LIVE UPDATES: Actionist artist Pyotr Pavlensky has been freed by a Moscow court after being found guilty and issued a $7,750 fine for “damaging a cultural site” when he set fire to the doors of the FSB building.
Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies.
The previous issue is here.
Recent Analysis and Translations:
– NATO Got Nothing From Conceding To Russia In the Past, Why Should It Cave To The Kremlin Now?
– Who is Hacking the Russian Opposition and State Media Officials — and How?
– Does it Matter if the Russian Opposition Stays United?
– Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Has Invented A Version Of History To Meet His Needs
– Getting The News From Chechnya – The Crackdown On Free Press You May Have Missed
UPDATES BELOW
On June 6, Putin traveled to St. Petersburg where he participated in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. He also spoke at a media forum featuring Kremlin propaganda Dmitry Kisilyev which purported to be devoted to “alternative media” although it was sponsored by the state newspaper of record, Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
In between he met with a number of governors and officials.
Russia characterizes its relationship with Belarus as “the most advanced in the post-Soviet space”.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
Roskomnadzor, the Russian state censor, has moved to ban the web site Vice.com for a story which was about stealing from stores, Novaya Gazeta reported, citing a statement on Roskomnadzor’s page on VKontakte, Russia’s largest social network.
Romkomnadzor said (translation by The Interpreter):
On the basis of a decision of the Tobol City Court of Tyumen Region, the URL address of the major media company vice.com, containing information about the propagandizing of stealing of goods from shopping centers and stores, has been placed on the Register.
Our notice to the administration of the site went without warning. We had hoped this was a misunderstanding and the editors of the site would still respond to us and restrict the access to the materials by Russian users, which a court had pronounced illegal for distribution on the territory of the Russian Federation.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
“We will insist on an extrajudicial procedure on analogy with the already-existing procedure to ban calls for extremism which enables the more rapid reaction to violations of the law.”
“We propose providing prosecutors of the subjects [constituent members of the Russian Federation] the right to appeal to Roskomnadzor for the extrajudicial closure of access to information about the organization of mass disorders and unlawful public actions.”
Chaika said he has found support for this proposal with a number of deputies of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, and members of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, although he does not name names.
Russian authorities have already closed down a number of web sites run by liberal opposition including grani.ru and eje.ru and have also closed down sites deemed to be related to extremist groups from ultranationalists to ISIS supporters. A number of media sites including Ekho Moskvy have been warned if they did not remove objectionable content or authors from their site, they could face closure.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
The Meshchanskiy district court in Moscow has found actionist artist Pyotr Pavlensky guilty of “damaging a cultural site” and issued him with a 500,000 ruble ($7,750) fine.
On November 9 last year Pavlensky set fire to the doors of the FSB building on Lubyanka square as a performance he titled Threat.
Pavlensky, who was arrested on the scene and has been held in detention since then, was set free in the courtroom today.
Translation: The guards have removed Pavlensky’s handcuffs, but they’re afraid to let him out into the courtroom because of the army of journalists.
The BBC’s Sarah Rainsford documented the number of journalists at the court today ahead of the verdict: