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The Ostankinsky District Court in Moscow has fined activist Natalia Pronko 10,000 roubles (about US$110) under a “protest” article, reports SOTA. As clarified by RusNews, this concerns part 5 of article 20.2 of the Administrative Code. The grounds were that on 10 August, Pronko was standing outside the Supreme Court in a queue to attend the hearing on the removal of Yabloko’s federal list from the State Duma elections.
Pronko said that she came to court as a spectator and did not take part in any protest. According to her, she had originally planned to attend another hearing, did not expect to see so many people outside the building, and left at about 1pm.
As reported by RusNews, Pronko received an official warning from a local police officer on Telegram. The officer messaged her from an account with a profile picture featuring the silhouette of an American police officer. Later, the activist received a registered letter inviting her to the local police station and notifying her that an administrative case had been initiated.
On 17 August, when the Supreme Court was considering the appeal in the Yabloko case, Pronko was away. She said that during this time three plainclothes men came to her home, questioned her neighbours about her, and later an officer from Centre “E” (the Centre for Combating Extremism) was let in by Natalia’s parents.
“They gave the family a hard time. The worst thing was unknown people coming to the house—ringing the doorbell, frightening my family,” Pronko said.
On 10 August, the Supreme Court removed Yabloko’s federal list from the State Duma elections. Around 500 people came to the courthouse to support the party. A week later, on 17 August, the appeal upheld the decision, and police, according to various estimates, detained more than 80 of those gathered.