On the 7th of September 2020 Max Znak was live and gave a comment on recent events: kidnapping of Maria Kolesnikova, Ivan Kravcov and Anton Rodnenkov, changes in workflow of Coordination Council Board and what we plan to do next. The answer is simple – we carry on.
Read more in our article!
Hello, dear friends, my name is Maxim Znak, we are here today to talk about the latest events, about a number of legal issues. I used to go live, but I haven’t done it for a long time. I haven’t done it because, as we said before, a “legal default” may occur, some legal norms may not be implemented. And when this really began to happen, the understanding of why lawyers are needed, why they are needed now, what they can do, faded into the background. On the frontline there were people who were ready to talk about the political agenda, about politics, about the necessary actions, and lawyers, helped them find possible ways to exercise their rights as much as they could. Now the situation is that out of all of the members of the Coordination Council in Minsk it is only me who can go on air, Maxim Znak.
Today my friends Maria Kalesnikava, Anton Radniankou, Ivan Kravcov – the members of Viktar Babaryka’s campaign headquarters – who from the first days of this campaign tried to achieve the right of all the voters and all the citizens of the Republic of Belarus to choose a new president and protect of the rights of citizens – all these people, like many others, like the active volunteers of Viktar Babaryka’s headquarters, are not here. They were either detained or had to leave the country, or, just as it is happening now with Maria, Ivan and Anton, they simply disappeared. Maria Kalesnikava went to the post office today – we agreed that she would go to pick up a letter presumably from the local police precinct of the Centralny district, an administrative offence report. Ivan Kravcov signed such a report, I received such a report by mail – it was a report on committing an administrative offence, a participation in an unauthorized rally on August 30th. And apparently Maria was also sent such a report and another letter from the KGB. Maria met the journalist Zmicier Lukashuk on her way there, he wrote about it on his Facebook, we didn’t even know that she would go there at that time. She did not reach the post office; near the National Art Museum, as the eyewitnesses say, she was forced into a minibus with the words “Communication” on it and the minibus left in an unknown direction.
More than 8 hours have passed since that moment, but we still do not know where Maria is or what is happening to her, although the lawyers tried to contact her and sent the notifications on her legal defense to all the bodies that could be involved in these events. At the same time after Maria stopped replying, Anton Radniankou and Ivan Kravcov tried to find her, came to her apartment and also disappeared. This is all the information we have about them. We have just received the information that a search was carried out in Ivan Kravcov’s apartment, and the search was carried out by employees of the Financial Investigations Department. How all this is connected to Ivan’s activities, what we will be told about Maria, Ivan and Anton we most probably will get to know from the state TV channels, as this is what usually happens.
There are many questions about what to do next. Unfortunately, the incident that has happened today to the members of the Coordination Council and the Secretariat of the Coordination Council is not an isolated one. This happens to us every day today. People are being detained. Yesterday, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than 600 people were arrested for participating in unsanctioned demonstrations. Apparently, the administrative procedures will be started against those who were not released. The list is growing. What has happened to Maria, Ivan and Anton is terrible, but even more terrible is that it happens to many people, and it happens every day routinely. We talked about this today at the Coordination Council meeting – and we will talk about this until this changes. If all of a sudden I won’t be able to talk about this, other Belarusians will talk about this including the members of the Coordination Council and core members of the Coordination Council.
How will the detention of Maria Kalesnikava affect the activities of the Coordination Council?
The story with the Coordination Council and its Presidium goes like this. The Presidium was elected by free democratic elections among all the core members of the Coordination Council which consists of 7 people. At the moment, Pavel Latushka was forced to leave the territory of the Republic of Belarus. Volha Kavalkova served one administrative arrest, and she was condemned to another administrative arrest for 15 days. As she reported and we received confirmation of this, she was forcibly removed from the country facing a choice where nothing depended on her. Liliya Vlasova, whose name is known to everybody who is engaged in legal activities on the territory of the Republic of Belarus, mediator No. 1, the person who created mediation in this country, 67 years old, is also under investigation, a criminal case has been opened against her. She is also a member of the Board of the Coordination Council.
Siarhei Dyleuski has served his sentence for one administrative case, and he was condemned to another 15 days of arrest. And today – Maria Kalesnikava.
Me and Sviatlana Aleksievich are the only members of the Board of the Coordination Council who remain in Belarus, but for health reasons she does not take an active part in the activities of the Council. Therefore, it is obvious that the Board will not be able to make the decisions that it previously made, therefore, in order to prevent further pressure, as well as to ensure more efficient work, the members of the Coordination Council adopted changes to the regulations. Now, despite the fact that some members of the Board have been detained, some people were forced outside the country, a closed group has been created on Telegram; some projects are brought up for discussion there, discussed and the issues are put to the vote. The votes of the members of the Coordination Council are collected within 24 hours. If a simple majority is gathered, the decision is immediately considered as being adopted and published.
Today two appeals were issued this way, and everything we think about the pressure on the Coordination Council, the members of the Presidium and other members of the Coordination Council is stated there (for example, Andrei Yahorau was arrested yesterday). We also issued a separate appeal, which concerns the brutal actions of, evidentially, law enforcement officers against the participants of the peaceful demonstrations. Everyone knows what happened yesterday in Minsk after the end of the protests, specifically in the area of the Pobediteley Avenue, 3.
Everyone knows what happened to students, residents of Grodno, residents of the Traktarazavodski pasiolak, even to the lifeguards who helped those who jumped into Kamsamolskaje Lake fleeing from persecution by the police. According to the Coordination Council all these actions are aimed at intimidation, at terrorization, and we see that they are directly related to the political activity of those who are persecuted. From the legal point of view, we see that it is possible to assert the abuse of authority. If we see that a person is lying on the ground – this video has already been published everywhere – his hands are behind his back, he does not resist, he shows that he completely obeys the requirements of the people in civilian clothes, and at the same time a person dressed in civilian clothes runs up to him and hits him to the kidneys and legs several times, this is a clear abuse of authority. We all see this situation, there is no need to use riot control weapons.
So, the members of the Coordination Council think, that there is a reason for initiating a criminal case. If it turns out that these actions were committed for a reason, not in the heat of action, not by a single police unit, but systematically, and we see that these actions are being performed systematically throughout the country, then it all depends on the ultimate goal. If the goal is to punish for some political beliefs, and we see what is happening to the detainees, the evidence of this has appeared on the Internet more than once, if the infliction of pain and suffering serves as punishment for the political or social activities, then this is called torture.
There is a legal definition: if an official inflicts pain and suffering on another person for his social and political activities, then this is called torture, article 128 “Crimes against the security of the mankind”. If this is done not in order to punish, but in order to intimidate others, this method of intimidation is known from ancient times: it is believed that if you put pressure on the individual members then it should have an impact on the behavior of the entire group. If the activists are detained, then others may behave differently. And this is also a criminal offense according to the Criminal Code. If the actions that threaten people or lead to other grave consequences are committed in order to force someone to refuse their political or public activities, then this is called an act of terrorism and is subject to a criminal prosecution. Finally, what if the actions were taken in order to somehow provoke peaceful demonstrations and peaceful demonstrators to resist, because this version is also being expressed now.
No shop windows were broken during the course of protests, with the exception of a shop window that was smashed by the law enforcement officials. If the actions that are deliberate and demonstratively rude, unjustifiably cruel were aimed at angering the demonstrators, then this can be regarded as an attempt to incite social hatred – this is also a crime that is next to the crimes against the security of the humanity, article 130 of the Criminal Code.
Today, the members of the Coordination Council, taking into account all of this, drew up an allegation letter to the Investigative Committee and sent it by mail, because now it is unsafe to enter such state institutions. Many people who came to submit a personal guarantee for Viktar Babaryka turned out to be offenders and served their sentences in the form of an administrative arrest. We have sent an allegation to the Investigative Committee with a request to check all the facts mentioned, look carefully at the published videos, as it is possible to establish the identities of those who led these people, it is possible to establish whether these armed, masked persons wearing civilian clothes are law enforcement officers or not, to verify the facts and make some kind of resolution. We hope that there will be a decision to initiate a criminal case and conduct an investigation of the criminal case and bring all the perpetrators to justice.
Let me remind you that up until now, despite the hundreds of submitted allegations on the facts of what happened to the detainees after August 9th, including allegations by Maria Kalesnikava, which she submitted to the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Investigative Committee, statements by Pavel Latushka, statements by Liliya Vlasova and other persons; we don’t know about any single criminal case initiated as a result. Repeatedly, both Maria Kalesnikava and other persons appealed to the law enforcement officers and investigating authorities, indicating that the only thing, which is requested from them, is to fulfill the oath given to the people and to act in accordance with the law. It is enough to look at the videos, at the photographs, at the numerous evidences to understand that it is necessary that the criminal case needs to be initiated, that it should be investigated, and that all Belarusians should know about the facts of these investigations as they see all these publications, videos and have a very definite opinion on all the available facts. Therefore, as you can see, the activities of the Coordination Council go on and will go on; you will be able to see all those documents and statements that will be accepted in the official channel. Two such statements were published today.
As for the further work, even if the Board is not able to work, we have two clear mechanisms – making decisions in the Telegram chat within 24 hours and completing the main members of the Coordination Council with the people who applied to join the membership of the Coordination Council. We have more than 5,000 members now listed on the site, there is a simplified procedure for the membership admission and a more complex procedure for the admission to the main membership. Taking into account the changes in the regulations, the main membership will consist of 120 people, and the members of the Council will be able to work quickly, rapidly, and fruitfully in order to resolve the situation in the country to the extent they are able to do this, taking into account their position.
What else can I tell you about the legal track? The situation in each direction is interesting. It’s been a long time, you might start to forget, but on 9th of August there was an election day, then there was the announcement of the official results, and then the presidential candidates, including Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, applied to the Supreme Court, and the Court has refused to start a trial. The Supreme Court has expressed that none of the presidential candidates has the right to appeal to the Supreme Court, except for cases when the Central Election Commission decided that the elections were invalid. Since the elections were recognized as valid by the CEC, no one has the right to go to court. In my opinion, this contradicts the constitutional provision on the right to judicial protection which is guaranteed to everyone, let alone a presidential candidate, and we will appeal this decision. In this case, we can only make a supervisory appeal, and in order to do that we need to obtain a copy of the ruling with the seal of the court. Unfortunately, I did not succeed to obtain it directly in the Supreme Court, and we are waiting for the corresponding ruling for filing a supervisory appeal to be delivered by mail.
They have my contacts as a lawyer for Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, I hope these definitions will be received, the supervisory appeal is already ready, since the definitions were published on the website and the court’s reasons are clear. So as soon as the document with the seal is received, the complaint will be filed immediately. Despite the fact that the Supreme Court responded to the submitted application in such a form and despite the fact that the CEC also refused to satisfy the complaints of all candidates, legal actions in this direction carry on and have already moved to the local level, to the level of polling stations. There is interesting information that came from civil initiatives about what is happening at the polling stations. Voters poll their neighbors and receive information on how many of them really voted for Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. This happens, of course, only if a person is willing to divulge the secrecy of the ballot, he has the right to do this, there are no restrictions on agitation now, so many voters voluntarily write their data in the general table and confirm in writing that on this day at this polling station they voted for Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Such a table takes many pages.
There are cases when one number is stated at polling station, for example, 70 citizens who voted for Tsikhanouskaya, but the signatures under the table of citizens who claim that they voted for Tsikhanouskaya sum up to several hundreds. It turns out to be an obvious discrepancy between the official protocol, if it was posted, and the statements of citizens, each of whom can testify, if necessary, about a real expression of will.
Alongside those tables, there’s data about violations on every polling station. For example, when observers where denied into the stations, when the voter list contained persons who could not vote, or when a citizen came to a station and saw that he has already voted, but this actually didn’t happen. Citizens submit all this violations, together with a copy of the table, to law enforcement authorities with a request to conduct a check and see if there are any signs of corpus delicti in accordance with Article 192 of the Criminal Code: are there any falsifications or fraudulent elections. It is not yet known about the initiation of a criminal case on any of these statements, but we see that evidence for each polling station is being collected, and it is being collected in the cloud, so it will not go anywhere. So there’s a lot of proof that the elections went not the way it is written in the official documents.
Moreover, it is interesting, that there is still no data about how people voted at the polling stations and, as the CEC explained, there will not be any, if it’s position does not change. There is data for about 1,500 polling stations, for the rest 4500+ it is not known exactly how people voted. But if you sum the published information and examine the average amount of votes that presidential candidates should have taken at those 4,500 polling stations that have not been published, you get a very interesting picture. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya had to gain 2.97%, the notorious 3%, in order to reach the amount of votes announced by CEC, Alexander Lukashenko had to gain about 89%. How possible is this should be determined statistically, but if at each of the unpublished polling stations, citizens collect more than 10% of signatures from all voters, it becomes clear that the statistics will definitely not converge, because Tsikhanouskaya has on average a little over 10% in the whole country, but according to the published protocols, which citizens managed to shoot on the night of August 9-10 – about 25%. This absolutely does not correlate with the documents that were published. Maybe this is the reason why the remaining documents are not published.
The question of the inadequacy in the actions of law enforcement agencies has now become the top priority, despite everything that happened with the elections. I have already told you about the statement of the Coordination Council, this is not the first statement, the corresponding appeals have already been submitted, and statements about the initiation of criminal cases. This issue cannot be forgotten as it is already at the international level. If there are facts of torture for political reasons, then these facts must be investigated publicly, so that everybody understand what has happened, how it happened, why it happened and how to prevent it from happening ever again. This requirement should remain unchanged in our country and is a priority along with what is happening now. This claim is not altered and it is of top priority along with what is happening in the country right now.
Among the hot questions people ask are the questions about the initiatives the Coordinating Council has launched and is about to launch. Let me remind you about the structure of the council since a lot of people are asking what the Coordinating Council is doing, what was it made for and how was it created. Answers to those questions can be found on council’s website in resolution or explanations have been given in another form. If something else is of interest to you, write it into stream comments, and my colleagues will send them to me, I will give an answer. But the core thing about the Coordinating Council looks like this.
The Coordinating Council consists of very different people who gathered in order to try to fully present the different points of view that exist in the Belarusian society about what is happening right now. These people may have different visions of the future, may have different political views. But the coordinating council, when adopting the resolution, determined that there are three main requirements, which the majority of Belarusians will now sign up to. These are the requirements that sound in different forms both at factories and during peaceful protests, and people post them at FB. These three requirements are constantly repeated: the investigation of crimes and punishment for those who are guilty of violence, the release of political prisoners and other persons who have suffered unjustifiably, including after peaceful protests, and holding fair elections in accordance with international standards, so that Belarusians can determine their destiny themselves. Given that authorities are not ready to do this, the Coordination Council is engaged in formulating the expectations of the Belarusian society, responding to the events that occur, and, to the extent possible, Сoordination Council helps civil initiatives to coordinate with each other and, within working groups, to receive information about what every civil initiative needs. There are no additional resources and structures, in fact, the structure is completely horizontal, any member of the CC can be part of an unlimited number of working groups – this is where the main work takes place. Moreover, no one reports on this work, the Presidium does not interfere in it, because what is happening now in Belarus from the point of view of creativity is wonderful.
The main thing here is not to interfere. Any management of this process can only harm, the Belarusians themselves do an excellent job. Further activities of the Coordination Council will proceed in the same direction – a consolidated reaction to what is happening, like today’s appeals, as well as all kinds of support of civil initiatives, including media, so that Belarusians see and understand that they are the ones, who are incredible. No more, no less. That’s very important right now.
The most striking initiative of those voiced is the recall of the deputies. Many citizens were enthusiastic to clarify who their deputy is, what he does, what he did and how he reacted to the messages that he received during the election campaign. On the eve of an extraordinary session of parliament, at which they heard Alexander Lukashenko’s message to the people and parliament, many deputies received letters in which voters asked them to do a number of specific things, including coming as voters to the polling station to see, that there is no violations of law. Now the deputies either report to the voters on these issues, or the voters launch the procedure for recalling the deputy. It is known what problems voters face in this case, but the degree of their charge and creativity should not be underestimated. Let me give you an example. This is just a masterpiece! On 20 pages with 40 appendices, with cross-references, how a serious group of lawyers worked for a week – and I understand that this was done by people who care about what is happening in the country, they understand that democracy is when they participate in management, they are ready to do it and do it.
Therefore, from the point of view of the Coordination Council, a number of new initiatives will be proposed to the society. Answers to frequently asked questions will be created in detail where we will tell about legal instruments. We have, in particular, several interesting laws that were rarely used before, but now every courtyard has its own community, when the Borovlyans go to visit Novaya Borovaya, when different districts are friends and communicate with each other – a full-fledged territorial structure of local self-government has appeared … And in this regard, we have mechanisms and tools in our legislation that can be used. There is a law on holding local and republican assemblies. Republican meetings can be held only at the initiative of the president, but on the other hand, there are no problems with local ones, up to the regions or even several regions united, and each neighborhood can choose its representative, then several neighborhoods will choose their representative, and so on. And it will turn out to be such a kind of veche (government), which can speak quite representatively on behalf of the people. It can support some positions, make some statements. This process must be started, because everything is already ripe. We also have another law on local government and self-government, there are territorial bodies of local government and self-government, which may not have the form of a legal entity, be elected at local assemblies and deal with a specific agenda. Considering that charismatic leaders have already appeared in many courtyards and districts, they can unite in a permanent quasi-body that will deal with the problems of the respective territory, help the development of the neighborhood, village or district in the city and interact and even partially control the activities of local government bodies existing within the vertical.
All these initiatives come from people. It is clear that there can be many obstacles on the way. There must be permission from local councils of deputies, local executive bodies for holding a meeting, including for recalling a deputy; for holding a local meeting a notification must be sent etc. But again, we know, we have learned over this year that if you do something, then something works out. And it turns out, in general, the Belarusian people are doing well. Therefore, if the law provides mechanisms, along with all other forms of activity, you can use them. It definitely won’t hurt.
What else would we like to discuss from what is on our agenda right now? Perhaps there will be many questions about the party, the creation of which was announced by Maria Kolesnikova last week. We planned to hold a press conference tomorrow with answers to most of the questions, since this really is more in the competence of Maria. I would like to note only one thing for those who is watching this stream: there were a lot of guesses, conjectures, accusations, including against Maria, against other members of the team of Babariko’s headquarters. We should probably apologize for the communication going the way it went. Perhaps the appeal was not entirely correct. In fact, it was an appeal by Viktor Dmitrievich, which was considered that … Considering that it was recorded before the arrest, given that it was recorded as it is, the team members felt that it was incorrect to cut out some pieces and try to form some new future from Viktor Dmitrievich’s words. So we sent the message as it is. And we said as it is: this initiative has not disappeared anywhere, it exists, it was always on the agenda, we talked about it when 3 headquarters joined together, our colleagues from other headquarters knew about it … That is, we simply postponed this moment until we would feel that there is a need to create such a force.
As for the statements that the timing is wrong or that this will interfere with the activities of the Coordinating Council, I would like to note that our priority has always been, is and remains the Coordinating Council, because it is the body created to consolidate efforts of the entire Belarusian society to resolve the political crisis and other crises that have obviously arisen before us. And therefore, both me and Maria – we are members of the Presidium, we are actively working in this direction. Everything that can be done in order to achieve here and now the fulfillment of those requirements that are formulated by the people , we must and we will do. As for the party, we must understand that meeting the three requirements set by the Coordination Council is only the first step, we still have a country, Belarus, we have a terrible state in many areas, including law, economics and other areas.
Of course, it is necessary to cope not only with what has already happened in our country, and it is imperative to achieve victory, but also to immediately prepare to broadcast some kind of picture, understandable, secured, confirmed, of the future that should come in this country. And for this there must be political forces, including political parties, any active ones, which will assure that they fully support the Coordinating Council and its goals. And at the same time they will propose some ways of further work, further way outs after the requirements of the Council are fulfilled.
This is, in short, what I can personally say about the creation of the party. Perhaps it is not quite as detailed and as politically verified as my colleagues would have done. But unfortunately, they are now not in a position to give any comments. I hope that in the near future we will be able to see them at large, no matter how optimistic it may sound. Our position from the time of Babariko’s headquarters has always been to communicate on a positive agenda, to always say that everything will be fine, and sometimes, when it really comes, it’s very happy to be happy about it.
Therefore, I hope that Maria, Anton and Ivan will be able to answer all other questions regarding political initiatives in the near future. I am better at answering all questions related to legal initiatives. So, I will now see what questions the viewers have sent, and I will try to answer you something.
Give me a second, here in the chat in Telegram you need to find where the questions are, and where are all the other messages that come … So, questions!
How the decisions of the Coordinating Council are made? It is not entirely clear.
Let me explain it again, if it’s not clear, this is important!
Previously, before the change in the Regulations, such a scheme was in effect: applications were submitted, from these applications people were selected for the main board, then the main board elected a Presidium of 7 members, then all decisions were made by the Presidium. Four votes have been collected, which means that the decision has been made. Due to the fact that now the Presidium, you see, is being persecuted, the scheme was changed. Now all decisions are made by the core members of the Coordination Council. Not by these thousands of people are in the enlarged council, they can work in working groups, they can generate ideas, but they do not directly participate in voting. And the core members in a closed telegram channel, in a closed telegram group directly participate in the discussion, the final discussion of the ideas put forward and in the decision-making process in cases where a decision needs to be made at the level of the Coordination Council.
As for the majority of initiatives, those that take place in working groups, they, in fact, do not usually require any additional ratification: if the working group comes up with a cool idea, then they promote it themselves without any vote. If the idea complies with the legislation, if the idea is in context and is in tune with the things that are specified in the Regulations and in the Resolution, then it is simply launched to the masses, the Coordination Council can only help with the communication channels that we have.
I repeat once again that despite everything that has happened, we remain strictly in the legal field. The Coordinating Council did not change this point of view. And even in the appeal that concerns the actions of employees of law enforcement agencies and brutal detentions in the last days, we draw attention to what happened illegally, but we also express concern that this may be a kind of provocation, which should push people to abandon the principles of peaceful actions, and once again emphasize that the Coordinating Council asks not to fall for these provocations and remain on the peaceful agenda. It is thanks to peaceful actions that Belarusians are now well-known all over the world; it is thanks to peaceful actions that our protests are unique and thanks to these actions I think that we will win.
What’s with Victor and Eduard?
A good question it is. We are in touch not only with the relatives of Viktor and Eduard. There are many more guys who, unfortunately, are now in custody, against whom charges have been brought, criminal cases have been initiated. We try to get information about everyone. As of today, for everyone with whom we are in contact, the information is … stable state, as doctors say. To the extent that it is possible, everyone is holding on, it is clear in what conditions they are in prison, but nevertheless, they send letters and send out their rays of optimism. Invariably, when some information comes from Viktor Dmitrievich, he says that he sends greetings to everyone, he hopes that all our efforts will invariably be crowned with success in the near future, and in general he says that he hugs everyone. When he’ ll get out he’ll do it personally.
Are self-defense actions applicable to persons in civilian, who are trying to act as police officers?
I can take a long time answering that question, but one thing is some kind of theory, and another thing is practice. Here we have the following situation: it is not so much the actions that are important as the interpretation of these actions in the future and the possible risks that these actions imply. Of course, there is criminal code, there is the concept of necessary self-defense, Article 34, and exemption from liability in case of need for self-defense, there is the possibility of difficulty in identification – and so quickly answering this question, some lawyers can say: “Well, if a stranger approached you on the street and began to use violence against you, then of course you have the right to the necessary self-defense.” It really is this way. But we must understand, and we have already said about this more than once, that if we use self-defense, certain protective measures against a person who, with a high degree of probability, is still a law enforcement officer, then most likely this will lead to the initiation of a criminal case, but not in relation to him, but in relation to that participant of peaceful actions who fought back. This is confirmed by the existing practice. Unfortunately, we see that not a single case has been initiated due to violence, as I have already said. At the same time, we see how those people who filed an application to initiate criminal cases, they themselves become defendants or interrogated, or they are threatened that they will be accused in cases of mass riots. Therefore, here legal is one thing, real risks are another.
And we urge everyone to clearly assess these risks and not take actions when you are not sure that these actions will lead to some kind of positive result. The same goes for other initiatives. We have many more interesting legislative norms. For example, the question often comes up: we have a law on the participation of citizens in the protection of law and order. There is article 9, which states that citizens at their place of residence for the protection and protection of law and order can create groups. The existance of these groups is reported to the internal affairs bodies in a notification order.
And here you need to clearly understand the line too. That is, we believe that this is certainly a useful, important and necessary initiative, especially if it is approved by the local assembly. That is, if the local assembly of all residents decides that it is necessary. Especially in a situation where strange things begin to happen at night in some areas, when property disappears, when cars are damaged, when something else happens, of course, a group of local citizens who, within their area, within their home, carries out such a kind of overwatch – this is normal. They report their initiative to law enforcement agencies, they just walk in their area, they make sure that no hooligans do anything – they don’t paint on the walls, don’t drink alcohol, don’t damage cars. And it doesn’t matter what kind of hooligans they will be, what flags they will wear, because illegal actions are illegal actions.
At the same time, if these groups are created, again in accordance with this law, but at the same time they will have some additional aims, or, God forbid, they will have some attributes or items that they need for self-defense, then this leads to completely different risks. That is, using any legal instrument, you always need to think about how it will be interpreted by our law enforcement agencies, which have not ceased to amaze us lately. Therefore, such initiatives can take place, but they must be treated taking into account all the risks that I have named.
And with that, I want to congratulate you that the questions are over. As the team says, I replied to the majority of the questions during the stream. Thanks to all those who were in touch today, keep an eye for the information that will be in the channels of the Coordination Council. Continue to express your civic position, once again I want to say on behalf of all team members, I am sure that Masha, Anton, Ivan, and all those who cannot be on the stream now will definitely join these words. You guys are incredible! Together we will definitely win! Thanks you!
