In November, the European Court of Human Rights began the consideration of Kulbakina v. Russia. She filed two complaints to the ECHR. The first was dedicated to the violation of her right to freedom of assembly. In April 2012, Tatyana Kulbakina planned to organize a picket in solidarity with the participants of Pussy Riot, but the Murmansk authorities disapproved the venue. The second complaint was related to the fact that in 2014, the local court refused to consider a claim for violation of her right to effective remedies. Representative of the interests of the activist in the ECHR Alexander Peredruk believes that the probability of the redress of both grievances is high.
Civil activist, anarchist Tatyana Kulbakina filed complaints to the ECHR in February 2013. It considered that two articles of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms had been violated: Article 11 (Freedom of Assembly and Association) and Article 13 (Effective Remedy).
— For me, this news is like a blast from the past, — Tatyana Kulbakina told the correspondent of 7x7. – It is always unexpected with the ECHR. Freedom of assembly was and remains important for me, and I will be glad if the court is able to point out Russia's mistakes. On the other hand, our problems with the negotiation of events in 2012 and 2014 are only the beginning of the modern suppression of the right to peaceful protest. The demands must be more serious now. Our complaint is a small brick in the fight for freedom of assembly. But every brick is important.
Lawyer of the Apology of Protest human rights project, Tatyana Kulbakina’s counsel in ECHR Alexander Peredruk believes that chances of the redress of both grievancesfrom from the European court are high.
- This is indicated by the fact that the complaints were communicated in a simplified WEСL (well-established case law) procedure, which implies that the court does not expect answers from the government. Because the cases in which the applicant files a complaint already have a well-established judicial practice. If we rely on the practice of the ECHR, compensation in such cases is usually from 5 to 10 thousand euros. But we are awaiting other figures, as the court sometimes changes the practice - both downwards and upwards. In the case of Kulbakina, since she has not received justice and the Russian court, for example, has not considered one claim at all, this should affect increase the compensation. Because there is another approach when the state eliminates the violation of human rights itself.
Tatyana Kulbakina is a civil activist, anarchist, organizer of protest actions in Murmansk, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Humanistic Youth Movement non-profit organization. In November 2014, Pervomaisky District Court of Murmansk at the request of the Prosecutor's office recognized the HYM as a foreign agent. The HYM was created in 2003, involved into educational activities, published the Youth human rights newspaper. A few years ago, Tatyana Kulbakina left Russia, but continues to monitor the political situation in the country, participates in a campaign of solidarity with prisoners in the case of Set* (‘Network’ — a terrorist organization banned in Russia).
In 2013, the Investigative Committee of Murmansk Oblast opened a criminal case against anti-fascist Alexei Raskhodchikov under Part 2 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Use of Violence Endangering the Lives or Health Against a Representative of the Power). According to the investigators, at night on July 23, 2013, Alexey Raskhodchikov was in the company of young people in a state of alcoholic intoxication and attracted the attention of the police officers on duty. The patrol demanded to go to the police station, Raskhodchikov refused to do that, resisted and caused injuries to one of them. Raskhodchikov said in his testimony that in the night of the incident, the police had refused to produce the identification and beaten him during the detention. According to Alexei, he did not resist, but only tried to stand up and cover his head with his hands, but as a result his head was injured. The anti-fascist considered criminal prosecution fabricated. The court sentenced him to one year in a penal colony in February 2014.
