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"Tverskoy District Court of Moscow arrested Volkov again for the campaign of September 9” — Anatoly Loginov’s commentary to Znak.com

Today, June 10, Tverskoy District Court of Moscow arrested Aleskey Navalny’s supporter Leonid Volkov for 15 days for the campaign against increase of retirement age, which took place in Russian cities and towns on September 9 of last year, as reported by Mediazona.

Previously Volkov did 20 days of administrative arrest for providing live coverage of the rally against the pension reform in Moscow. Today he should have been released from the detention room, but instead he was charged with taking part in the same rally, but this time in St. Petersburg.

“You are literally charging me with the same action twice. That’s one. Two, there's extraterritoriality. Simonovsky Court established that I was outside the Russian Federation, in Vilnius. The place where the alleged offense was committed is Vilnius. This city is not governed by the Administrative Code of the RF, and if I park my car in a wrong way in Vilnius I’ll be fined by Vilnius. Three, and possibly the funniest part. The rally in St. Petersburg was authorized. “It’s proven by written evidence you refuse to attach to the case, as well as by other files that actually are included in the case; they confirm it.” — claimed Volkov in the courtroom.

“From the legal point of view if a person commits two or more administrative offenses, the punishment is imposed for each one of them. The question is, how many offenses should Leonid Volkov be charged with? Actual circumstances tell us there was one all-Russia public event triggered by one reason — the increase of retirement age in September 2018. That brings us to the conclusion that even if the offense took place, it was one and the same offense. Which means in this particular case the punishment, as we see it, should be imposed once,” — lawyer and Partner of Pen & Paper Anatoly Loginov told Znak.ru.