Authors

Discussion

In modern Russia, protests are accompanied by criminal cases against participants, journalists, and bystanders, against people who spread information about the rallies on social networks, and even against lawyers who help detainees. Furthermore, criminal cases related to protests require special public attention since they can be politically motivated and can be accompanied by violation of fair trial standards.

At the same time, the concept of criminal cases associated with protests is ambiguous. What should be the connection between the criminal case and the protest? Should the defendant be a protest participant, or can it be a casual passer-by? What about the criminal prosecution of protesters on grounds that are not formally related to the protests?

OVD-Info has collected most of the known criminal cases following from the protests since 2015, analyzed them, and proposed the methodology to collect a dataset.

This paper presents the dataset and the methodology, and some trends that the collected data indicate by themselves or in comparison with other data. For example, comparing the OVD-Info dataset with official judicial statistics makes evident discriminatory law enforcement practices in cases related to protests. Thanks to such a dataset, we can appreciate the scope of criminal prosecution (unclear and underestimated by the public), its specifics, and its dynamics.