Russian law enforcement wants ‘carte blanche’ to keep lawyers out of police stations, constitutional rights be damned
Why are Russian lawyers worried?
A draft decree from Russia’s Interior Ministry, recently published on the country’s legal portal, proposes new rules for access to restricted facilities. The document specifies who can freely enter Interior Ministry sites, such as police facilities, with proper identification — and lawyers aren’t on the list.
Prosecutors, for one:
Individuals holding federal government positions and responsible for overseeing police activities, judicial supervision, or prosecutorial oversight are granted unrestricted access to Interior Ministry facilities.
This omission has raised concerns, as lawyers in Russia already face significant barriers to accessing their clients. Advocacy groups, which have long criticized these obstacles, highlight issues such as:
- The “Fortress” plan. Police can invoke this protocol, citing an alleged threat of attack on the station, to bar anyone — including lawyers — from entering. This tactic is frequently used during mass protests to block legal representatives from accessing detained clients.
- Delays at checkpoints. Officers regularly stall lawyers at station entrances with dubious excuses. “They’ll say things like, ‘We’ll let you in once we finish the paperwork,’ or, ‘The Administrative Code doesn’t guarantee the right to a lawyer,’” said Valeria Vetoshkina, a lawyer with the human rights group OVD-Info.
- Evasion tactics. According to Vetoshkina, police sometimes go as far as hiding detainees inside stations or detention centers to prevent lawyers from meeting with them.
“There are also practical challenges, like long lines or a shortage of consultation rooms,” Vetoshkina added.
Wait, does Russian law allow this?
By law, no regulation can restrict a lawyer’s access to their clients. The right to legal assistance is considered absolute and cannot be curtailed under any circumstances.
Russia’s Constitution, federal statutes, Administrative Code, and the Criminal Procedure Code all guarantee citizens access to qualified legal counsel. “Subordinate regulations cannot override federal laws,” explained lawyer Valeria Vetoshkina. She pointed to several cases where her colleagues challenged police actions in court:
- Lawyer Sergey Podolsky successfully challenged police after they barred him from seeing detainees arrested during a protest in support of Alexey Navalny on April 21, 2021. The court ruled the denial of access unlawful and ordered the removal of detainees’ data from the Interior Ministry database.
- Lawyer Alexey Kalugin won a case after being denied access to National Bolsheviks arrested after laying flowers at a Lenin monument on November 7, 2021. The Moscow District Court ruled the denial unlawful.
- Lawyer Maria Eismont appealed her case all the way to the Constitutional Court after police invoked the “Fortress” plan to block her from meeting with clients. However, her challenge was unsuccessful.
What would this mean for lawyers trying to reach their clients?
If enacted, the order could give police “carte blanche to deny lawyers access entirely,” warns lawyer Valeria Vetoshkina.
“Unfortunately, police in Russia aren’t highly trained and tend to follow instructions to the letter. If the directive says not to allow lawyers in, they simply won’t,” she explained.
While it would still be possible to challenge police actions in court, the chances of success are slim. In theory, a strategic case could be brought before the Constitutional Court, which could declare the Interior Ministry’s order unconstitutional. However, past attempts offer little reason for optimism — as mentioned above, efforts to challenge the legality of the “Fortress” plan have already failed. In the current political climate, it’s hard to imagine the court siding with the legal community.
Explainer by Petr Sapozhnikov