Kalyapin will have a trial.

We understand that it is expected that the Committee Against Torture would provide an
explanation with regard to the information circulated by the media on bringing Igor
Aleksandrovich Kalyapin to administrative responsibility. However, the expert study
performed in this case by the associate professor of the Nizhny Novgorod State
University (not numbered but quite a voluminous manual) turned out to be such a page-
turner, that it diverted us from the official agenda.

On 23 July 2021, the Prosecutor’s Offfice of the Sovetsky District of Nizhny Novgorod
passed a ruling to initiate an administrative case against Kalyapin, the Chairman of the
Committee Against Torture and a member of the Human Rights Council under the
President of the RF because of his participating in “undesirable organization” (Article
20.33 of the Administrative Offences Code of the Russian Federation). It was caused by
an application submitted by citizen Savinov, who has vast experience in chicanery
against people and organizations which are dealing with important social issues in
Nizhny Novgorod. And a completely absurd expert study multi-page report served as a
basis.

The Prosecutor’s Office posed several questions for experts, and most of these
questions do not have anything to do with the offence that Kalyapin is accused of. The
reason why the Prosecutor’s Office needed that remains anybody’s guess. We shall not
comment the expert’s arguments now, let us leave that for the court hearing. However,
we have to state gross logical errors and conclusions so absurd that only a person who
received a task “go somewhere, I don’t know where, and get something, I don’t know
what” can afford, but not a Candidate of Science and a professor in the alma mater of
many lawyers with the Committee Against Torture.

“It is perfectly clear to me that all what is going on is not about fining Kalyapin for 10 000
rubles. The administrative case is just the first step to the criminal prosecution. I
understand the burning desire of some law-enforcement officers to bring me to any
responsibility for at least something. But it seems that forging the materials of the
criminal case also requires some skills and knowledge. The attempt to forge a case
against me with the help of a tractate cooked by “expert” Anton Shmelev, is an absolute
grotesque, and, even without my comments, it can only make one laugh. That is why it
won’t be difficult for me to disprove the unintelligent conclusions made by him in the so-
called politological expert study. I will do it with pleasure. I will not respond to the
“expert” now, only to save the intrigue for the court hearing” — Igor Kalyapin comments
on the situation.

For 20 years, the Committee has been doing human rights work, the main objective of
which is fighting torture and law-enforcement officers’ impunity in Russia. We are
maintaining cooperation with human rights organizations inside Russia and abroad.
Unfortunately, some of them were declared “undesirable” for reasons not known either
to us, or to these organizations. Who could think that in Russia of 2021 we will face the
situation of a massive attack against the NGOs helping the state

We hope that these honorable experts, who enjoy the confidence of the Prosecutor’s
Office, will make a study on the subject of the damage inflicted to the society which is
deprived of the mere possibility to protect human rights in conditions of aggravating
impunity of some law-enforcement officers who are actually violating the law.
We are looking forward to the trial.