On August 22, Lev Ponomarev, together with the representatives of the movement “Soilidarity” Boris Nemtsov and Mikhail Shnayder carried Russian flag at Novy Arbat on the Russian Flag Day. All three were arrested right after and charged with unauthorized demonstration and insubordination to policemen. The Moscow Presnenskij court refused to arrest Nemtsov and ordered the case to be further investigated, as the judge didn’t find the facts of “insubordination to policemen”. Mikhail Shnayder’s case was planned to be proceeded today, August 26.
The records on all the three cases are identical. Lev Ponomarev himself means that the case against him has been fabricated. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee met Lev Ponomarev in his office in Moscow back in 2005. Lev Ponomarev is known in Russia as an active human rights activist and participant of a number of protest actions in Russia. NHC is worried about the worsening of the human rights situation in Russia and especially regarding the situation for the human rights activists.