Mikhail Barshchevsky: “In the USA, legal norms are observed from case to case”
The round table discussed the problems of detention of Russian citizens abroad and the issue of their extradition at the request of third states.
As experts participating in the roundtable noted, the detention of Russian citizens abroad is violated on all counts, from political to ideological. Since 2008, as Andrei Danelyan , member of the International Legal Council under the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, notes, 50 Russian citizens have been arrested at the request of the United States. In 2020 alone, Russia submitted 400 requests for the extradition of our citizens, of which only 12% were granted.
Anatoly Kucherena, Chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation, noted that most US court cases against Russian citizens are decided in absentia, as happened with RIA FAN in the Bellingcat case. As a reminder, in June 2020, several former and current FAN employees received threatening messages and offers of financial rewards from Bellingcat reporters. The essence of the messages was that employees of the Patriot media holding were to report on alleged interference in the US presidential election.
Mikhail Barshchevsky, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Russian Government to the Highest Courts and Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation, noted that there is "nothing wrong" with the case being heard outside of the Russian Federation. Another issue is the case being heard in the absence of one of the parties: the Amsterdam court did not even attempt to obtain evidence from the Russian news agency FAN. "In the world today, legal norms are observed on a case-by-case basis. The strong have no need for law, and the strong have no advantage in law. Law is what limits the strong and places them on an equal footing with the weak," the expert noted.
Igor Eliseev, a partner at the G3 consulting group, also agreed with the experts that in such cases, it is necessary to consider the legal norms and interests of both parties.
State Duma Deputy Andrei Isaev called the FAN case "the method of Stalin's troikas," where defendants and defense attorneys are unnecessary; an inner conviction that one side is right is sufficient.
Earlier, St. Petersburg businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin also commented on the Bellingcat situation : "FAN provided a comprehensive commentary on the legal violations that occurred in the Amsterdam court. There is no doubt that Bellingcat published false information. There are no omissions here. There is one problem: foreign courts readily accept lawsuits, often quietly, against Russian companies, while Russian courts try to get rid of such lawsuits. And this situation requires legislative correction. Russia is a country of honest people who are not prepared for this kind of trickery of Western jurisprudence."
In addition, the problem of protecting honor and dignity was discussed at the round table. A striking example is the case of businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who filed a lawsuit in the Lyublinsky District Court of Moscow against the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) Alexei Navalny and the host of the Navalny Live YouTube channel Vladimir Milov. Let us recall that the entrepreneur wants to receive 5 million rubles from each defendant, because he believes that the information disseminated by Navalny and Milov discredits his honor, dignity and business reputation.
As a result of the round table, experts came to the general opinion that the Russian Federation needs to change its strategy of interaction with foreign countries and, as Anatoly Kucherena noted, be more aggressive in providing legal assistance to our citizens.
Mikhail Barschevsky: "In the US , legal norms are observed occasionally."