Week-ending 10 September 2021
“The restrictions imposed on me in connection with the criminal case have gradually made my work impossible. I was banned from using devices connected to the internet, speaking with my client and with some of my colleagues. In general, everything a lawyer needs to be effective in their work was forbidden me. The restrictions did not touch on just one thing – the possibility of leaving the country. This was a sign pointing to a way out. It took a few months to find reliable lawyers who will continue to work in Russia for my clients. We must give what is due to the patience of our procedural opponents, who for all these four months waited, not taking any brutal actions, though there was information about a harsher scenario that would have ended by putting me in jail. Only on the day of the flight did they start surveillance, keeping watch all day on my house in Petersburg, following me to the airport, right to the very plane. But they did not try to impede the flight, even though I had a one-way ticket. Now I am an émigré. In Georgia for now – a country with which I have many ties. Here my mother was born, my grandfather is buried, here I spent three years of my childhood, I went to school…”
– Ivan Pavlov: ‘Now I am an émigré,’ Rights in Russia, 7 September 2021 [our translation]. In Russian: Moscow Helsinki Group [original source: Эхо Москвы]. On 7 September 2021 prominent human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov announced on his Telegram account that he had left Russia.
See also:
The Moscow Times, 7 September 2021: A prominent Russian defense lawyer involved in high-profile cases and himself facing criminal charges said Tuesday he has fled the country amid an ongoing exodus of opposition-leaning figures ahead of this month’s elections.
RFE/RL, 7 September 2021: One of Russia’s top human rights lawyers, who is representing jailed journalist Ivan Safronov, has left the country after the authorities opened a case against him for allegedly disclosing classified information about his client’s case.
IAPL Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers, 9 September 2021: The treatment of Ivan Pavlov and Team 29 exemplifies the risks human rights defenders are taking.
