as charged and fined him 30,000 Russian roubles (RUB – 416 euros (EUR)). The trial was conducted in the absence of a prosecutor, police officers or the university professor whose statement the court had accepted as evidence.
7. Mr Kartyzhev appealed, submitting that, seen in the context of the videos, his comments reflected his views on matters of public interest and represented his assessment of President Putin’s political priorities. He admitted that his language had been undeniably provocative and offensive, but argued that professional politicians should tolerate even the strongest criticism. The fine, which was double his monthly income, had been excessive. Lastly, he pointed out that, in the absence of a prosecutor and witnesses, the trial court had substituted itself for the prosecution.
8. On 23 May 2019 the Novgorod Regional Court dismissed the appeal. It held that Mr Kartyzhev’s comments had been formulated in “offensive and cynical terms that had gone beyond the reasonable limits in which the right to freedom of expression, including political expression, could be exercised”. His actions had been “of an obviously disorderly nature”, because making profane comments against the Head of State revealed the offender’s desire “to oppose, in a disrespectful manner, society and the State and demonstrate his contempt for moral standards”. The public use of profane expressions by sharing them on social media “endangered and damaged the social fabric even though Mr Kartyzhev would have wanted to express his subjective opinion about a particular State official”. The amount of the fine had been determined by reference to “the offender’s personality, his financial situation and the nature of the offence that protected public order”. It was also the minimum amount stipulated in the relevant provision. Lastly, the Regional Court referred to the Constitutional Court’s case-law to the effect that the absence of a prosecutor from proceedings did not compromise the adversarial nature of proceedings.The case of Ms Baksheyeva (application no. 48407/19)
9. In 2018 the Russian authorities decided to create a large landfill site at Shiyes in the Arkhangelsk Region. Local residents staged a series of mass “garbage protests” against the construction project. At a meeting with trade union leaders, someone asked the Arkhangelsk governor what he thought of the 96% opposition to the landfill site project and of his own low approval ratings. The governor lashed out:
“To hell with numbers! If I had cared about numbers, I would have hanged myself [on the day of my appointment]. Like hell! You won’t see me hanging myself! ... Twenty years have I lived here, my kids were born here. And all that rabble (шелупонь), nobodies from nowhere, say that I am from Kaliningrad or from Ukraine ... I spit on their approval and their opinion of me!”
10. On 6 April 2019 Ms Baksheyeva added a few comments to an online discussion of the governor’s response:
“So I take it that he called the local people ‘the rabble’? Has he forgotten that he lives at the expense of people? Where does he come from? His ratings have dropped through the floor. People have no confidence in him! He would do well to resign! I do not understand his kind of people. Your subjects do not trust you, they have no respect or hope. Stop sitting next to the feeder like a pig!
When I hear about him, a fable [of a pig under an oak tree] comes to mind. The region is the oak, the pig is our aquiline governor. All he does is sleep and shit, and the people of the region are the trash or the rabble ... I wish I could smash his sleek snout with my fist!
If they build the landfill, people will flee the region! ... The North will be one large dumping ground. Lomonosov and Peter the Great have turned over in their graves many times because of this governor.
Do they show on TV what the governor calls the people who have put their trust in him? I guess they won’t forgive him! He gave the exact percentage count. The [remaining] 4% are the elite, so it seems? ... He’d better go away.
I guess he will be remembered as the rabble supreme! Enough. From now on, I will associate this word with him ...
Call him a king, what else? He is a dung fly, that’s what he is.”
11. On 30 April 2019 the police charged Ms Baksheyeva with posting information showing flagrant disrespect for the authorities “in the person of the Arkhangelsk governor”. She told the police that the comments had been an expression of her personal opinion.
12. On 17 June 2019 the Kotlass Town Court of the Arkhangelsk Region found her guilty as charged and fined her RUB 30,000. The proceedings were conducted in her absence and without her lawyer, a prosecutor or police officers being present. The judgment did not identify which parts of the comments constituted offensive language or contained profane words.
13. On 30 July 2019 the Arkhangelsk Regional Court upheld the conviction on appeal.
14. On 13 August 2020 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation quashed Ms Baksheyeva’s conviction on the grounds that a regional governor was not “a State authority” for the purposes of the offence of showing flagrant disrespect.The case of Mr Vatanen (application no. 49503/19)
15. In December 2018 Mr Vatanen posted several memes on his social media account.
(a) A text which read:
“The power of Russian-speaking Russian nationals: 1. Russian President Putin. His divorced wife has taken French nationality and lives in France. She owns three period châteaux built under Louis XVI. His daughter ... is married to a Dutch businessman ..., lives in Amsterdam and invests in the Dutch economy. His [other] daughter ... lives with a South Korean national ... in London and owns a transatlantic shipping company. 2. Prime Minister Medvedev. His son ... lives in the USA and is a US national. He owns a chain of supermarkets and gas stations. 3. Minister of Foreign Affairs Lavrov. His daughter ... lives in the USA and has filed an application for US nationality. 4. Press Secretary Peskov. His (official) wife is a US national. His daughter is a French national. His son is a British national ... DO NOT VOTE FOR THESE DEVILS!”
(b) An image designed to resemble President Putin on a lectern emblazoned with a Russian coat of arms carrying the caption “State Dura” [a rearrangement of letters making the name of the Russian Parliament sound like the word for a stupid woman] and the text:
“Dear fellow citizens, I, President of Russia Vladimir Vladimirovich Tupin [a rearrangement of letters making the name of Putin sound like the word for a stupid person] and elected members of the State Dura promise to make promises. Such is our duty.”
(c) A fictitious certificate featuring a photograph of President Putin and the text “Issued to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin to certify that he is actually a thief”.
(d) An image of a pig carrying a Russian flag with the caption “If you are clever and honest, you are against Putin. If you are clever and support Putin, you are unscrupulous. If you are honest and support Putin, you are dumb”.
(e) An image of two men having sex, one of them shown as saying “Harder, push harder!”, and the caption “Attention! New members are being accepted to the United Russia party”.
(f)The comment “Vladimir Vladimirovich, please kindly fuck off already”.
(g) A hammer-and-sickle Soviet symbol with the caption “We remind you that Putin is a fuckwad[1] (хуйло)”.
16. On 24 April 2019 the Kostomuksha Town Court of the Kareliya Republic found Mr Vatanen guilty of showing flagrant disrespect for society and State authorities. The trial was conducted in his absence and without a prosecutor or police officers being present. The judgment referred to the police report as evidence of the offence, without describing or analysing the content of the posted material. Mr Vatanen was fined RUB 30,000.
17. On 27 June 2019 the Supreme Court of the Kareliya Republic upheld the conviction on appeal, holding that Mr Vatanen’s posts had constituted “cynical information that was contrary to the established standards of conduct, the requirements of human morality, and an acceptable manner of communication between people”. Such information could not be considered “constructive and healthy criticism” and did not amount to a legal exercise of the freedom to express opinions about government agencies.The case of Ms Chervyakova (application no. 50402/19)
18. Ms Chervyakova is a reggaeton dancer and teacher who uploads photographs and videos of her performances to Instagram. On 28 April 2019 she posted a video showing her dancing at the foot of the Burial Mound of Immortality in Bryansk, a monument commemorating the victims of the Second World War. She is performing dance moves wearing a cropped top and patterned leggings against the backdrop of the city park and high-rise apartment blocks. She is facing the monument which remains outside the camera’s field of view at all times. She added the comment: “A sunny mood to everyone!”
19. On 8 May 2019 the police obtained a statement from the Department of Culture of the Bryansk City Administration. It indicated that the Mound of Immortality was a “cultural work of regional significance” and a “monument to the fallen heroes” and that Ms Chervyakova’s dance showed “flagrant disrespect towards society”. On 14 May 2019 the police charged her with showing flagrant disrespect for society. She disagreed with the charges on the grounds that there had been nothing obscene or offensive about her dance performance and that she had picked a “pretty spot” without intending to offend anyone.
20. On 29 May 2019 the Sovetskiy District Court in Bryansk found Ms Chervyakova guilty as charged, referring to the police report and the statement from the Department of Culture, and fined her RUB 30,000. The proceedings were conducted in the absence of a prosecutor. On 17 July 2019 the Bryansk Regional Court upheld the conviction on appeal.The case of Mr Poputnikov (application no. 50479/19)
21. On 31 March 2019, while driving past the regional police headquarters, Mr Poputnikov saw graffiti on the façade calling Putin an anti-gay slur. He posted a photograph of the writing on his Facebook account and added the comment, “This is how it is. Guys are real adrenaline junkies...” The comment was made in reference to unknown graffitists who breached the ban on disrespecting the authorities at issue in the present case.
22. The police interviewed Mr Poputnikov about the circumstances in which the photograph had been taken. He said that he had no idea who the graffitists were. The police also obtained a statement from the deputy headmaster of a secondary school. She stated that “the placement of the writing” was indicative of flagrant disrespect for society and the government.
23. On 7 May 2019 the police brought charges against Mr Poputnikov for taking and posting a photograph of offensive writing showing flagrant disrespect for President Putin.
24. On 14 May 2019 the Kirovskiy District Court in Yaroslavl found Mr Poputnikov guilty as charged, finding, by reference to a linguistic assessment report, that the anti-gay slur pictured in the photograph was “rude and offensive and incompatible with generally accepted moral standards”. The offensive speech was addressed to the President as “the single-person body of State authority in Russia”, while an absolute majority of citizens associated the name Putin with the incumbent President of Russia because of “the long time he had spent in that position” and “the media coverage of his work related to the management of State affairs”. The court rejected Mr Poputnikov’s request to obtain the attendance and examination of the experts in linguistics. Mr Poputnikov was fined the minimum amount of RUB 30,000 because the District Court found that there was no evidence of “any deleterious consequences”.
25. Mr Poputnikov appealed, complaining that the trial court had not summoned the witnesses for the prosecution or taken into account the political context of the writing. On 19 June 2019 the Yaroslavl Regional Court dismissed the appeal and upheld the conviction.The case of Mr Komandirov (application no. 51008/19)
26. Outraged by media reports of Mr Kartyzhev’s conviction under the new law (see paragraph 6 above), Mr Komandirov posted the comment:
“Check it out, they cannot convict us all, ‘Ain’t got no guts’. Let’s do a flash mob. Let everyone express their opinion. Like this, or like I did a few posts before, check out my newsfeed.”
He attached a photograph of President Putin with the rhyming caption “Every citizen knows who the top fuckwad is”.
27. On 28 June 2019 the Leninskiy District Court in Smolensk convicted Mr Komandirov of flagrant disrespect for State authorities and fined him RUB 30,000. The court referred to a police report and the opinion of a police expert. The proceedings were conducted without a prosecutor, police officers or the expert being present.
28. On 31 July 2019 the Smolensk Regional Court upheld the conviction.The case of Mr Pakhno (application no. 51018/19)
29. In May 2019 Mr Pakhno reposted a statement by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, who had said:
“I ask that you keep your offices free of my portraits. The president is not an icon. Put up photos of your children and look them in the eye before making each decision.”
Mr Pakhno added the comment:
“Putin is a sanctimonious sleazeball. Putin is a fuckwad. Unlike the Ukrainian president, he is good for nothing except verbally eating dirt from a flowerpot.”
30. A few days later, a member of the public reported Mr Pakhno’s post to the district prosecutor. The prosecutor charged him with flagrant disrespect for State authorities.
31. On 1 July 2019 the Izobilnenskiy District Court of the Stavropol Region found Mr Pakhno guilty as charged and fined him RUB 30,000, referring to the statement of complaint and the prosecutor’s report as evidence. A prosecutor was present at the first hearing but absent for the remainder of the proceedings.
32. On 7 August 2019 the Stavropol Regional Court upheld the conviction on appeal.The case of Mr Putevskiy (application no. 55902/19)
33. In May 2019 Mr Putevskiy reposted someone else’s video “Putin, you are a cowardly bitch!”, which harshly criticised the repression of participants in mass rallies held on 5 May 2018 to protest against Putin’s re‑election. He added the comment:
“The Russian government is all rotten. Putin and his team have no common sense. Budget money flows out of the Russian Federation, in violation of all legal regulations, while ordinary people are literally on their last legs. The time will come when justice will be fully restored! I appeal to all members of Parliament who sit in the State Duma and steal from people + a monthly salary of 400,000. I appeal to all bureaucrats, including Putin, you are ungodly people; the time will come when the earth will get rid of you, and the entire corrupt system will be 100% destroyed. You will lose the game you fixed!”
34. The police obtained a linguistic assessment report, which concluded that the title of the reposted video contained “a negative assessment of the person called Putin”. On the basis of that report, the police charged Mr Putevskiy with the offence of showing flagrant disrespect for society and President Putin.
35. On 25 June 2019 the Osininsk Town Court of the Kemerovo Region, in the absence of a prosecutor, found that Mr Putevskiy was guilty for sharing the phrase “Putin, you are a cowardly bitch!” on his account. The Town Court did not mention his own comment. He was fined RUB 30,000.
36. Mr Putevskiy appealed, submitting that he was not the author of the phrase for which he had been held liable and that the first-instance court had not taken into account the political nature of his comment or adjusted the amount of the fine in view of the fact that he was disabled and unemployed.
37. On 29 July 2019 the Kemerovo Regional Court dismissed his appeal summarily.The case of Mr Gorlanov (application no. 63136/19)
38. On 24 April 2019 Mr Gorlanov reposted the news of Mr Kartyzhev’s conviction on his social media account and added the comment:
“The fine was imposed for the post which the owner of a VKontakte account put on his wall with the comment: ‘Putin is a fairy-tale dumbwit’.”
39. On 10 July 2019 the local police, without summoning Mr Gorlanov, drew up an administrative offence report in connection with his post. He was charged with reproducing the offensive comment. The matter was referred to the Tsentralnyy District Court in Novokuznetsk.
40. In court, Mr Gorlanov maintained that he had lawfully exercised his freedom of expression and that he had quoted someone else’s writing rather than made any allegations of his own. On 24 July 2019 the District Court found him guilty as charged, without addressing his motives, and fined him RUB 30,000. The trial was conducted in the absence of a prosecutor.
41. On 7 October 2019 the Kemerovo Regional Court upheld the conviction on appeal.The case of Mr Shadrin (application no. 64337/19)
42. On 3 May 2019 Mr Shadrin updated his status on his social media account to read, “Putin is a real-life dumbwit, not the fairy-tale kind”. On 14 May 2019 a high-school Russian teacher told the police that his status contained profane language targeting the President of Russia. The police charged Mr Shadrin with flagrant disrespect for the authorities.
43. On 7 June 2019 the Verkhovazhskiy District Court of the Volgograd Region found him guilty as charged and fined him RUB 30,000. The proceedings were conducted in the absence of a prosecutor. On 28 June 2019 the Vologda Regional Court upheld the conviction on appeal, finding no substantive or procedural irregularities.
44. On 12 November 2019 Mr Shadrin posted the following comment on his newsfeed:
“So fed up with posts about the extermination of the Russian people, targeted genocide and all that. Wake up! Hitler did commit genocide. For Stalin, it was not an end in itself. Much less so for Putin who is little vermin (гадюка) compared to those monsters. This scum (мразь), who is totally out of touch with reality, is motivated only by self-preservation and greed. That’s all. The extermination of the country is just a consequence of it. The fuckwad had no idea about it.”
45. On 10 December 2019 the anti-extremist police accessed Mr Shadrin’s account, recorded the comment and charged him with flagrant disrespect for the authorities. Mr Shadrin pleaded not guilty. He stressed that he had not used any profane words to refer to President Putin. By a judgment of 5 February 2020, which was upheld on appeal on 1 June 2020, the Verkhovazhskiy District Court found Mr Shadrin guilty as charged and fined him RUB 50,000.The case of Mr Zhukov (application no. 5519/20)
46. On 20 February 2019 Mr Zhukov posted a song, which he had composed and performed, on his social media account:
“As I travel all over my country // I feel disgusted, I feel anger in all men // It’s not easy to live with 200 dollars in the twenty-first century // Nothing to say here,
Russia is not a country but a piece of shit // Putin the fuckwad sold Russia long ago // a Botoxed dwarf and bald-headed rat // Why did you let a KGB spy take over after Boris [Yeltsin],
Old ladies will give themselves up for a few pancakes // because there are no Russian farms there // Whoever stays here will have no mercy from the authorities // That’s why my answer is that Putin is a fuckwad.”
The lyrics were prompted by Mr Zhukov’s outrage at two media reports. The first showed elderly people in a Russian city standing behind a metal barrier, being fed pancakes with snow shovels. The second alleged that Putin had amassed a personal fortune which could be one of the largest in the world.
47. The police obtained an expert report from a professor at Kurgan State University, who determined that the song contained profane language targeting Putin and his work as the President of Russia and also alleged that he had “committed an act of treason for pecuniary gain”. On the basis of the report, the police charged Mr Zhukov with flagrant disrespect for the authorities.
48. On 19 August 2019 the Kurgan Town Court found Mr Zhukov guilty as charged and fined him RUB 40,000. The court refused his requests to ensure the participation of a prosecutor or examination of the expert. It did not address his submissions that the song was a form of satire and should benefit from protection under Article 10 of the Convention.
49. On 30 September 2019 the Kurgan Regional Court dismissed an appeal by Mr Zhukov complaining in particular of the excessive amount of the fine.The case of Mr Bychkov (application no. 5990/20)
50. On 6 July 2019 Mr Bychkov commented on news about a rising number of tick-borne diseases in the Oryol Region:
“In the [Soviet] Union, we had no idea what those ticks were, thanks to our shit-ass bureaucrats we have plumbed new depths, thanks to Putin, our president and his mob are real scumbags!”
51. On 29 July 2019 the police, relying on their own linguistic assessment, charged Mr Bychkov with flagrant disrespect for President Putin and for “bureaucrats”.
52. On 24 September 2019 the Zheleznodorozhniy District Court in Oryol found Mr Bychkov guilty as charged and fined him RUB 40,000. He lodged an appeal, which was dismissed on 28 October 2019 by the Oryol Regional Court. It held that Mr Bychkov could not benefit from the defence of speaking on a matter of public interest because he had resorted to “obviously profane language”.The case of Mr Shatskikh (application no. 20550/20)
53. On 2 September 2019 the police, relying on their own linguistic assessment, charged Mr Shatskikh with flagrant disrespect for President Putin and “members of the Russian government” in connection with three comments he had posted previously.
(a)On 1 July 2018 he reacted to news of a decline in the incomes of Russians and a dip in President Putin’s approval ratings:
“Shoot down Putin’s motherfuckers and Putin himself like [they do with] corrupt officials in China.”
(b) On 5 March 2019 he was upset by statements made by a high-ranking official of a State corporation. The official had referred to residents of dilapidated social housing as “the scum” (скотобаза) who would “turn new flats into shit in a couple of years”. Mr Shatskikh commented:
“We read and eat all that shit they give us, when are we going to rise, take down this power and do it like in China? You take a bribe, you go to prison or have your hand chopped off or are executed ... Time to unseat those shit-ass Putin motherfuckers.”
(c) On 10 June 2019 he expressed indignation at the arrest of a Russian investigative journalist on fabricated drug charges:
“Blast that whole government and fucking Putin too ... Maybe then we can take a breather.”
54. On 6 September 2019 the Buzulukskiy District Court of the Orenburg Region found Mr Shatskikh guilty as charged and fined him RUB 30,000. The proceedings were conducted in the absence of a prosecutor, the defence and the police expert.
55. On 5 November 2019 the Orenburg Regional Court quashed the conviction in the part concerning the first comment which had been posted before the new law had come into force on 29 March 2019, but upheld it in the remaining part. It held that “the expression of negative views of the government was not prohibited” but “such views should not be expressed in profane terms”.The case of Mr Krasheninnikov (application no. 24165/20)
56. Mr Krasheninnikov is a journalist who posts his views on current affairs on the Krasheninnikov’s Telegrams channel on the Telegram messenger platform.
57. In August 2019 a member of the public reported to the police that Mr Krasheninnikov had reacted to news of the arrest of an anti-corruption activist with the comment, “Putin’s judges are such whores” (бляди). The police carried out their own linguistic assessment and charged him with flagrant disrespect for the Russian judiciary using profane language. On 20 November 2019 the Leninskiy District Court in Yekaterinburg found him guilty as charged and fined him RUB 30,000. The proceedings were conducted in the absence of a prosecutor. On 15 January 2020 the Sverdlovsk Regional Court upheld the conviction on appeal.
58. On 14 March 2020 Mr Krasheninnikov reposted news that President Putin had requested the Constitutional Court of Russia’s clarification on the issue of whether he could legally stand for another presidential term under the amended Constitution. He added the comment: “... and these shitheads in gowns will be like: YES, SURE! YOU CERTAINLY CAN! RULE FOREVER!” On 8 July 2020 the police accessed Mr Krasheninnikov’s channel, downloaded the comment and commissioned a linguistic assessment. An expert found that the comment degraded and offended people belonging to the social group of “justices of the Constitutional Court”.
59. At about noon on 23 July 2020 Mr Krasheninnikov was taken to a police station and charged with flagrant disrespect for the judges of the Constitutional Court. At 5.45 p.m. the same day the Oktyabrskiy District Court in Yekaterinburg considered the charges in the absence of a prosecutor and found him guilty. It rejected the argument that the three-month statutory limitation period had expired, holding that the offence had been continuous. Noting that Mr Krasheninnikov had previously been convicted of the same offence and his lack of employment, the District Court sentenced him to seven days’ detention with immediate effect. On 27 July 2020 the Sverdlovsk Regional Court upheld the conviction on appeal, at a hearing held in the absence of Mr Krasheninnikov and a prosecutor.The case of Ms Murakhtayeva (application no. 26885/20)
60. Ms Murakhtayeva, also known as Irina Slavina, is an opposition politician and editor-in-chief of the online magazine KozaPress.
61. On 2 August 2019 the Nizhniy Novgorod branch of the Communist Party installed a plaque to commemorate Joseph Stalin’s leadership of the Soviet Union in the town of Shakhunya. Disgusted with the public celebration of the dictator, Ms Murakhtayeva expressed her revulsion by adding the following post on her Facebook account:
“After placing Stalin’s ugly mug on a house in Shakhunya near Nizhniy Novgorod, why not change the name of the town to Shakhuynya [a re-arrangement of letters to make the name of the town sound like an expletive].”
62. Local communist supporters reported her post to the Nizhniy Novgorod prosecutor. They claimed that the deliberate distortion of the name of the town had offended the dignity of its residents. The police obtained a linguistic assessment report determining the offensive nature of her comment and charged her with flagrant disrespect for society.
63. On 30 October 2019 the Nizhegorodskiy District Court in Nizhniy Novgorod found Ms Murakhtayeva guilty as charged and fined her RUB 70,000. It held that the police report, the linguist’s findings and the above-mentioned letter of complaint were sufficient evidence that she had committed the offence. The trial was conducted in the absence of a prosecutor, despite her request to ensure the prosecutor’s participation.
64. On 25 December 2019 the Nizhniy Novgorod Regional Court upheld the conviction on appeal.The case of Mr Tyurin (application no. 36189/20)
65. On 19 September 2019 Mr Tyurin posted the comment on his Facebook account: “Shaman is the king! Putin is a fuckwad.” He was reacting to reports that a Siberian shaman had been arrested on a trek across Russia to Moscow which he had undertaken “to exorcise Putin from the Kremlin”.
66. On 10 April 2020 a senior officer in charge of particularly important extremism cases with the Astrakhan regional police accessed Mr Tyurin’s page, printed out his comment and interviewed a Russian teacher, who stated that the word “fuckwad” attached to Putin’s name was profane.
67. On 13 April 2020 the police charged Mr Tyurin with flagrant disrespect for State authorities. On the same day the Leninskiy District Court in Astrakhan found him guilty on the basis of the police report and the teacher’s assessment, and fined him 30,000 Russian roubles (RUB). On 22 May 2020 the Astrakhan Regional Court upheld the conviction on appeal. The proceedings were conducted in the absence of a prosecutor.The case of Mr Lileykin (application no. 37477/20)
68. In January 2018 Mr Lileykin, a seventy-year-old retiree, unsuccessfully applied for registration as a candidate in the presidential election. He challenged the refusal before the Central Election Commission and filed a statement of complaint with the Investigations Committee. Convinced that the State authorities had conspired to prevent him from standing in the election, on 15 July 2019 he posted the following text on his VKontakte social media account:
“Vladimir Putin is a public criminal! He is a thief and impostor! Get lost, you are dismissed! Having conspired with [the head of the Central Election Commission] to rig the election, Vladimir Putin has appropriated the office of the President of Russia and carried out a coup d’état [replacing] a constitutional democratic government with a dictatorial regime.”
69. On 7 December 2019 the police accessed his account and charged him with flagrant disrespect for State authorities. On 12 December 2019 the Dinskiy District Court of the Krasnodar Region found him guilty as charged and fined him RUB 70,000. The trial was held in the absence of a prosecutor. The court referred to the police report and a screenshot of Mr Lileykin’s comment as the only evidence of the offence.
70. Mr Lileykin appealed, complaining in particular of the excessive and disproportionate amount of the fine, which was almost seven times his monthly income. He also stressed that the three-month statutory limitation period had expired and that the terms “criminal”, “thief” and “impostor” were not profane.
71. On 3 March 2020 the Krasnodar Regional Court dismissed his appeal summarily.domestic law
72. Paragraph 3 of Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences reads as follows:
“Dissemination through ICT networks, including the Internet, of information expressed in profane terms [в неприличной форме] offending human dignity and public morals and showing flagrant disrespect for society, the State, official symbols, the Russian Constitution or government bodies of Russia, shall be punishable by an administrative fine of between 30,000 and 100,000 Russian roubles.”
73. Section 4 provides that repeat offenders will be punished with fines of between RUB 100,000 and 200,000 or up to fifteen days’ imprisonment.
COMPLAINTS
74. All applicants complain under Article 10 of the Convention that the language of Article 20.1(3) of the Code of Administrative Offences –“profane terms”, “offending ... dignity” and “flagrant disrespect” – is too vague and ambiguous to pass the “quality-of-law” test. They also complain that their convictions were not necessary in a democratic society, and that satire is an acceptable form of expression even where it provokes offence or outrage.
75. Some applicants also complain under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention that, in the absence of prosecutors or charging police officers, the trial court assumed the role of the prosecution.
76. Mr Krasheninnikov complains under Article 5 about his unrecorded detention at the police station on the day of his arrest.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. As regards Ms Baksheyeva, whose conviction has been quashed in the review proceedings, has she maintained her status as a “victim” of the alleged violation? Does Russian law provide for a possibility to obtain compensation for wrongful administrative prosecution and conviction? If it does, the Government are requested to submit the case-law of Russian courts illustrating the application of these provisions in practice.
2. Has there been a violation of Article 10 of the Convention? In particular, is the increased protection afforded to the Head of State and State institutions by means of a special law on insults in keeping with the spirit of the Convention (see Pakdemirli v. Turkey, no. 35839/97, §§ 51-52, 22 February 2005; Artun and Güvener v. Turkey, no. 75510/01, § 31, 26 June 2007; Otegi Mondragon v. Spain, no. 2034/07, § 55, ECHR 2011; Önal v. Turkey (no. 2), no. 44982/07, § 40, 2 July 2019)? Was the amount of fines determined with regard to its proportionality to the gravity of the offence and the individual circumstances of each applicant?
3. Has there been a violation of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, in all cases except the cases of Mr Poputnikov and Mr Bychkov, on account of the absence of the prosecuting party from the proceedings (see Karelin v. Russia, no. 926/08, 20 September 2016)?
4. there been a violation of Article 5 § 1 of the Convention on account of Mr Krasheninnikov’s unrecorded detention at the police station from 11.46 a.m. to 5.45 p.m. on 23 July 2020?
APPENDIX
No.
Application no.
Lodged on
Applicant
Year of Birth
Place of Residence
Represented by
1
40763/19
24/07/2019
Yuriy Dmitriyevich KARTYZHEV
1984
Malaya Vishera
Damir Ravilevich GAYNUTDINOV
2
48407/19
05/09/2019
Svetlana Aleksandrovna BAKSHEYEVA
1972
Kotlas
Igor Nikolayevich SHOLOKHOV
3
49503/19
10/09/2019
Roman Nikolayevich VATANEN
1983
Kalevala
Stanislav Aleksandrovich SELEZNEV
4
50402/19
10/09/2019
Alena Igorevna CHERVYAKOVA
1997
Kokino
Stanislav Aleksandrovich SELEZNEV
5
50479/19
11/09/2019
Kirill Sergeyevich POPUTNIKOV
1981
Yaroslavl
Stanislav Aleksandrovich SELEZNEV
6
51008/19
19/09/2019
Sergey Eduardovich KOMANDIROV
1995
Smolensk
Igor Nikolayevich SHOLOKHOV
7
51018/19
19/09/2019
Ivan Petrovich PAKHNO
1982
Izobilnyy
Igor Nikolayevich SHOLOKHOV
8
55902/19
30/09/2019
Ilya Sergeyevich PUTEVSKIY
1991
Osinniki
Stanislav Aleksandrovich SELEZNEV
9
63136/19
20/11/2019
Igor Igorevich GORLANOV
1998
Novokuznetsk
Stanislav Aleksandrovich SELEZNEV
10
64337/19
28/11/2019
Yuriy Klavdiyevich SHADRIN
1974
Verkhovazhye
Damir Ravilevich GAYNUTDINOV
11
5519/20
19/12/2019
Yevgeniy Alekseyevich ZHUKOV
1998
Kurgan
Stanislav Aleksandrovich SELEZNEV
12
5990/20
27/12/2019
Andrey Vladimirovich BYCHKOV
1988
Orel
Raushaniya Rustemovna KAMALOVA
13
20550/20
01/05/2020
Vladimir Aleksandrovich SHATSKIKH
1978
Buzuluk
Stanislav Aleksandrovich SELEZNEV
14
24165/20
10/06/2020
Fedor Gennadyevich KRASHENINNIKOV
1976
Yekaterinburg
Natasha DOBREVA
(Bulgaria)
15
26885/20
15/04/2020
Irina Vyacheslavovna MURAKHTAYEVA
1973
Nizhniy Novgorod
Irina Vladimirovna KHRUNOVA
16
36189/20
30/07/2020
Aleksey Valeryevich TYURIN
1984
Astrakhan
Irina Vladimirovna KHRUNOVA
17
37477/20
06/08/2020
Anatoliy Aleksandrovich LILEYKIN
1950
Krasnodar Region
Feliks Yevgenyevich VERTEGEL
[1] A contemptible or despicable person.
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy