Moscow City Duma deputy faces criminal charges over repeated participation in protests

State investigators have launched a criminal case against Moscow City Duma deputy Yulia Galyamina for “repeated violations of the rules on conducting public events.”

The case was launched under article 212.1 of Russia’s Criminal Code, which is often referred to as “Dadin’s article” after activist Ildar Dadin — the first person to be convicted under this article following its introduction in 2014.

The Investigative Committee noted that on July 15, Galyamina published slogans online, calling for participation in unsanctioned rallies against recent changes to the Russian constitution, underscoring that she has faced multiple administrative charges for “violating the rules on conducting public events” in the past 180 days.

“Galyamina’s actions deliberately aimed at repeated defiance of the norms of the administrative legislation and will be subject to assessment from the point of view of the [Russian] criminal code,” the Investigative Committee stated.

In turn, Galyamina called the criminal case politically motivated. “I know the same things you do. My friends just called and told [me] about it, I told my lawyer,” she said to the legal news outlet Mediazona. Galyamina added that she considers all of the arrests that could form the basis of this case unlawful. 

In the past six months, two separate court decisions on fines issued to Yulia Galyamina for participating in protests during the summer of 2019 came into force. Galyamina was also fined for holding a single-person demonstration in response to the arrest of journalist and politician Ilya Azar in July 2020 (the court decision on this fine has yet to come into force).

After two hours of protests on Moscow’s Pushkin Square on July 15, the rally against changes to the constitution turned into a peaceful march through the city center. After protesters moved into the road, police officers started carrying out arrests. In total, more than 130 people were held in police vans.