Photo: Sergey Mikhailichenko / Fontanka.ru
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The Petrogradsky District Court punished Zenit itself and an employee of the football club in the amount of 360 thousand rubles following the results of the championship parade in May. The sports department of Fontanka is about what the ten-time champions were guilty of.
Football club “Zenith” on May 13 tried to arrange a holiday for St. Petersburg, celebrating the historical tenth championship on the streets together with the team and the townspeople. The bus with the players drove through almost all the iconic places, making stops at the Bronze Horseman, Gostiny Dvor, Malaya Konyushennaya Street and the Rostral Columns. The incendiary finale was a meeting with fans at the Peter and Paul Fortress, who, due to the Fan ID boycott, missed all the team’s home matches in the RPL championship in 2023. As it seemed to Fontanka correspondents, even people who were very far from football that evening, being in the way of the champion bus, watched the celebration with interest, and random motorists joyfully honked and waved to the players. In general, it seemed to be sincere, but the police thought otherwise.
At the end of June, the Dzerzhinsky, Oktyabrsky and Petrogradsky district courts of St. Petersburg received administrative cases against FC Zenit JSC. The club’s management was charged with organizing an unauthorized mass event with a population of 1,000 people (Part 1, Article 20.2.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation). According to police protocol, the tenth championship celebration “resulted in disruption to pedestrian and vehicular traffic and damage to public lawns.” In particular, it was alleged that grass was trampled down in several places, and the lawn burned out near the Peter and Paul Fortress due to flares. Several fans were charged with administrative protocols for violating order in public places (two days of arrest). Three more were given 15 days for inciting hatred and humiliating human dignity.
One of the main complaints from the police was the alleged lack of coordination of the celebration with the city authorities. At the same time, according to Fontanka, on May 9, the football club sent a letter to Governor Alexander Beglov with a request to coordinate the holding of events on the occasion of the victory. On May 11, letters were received from the sports committee and the committee on legal issues with a recommendation to obtain approval from the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.
A letter from the club was sent to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs by e-mail on May 12. The document contained a request for help in organizing order at the championship parade. It should be noted that in fact this was ensured: at each of the festive points there were police officers and the National Guard, and the command bus was accompanied by a traffic police car. However, later the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that they officially received the letter only on May 15, two days after the show, as it was submitted on Friday after the end of working hours.
In this regard, the protocol notes that the football club, ignoring the recommendations of the relevant committee, did not take “all possible measures depending on the JSC” and organized the event in violation of the law.
Several times the courts returned the protocols to the police to eliminate the shortcomings. As pointed out, for example, by the Dzerzhinsky court, there was no evidence of damage to green spaces in the original protocol. In addition, there were comments about confusion with defenders, legal representatives, etc.
In the materials of the Petrograd court, which also alleged damage to green spaces, there is a letter signed by the director of the Peter and Paul Fortress, who reports that as a result of the event in honor of the victory of FC Zenit, no material damage was caused.
Nevertheless, all cases were eventually put into production after the defects were eliminated. On August 4, the first full-fledged hearing in the case took place in the Petrogradsky District Court. Representatives of the St. Petersburg police were not present at the meeting (however, they generally ignored all the hearings). From “Zenith” was a lawyer and head of the security department of the club Alexander Rumyantsev. Also, a representative of the sports committee Yevgeny Gagonin came as a witness. The process was led by Artem Brodsky. The arbitrator was in a great mood, joked a lot, asked journalists under the threat of being removed from the hall – who they were rooting for.
The representative of the sports committee explained that on May 9, the governor received an appeal from the club with a request to assist in holding the championship parade. From there, the request was sent to the sports committee: the general scenario, timing and route were already known.
The judge clarified what Beglov’s resolution was, to which the representative of Smolny replied: “At the discretion.” He also added that the department itself does not make decisions on such issues, but only notifies. An employee of the sports committee referred to the order of the governor No. 28-p, according to which if there are no objections, then the event is considered agreed.
The head of the security department of Zenit, Alexander Rumyantsev, drew the judge’s attention to the fact that, according to the protocols, out of 14 witnesses interviewed, 13 were law enforcement officers and one was a representative of the sports committee. The same story is with the materials of the KUSP (Book of records of reports of incidents). Without exception, all appeals to the duty units of the district subdivisions were received from police officers right during the event.
Ultimately, the judge postponed the hearing of the case until September 12 in order to study the legal position of law enforcement agencies and study the case materials in detail. However, just a few days later, as they say, contrary to the usual judicial practice, the meeting was again postponed – already from September 12 to August 10. Most likely, this happened in order to meet the deadlines for consideration, since August 13 is the statute of limitations and the case with a high degree of probability could have been completely terminated.
At the meeting on August 10, the judge gave the defendant an opportunity to speak again. He, in turn, repeated that the double-decker bus with the Zenith team was accompanied by traffic police cars along a pre-agreed route, and these employees were supposed to stop administrative offenses related to people entering the roadway. He also noted that the police could not have been unaware of the event, since an announcement was published on all club resources and on May 12, the relevant committees of the city administration sent official notifications of the event to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Main Directorate of the Russian Guard, the FSO, the FSB for approval.
“Given that the football club Zenit received no response from any of the informed executive authorities about the ban on the event, we believe that it was agreed upon at all levels of government,” the club representative said.
He also spoke about one of the main claims: interference with the movement of pedestrians and vehicles.
“I, as a direct participant in the events, can clearly testify that the interference with the movement of vehicles, and specifically the champion bus, was created by specialized vehicles of the fire department and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I personally participated in the direction of the traffic flow, so that this traffic jam was resolved in order to allow our bus to leave. Moreover, this area of the terrain, in principle, was not intended for the movement of vehicles, and we coordinated in advance the passage of our bus there with the administration of the Peter and Paul Fortress, ”said the Zenit employee.
He also revealed the details of how the process of notifying the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the event took place. According to him, on the eve of the parade, that is, on May 12, the club sent a corresponding appeal directly to the first deputy head of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, Police Major General Dmitry Baranov. Police officers in their protocol refer to the fact that this appeal was sent at 18:06, that is, after the end of the working day, and therefore it was registered in the electronic document management system of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region only on May 15.
“We, as a sports organization, do not in any way consider how the system for registering incoming documentation in the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia takes place. We only affirm that we sent this notification with a request to assist in ensuring the protection of public order and security in a timely manner, that is, the day before, ”said the representative of the football club.
At the same time, taking into account all previous mailings and correspondence, the leadership of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was aware of the championship parade, Zenit noted.
“And given the fact that representatives of the leadership of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia were present and were part of the coordinating headquarters for ensuring the security of the Zenit-Krasnodar match, which took place right before this event, on May 13, 2023, they had the opportunity to discuss with us all the planned security measures at various events, but, unfortunately, we did not find the opportunity to do this, ”the Zenit employee emphasized.
However, judging by the results, none of the arguments of the football club was heard. Petrogradsky District Court for violation of Part 1 of Art. 20.2.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation fined Zenit 300 thousand rubles, and the head of the security department of the football club Alexander Rumyantsev – 60 thousand for the fact that, in “violation of the job description, he did not take the necessary measures aimed at ensuring public order and security” during championship celebrations.
On August 11, a session was held in a similar vein in the Oktyabrsky District Court, with the only difference being that in this case the judge terminated the proceedings due to an earlier decision of the Petrogradsky District Court. For the same reason, the Dzerzhinsky District Court also terminated the proceedings.
“The battle is lost, but not the war. We will definitely appeal this decision, ”said the representative of Zenit in a conversation with Fontanka.
Artem Kuzmin, Fontanka.ru
Photo: Sergey Mikhailichenko / Fontanka.ru
2023-08-11 18:51:22
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