29 January 2021
Hi! This is Artem Kutlovsky, a lawyer with Team 29
The past week has been a tense one for Team 29, although there were only two main events: the protests of the past and future weekends, and also the assault on Margarita Yudina by a law enforcement officer. If you don’t know yet, Team 29 will be acting in her defence.
“The fact is they didn’t hit her, they pushed her away by placing a foot against her stomach.” (Vladimir Solovev)
From the beginning, the case of Margarita Yudina had a major public impact. Essentially, it began as a response by civil society and by people critical of what was taking place, to the violation of rights and the inexplicable use of violence by the state and its guardians against peaceful protesters. But, more and more, the personal tragedy of Margarita and her family became clear. For us at Team 29, as human rights defenders, this defined all the other actions we are taking and determined the publicity we are giving to this case. The main principle of “don’t harm”, as is well known, is important not only for doctors but also for lawyers and human rights defenders.
Thank you for your support, it seems to me to be unprecedented.
”They [law enforcement organisations] carried out their work, trying to save the city from aggressive thugs” (Dmitry Peskov)
For some reason, I remember almost no fairy tales from my childhood. On the other hand, once I grew up, I began to discover the ‘fairytale’ world of laws and every day I came to know the truth of the words of the German legal expert Rudolph von Jhering that only ‘through struggle do you acquire your rights.’ Be careful in this struggle, realising your right to assemble peacefully and without arms in accordance with the fairytale-like beauty of Article 31 of the Constitution. I don’t urge people to take any particular action and I am not getting anyone involved. However, it is only on us that it depends whether the Bab-Yaga will eat the little girl and her brother, whether Thumberlina will marry the old blind mole and whether the ugly duckling will turn into a beautiful swan.
And again, we are sad that a colleague has left us. We are now looking for a new editor for our website. We will be delighted to find a new person!
Let a fairy tale become the truth,
Artem
Team 29
Translated by Simon Cosgrove
