Hostname: page-component-669899f699-7xsfk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-03T01:34:04.878Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“When They Come for You”: Legal Mobilization in New Authoritarian Russia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Freek van der Vet
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As of 2012, the Russian State Duma passed a string of repressive laws on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), surveillance, and high treason. Under this “new authoritarian” regime, a growing number of Russians are investigated by the security services or put on trial for high treason. NGOs face selective prosecution and surprise inspections. While we know how lawyers use legal mobilization in democratic regimes where they can expect courts to be fair, legal mobilization remains understudied in regimes moving toward authoritarianism, where authorities pass repressive laws but enforce them erratically. Drawing on interviews with Russian lawyers, this article examines how lawyers represent two victim groups of state coercion: Russians under investigation for treason and prosecuted human rights NGOs. By examining how lawyers make strategic choices while coping with unfair courts, the random enforcement of laws, and shrinking resources, this article argues that state coercion does not deter lawyers from legal mobilization at domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights. Instead, repressive laws push lawyers to reinvent their everyday practices to counter repressive legislation and conviction bias in the criminal justice system.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , June 2018 , pp. 301 - 336
Copyright
© 2018 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

The author would like to thank Lisa Sundstrom, Wayne Sandholtz, Emma Hakala, Iiris Virtasalo, the anonymous reviewers, and the editorial team for their critical and helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. This work has been supported by grants from the Kone Foundation and Svenska Kulturfonden.

References

References

Abel, Richard L. (1995) Politics by Other Means: Law in the Struggle against Apartheid, 1980–1994. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
ADCM (2014) ADC ‘Memorial’ Appealed against Civil Court Ruling. 2014. Available at: http://adcmemorial.org/www/8653.html/?lang=en (accessed 12 February 2012).Google Scholar
Alban, Jennifer (2015) “Russia Bans George Soros Foundation as State Security ‘Threat” ’ Reuters, November 30, 2015. Available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/russia-soros-idUSL1N13P22Y20151130 (accessed 27 July 2016).Google Scholar
Andersen, Ellen Ann (2009) Out of the Closets and into the Courts: Legal Opportunity Structure and Gay Rights Litigation. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Bellona (2015) “Major St. Petersburg Rights Group Called ‘Foreign Agent’ by Russian Justice Ministry,” Bellona. January 13, 2015. Available at: http://bellona.org/news/russian-human-rights-issues/russian-ngo-law/2015-01-major-st-petersburg-rights-group-called-foreign-agent-russian-justice-ministry (accessed 13 April 2018).Google Scholar
Bogdanova, Elena A. (2014) “Religious Justifications of Complaints Addressed to the President in Contemporary Russia,” 6(3) Laboratorium: Russian Rev. of Social Research 55–79.Google Scholar
Bogush, Gleb (2017) “Criminalisation of Free Speech in Russia,” 68 Europe-Asia Studies 1–15.Google Scholar
CCRF (2015) News: On 14 July 2015 the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation Made a Ruling in the Case of the Applicability of the ECtHR's Rulings inside Russia. July 14, 2015. Available at: http://www.ksrf.ru/ru/News/Pages/ViewItem.aspx?ParamId=3244 (accessed 13 April 2018).Google Scholar
Chelishcheva, Vera (2016a) An Indefensible Public Defender System: How Russia's State-Appointed Attorneys Help Prosecutors Get Convictions. Meduza. January 26, 2016. Available at: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2016/01/26/an-indefensible-public-defender-system (accessed 13 April 2018).Google Scholar
Chelishcheva, Vera (2016b) “The Career Boost: Why Russian Police Are Prosecuting More People for Treason,” Meduza. February 10, 2016. Available at: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2016/02/10/the-career-boost (accessed 10 February 2016).Google Scholar
Chelishcheva, Vera (2016c) “Spy Mania 2.0: The Rise in ‘crimes against the State’ in Russia,” Guardian, February 24, 2016. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/24/spy-mania-rise-in-crimes-against-state-treason-russia-ukraine (accessed 25 February 2016).Google Scholar
Cichowski, Rachel A. (2007) The European Court and Civil Society: Litigation, Mobilization and Governance. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cichowski, Rachel A. (2011) “Civil Society and the European Court of Human Rights,” in Christoffersen, Jonas & Rask Madsen, Mikael, eds., The European Court of Human Rights between Law and Politics, Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. 77–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cichowski, Rachel A. (2016) “The European Court of Human Rights, Amicus Curiae, and Violence against Women,” 50(4) Law & Society Rev. 890–919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Citizen's Watch (2015) Citizen's Watch: Ruling of Justice Court. May 6, 2015. Available at: http://www.citwatch.org/en/news/?id=22 (accessed 15 December 2017).Google Scholar
Conant, Lisa (2006) “Individuals, Courts, and the Development of European Social Rights,” 39(1) Comparative Political Studies 76–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crotty, Jo, Hall, Sarah Marie, & Ljubownikow, Sergej (2014) “Post-Soviet Civil Society Development in the Russian Federation: The Impact of the NGO Law,” 66(8) Europe-Asia Studies 1253–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daucé, Françoise (2015) “The Duality of Coercion in Russia: Cracking Down on ‘Foreign Agents.,” 23(1) Demokratizatsiya 57–75.Google Scholar
Epp, Charles (1998) The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flikke, Geir (2015) “Resurgent Authoritarianism: The Case of Russia's New NGO Legislation,” 32(2) Post-Soviet Affairs 103–31.Google Scholar
Flikke, Geir (2017) “The Sword of Damocles: State Governability in Putin's Third Term,” Problems of Post-Communism 1–13. doi: 10.1080/10758216.2017.1291308.Google Scholar
Fraenkel, Ernst (2006) The Dual State: A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship. Clark, NJ: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc (1974) “Why the Haves Come out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change,” 9(1) Law & Society Rev. 95–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gel'man, Vladimir (2013) “Cracks in the Wall: Challenges to Electoral Authoritarianism in Russia,” 60(2) Problems of Post-Communism 3–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gel'man, Vladimir (2015) “Political Opposition in Russia: A Troubled Transformation,” 67(2) Europe-Asia Studies 177–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gel'man, Vladimir (2016) “The Politics of Fear: How Russia's Rulers Counter Their Rivals,” 1(1) Russian Politics 27–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gobe, Eric & Salaymeh, Lena (2016) “Tunisia's ‘Revolutionary’ Lawyers: From Professional Autonomy to Political Mobilization,” 41(2) Law & Social Inquiry 311–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldston, James (2006) “Public Interest Litigation in Central and Eastern Europe: Roots, Prospects, and Challenges,” 28(2) Human Rights Q. 492–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guriev, Sergei & Treisman, Daniel (2015a) “How Modern Dictators Survive: An Informational Theory of the New Authoritarianism.” NBER Working Paper 21136. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guriev, Sergei & Treisman, Daniel (2015b) “The New Dictators Rule by Velvet Fist.” New York Times. May 24, 2015. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/25/opinion/the-new-dictators-rule-by-velvet-fist.html?mcubz=0 (accessed 6 July 2017).Google Scholar
Halliday, Terence C., Karpik, Lucien, & Feeley, Malcolm (2007) “The Legal Complex and Struggles for Political Liberalism,” in Halliday, Terence C., Karpik, Lucien, & Feeley, Malcolm, eds., Fighting for Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex and Political Liberalism, Oñati International Series in Law and Society. Oxford: Hart Publishing. 1–40.Google Scholar
Hendley, Kathryn (2015) “Resisting Multiple Narratives of Law in Transition Countries: Russia and Beyond,” 40(2) Law & Social Inquiry 531–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendley, Kathryn (2016) “Evaluating the Prospects for Young Lawyers to Remake Putin's Russia,” 1(4) Russian Politics 450–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendley, Kathryn (2017) Everyday Law in Russia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Henry, Laura A. (2009) “Redefining Citizenship in Russia: Political and Social Rights,” 56 (6) Problems of Post-Communism 51–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henry, Laura A. (2012) “Complaint-Making as Political Participation in Contemporary Russia,” 45(3–4) Communist and Post-Communist Studies 243–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation (2015) Commissioner's Opinion on Federal Law No.129-FZ as of 23 May 2015 ‘On Introduction of Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the RF.’ May 25, 2015. Available at: http://eng.ombudsmanrf.org/events/news/news_of_the_commissioner/view/opinion_of_commissioner_for_human_rights_in_russia (accessed 26 March 2018).Google Scholar
Hillebrecht, Courtney (2012) “Implementing International Human Rights Law at Home: Domestic Politics and the European Court of Human Rights,” 13(3) Human Rights Rev. 279–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodson, Loveday (2011) NGOs and the Struggle for Human Rights in Europe. Oxford: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Hodson, Loveday (2014) “Activists and Lawyers in the ECtHR: The Struggle for Gay Rights,” in Dia Anagnostou, ed., Rights and Courts in Pursuit of Social Change: Legal Mobilization in the Multi-Level European System, Oñati International Series in Law and Society. Oxford: Hart Publishing. 207–28.Google Scholar
Horvath, Robert (2011) “Putin's ‘Preventive Counter-Revolution’: Post-Soviet Authoritarianism and the Spectre of Velvet Revolution,” 63(1) Europe-Asia Studies 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HRO.org (2016) V Samare Politsiya Prishla Za Liudmiloi Kuz'minoi Pryamo v Samolet. Prava Cheloveka v Rossii. October 3, 2016. Available at: http://hro.org/node/25281 (accessed 2 December 2016).Google Scholar
HRRC (2015) ‘Inostrannye Agenty’: Mificheskie Vragi i Real'nye Poteri Rossiiskogo Obshchestva. St. Petersburg: Human Rights Resource Center. Available at: http://www.hrrcenter.ru/public/detail.php?ID=1763 (accessed 16 April 2015).Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch (2013) Laws of Attrition: Crackdown on Russia's Civil Society after Putin's Return to the Presidency. 2013. Available at: http://www.hrw.org/node/115059 (accessed 12 September 2013).Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch (2017) Russia: Government against Rights Groups. Human Rights Watch. May 22, 2017. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/russia-government-against-rights-groups-battle-chronicle (accessed 27 June 2016).Google Scholar
Interfax (2015) “Byvshii Razvedchik Kravtsov Poluchil 14 Let Strogogo Rezhima Za Gosizmeyu,” Interfax, September 21, 2015. Available at: http://www.interfax.ru/russia/468136 (accessed 22 May 2017).Google Scholar
Interfax (2016) “Duma Utochnila Ponyatie Politicheskoi Deyatel'nosti NKO,” Interfax, May 20, 2016. Available at: http://www.interfax.ru/russia/509327 (accessed 22 May 2016).Google Scholar
International Commission of Jurists (2014) Russian Federation: Report on the Constitutional Court Proceedings and Judgments on the ‘Foreign Agent’ Amendments to the NGO Law. Geneva: International Commission of Jurists. Available at: https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/RUSSIA-FOREIGN-AGENTS-elec-version.pdf (accessed 13 April 2018).Google Scholar
J.Y. (2013) “Will Russia Play Tough with Its ‘Foreign Agent’ Law?” The Economist, March 28, 2013. https://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2013/03/russian-politics (accessed 15 December 2017).Google Scholar
Javeline, Debra & Baird, Vanessa (2007) “Who Sues Government?: Evidence From the Moscow Theater Hostage Case,” 40(7) Comparative Political Studies 858–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kazun, Anton & Yakovlev, Andrei (2016) “Who Demands Collective Action in an Imperfect Institutional Environment? A Case Study of the Profession of Advocates in Russia,” 8(1) J. of Eurasian Studies 60–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klub Yuristov NKO (2016) Zakliuchenie Na Proekt Federal'nogo Zakona No 04/13/01–16/00045477 Ot 21.01.2016 g. ‘O Vnesenii Izmenenii v Punkt 6 Stat'i 2 Federal'nogo Zakona “o Nekommercheskikh Organizatsiyakh” v Chasti Utochneniya Ponyatiya Politicheskoi Deyatel'nosti.’ S. Petersburg: Human Rights Resource Center.Google Scholar
Klub Yuristov Tret'ego Sektora (2016) Razvitie Grazhdanskogo Aktivizma Vopreki: Rossiiskie NKO Posle Zakonodetel'stva Ob ‘Inosttrannykh’ Agentakh. St. Petersburg.Google Scholar
Kurilova, Anastasiya (2016) Pravozashchitniki Nashli Eshche Trekh Rossiyanok Osuzhdennykh Za Gosizmenu. Kommersant, June 12, 2016. Available at: http://kommersant.ru/doc/3163184?utm_source=kommersant&utm_medium=all&utm_campaign=hotnews (accessed 12 June 2017).Google Scholar
Ledeneva, Alena V. (2006) How Russia Really Works: The Informal Practices That Shaped Post-Soviet Politics and Business. New York: Cornell Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Litvinova, Daria (2016) “Russian Legal Activists Offer Advice for ‘When They Come for You.’” Moscow Times, January 15, 2016. Available at: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-legal-activists-offer-advice-for-when-they-come-for-you/555647.html (accessed 15 January 2016).Google Scholar
Liu, Sida & Halliday, Terence C. (2011) “Political Liberalism and Political Embeddedness: Understanding Politics in the Work of Chinese Criminal Defense Lawyers,” 45(4) Law & Society Rev. 831–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luhn, Alec (2014) “Russian Protester's Sentence of Indefinite Psychiatric Treatment Upheld,” Guardian, March 25, 2014. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/25/sentence-indefinite-psychiatric-treatment-protester-mikhail-kosenko (accessed 20 March 2018).Google Scholar
Luhn, Alec (2015a) “Russian Woman Faces 20 Years in Prison on Treason Charges,” Guardian February 3, 2015, sec. World news. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/03/petition-putin-free-russian-svetlana-davydova-treason (accessed 2 December 2016).Google Scholar
Luhn, Alec (2015b) “Russia Bans ‘Undesirable’ International Organisations Ahead of 2016 Elections,” Guardian, May 19, 2015. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/19/russia-bans-undesirable-international-organisations-2016-elections (accessed 26 March 2018).Google Scholar
McCann, Michael (1994) Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael (2006) “Law and Social Movements: Contemporary Perspectives,” 2(2006) Annual Rev. of Law and Social Science 17–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, Lauren (2010) “Beyond Corruption: An Assessment of Russian Law Enforcement's Fight Against Human Trafficking,” 18(1) Demokratizatsiya 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, Lauren (2015) Trafficking Justice: How Russian Police Enforce New Laws, from Crime to Courtroom. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meduza (2016) “Prokuror Mne Dazhe Slova Ne Dal Skazat’’ v Svoe Opravlenie” : Interv'yu Oksany Sevastidi, Kotoruyu Posadili Po Obvineniyu v Gosizmene Za SMS Vos'miletnei Davnosti.” Meduza, December 5, 2016. Available at: https://meduza.io/feature/2016/12/05/prokuror-mne-dazhe-slova-ne-dal-skazat-v-svoe-opravdanie (accessed 8 December 2016).Google Scholar
Meduza (2017) “Putin Pardons Oksana Sevastidi, Sentenced for Sending an SMS in 2008.” Meduza, March 7, 2017. Available at: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2017/03/07/putin-pardons-oksana-sevastidi-sentenced-for-sending-an-sms-in-2008 (accessed 12 June 2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Memorial (2013) My Ne Agenty! Pravozashchita. 2013. Available at: http://www.memo.ru/d/145816.html (accessed 6 February 2013).Google Scholar
Michelson, Ethan (2006) “The Practice of Law as an Obstacle to Justice: Chinese Lawyers at Work,” 40(1) Law & Society Rev. 1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michelson, Ethan (2007) “Lawyers, Political Embeddedness, and Institutional Continuity in China's Transition from Socialism,” 113(2) American J. of Sociology 352–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yustitsii, Ministerstvo (2018) Ministerstvo Yustitsii Rossiiskoi Federatsii, O Deyatel'nosti Nekommercheskikh Organizatsii. O Deyatel'nosti Nekommercheskikh Organizatsii. 2018. Available at: http://unro.minjust.ru/NKOForeignAgent.aspx (accessed 3 January 2018).Google Scholar
Moustafa, Tamir (2007) The Struggle for Constitutional Power: Law, Politics, and Economic Development in Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moustafa, Tamir (2014) “Law and Courts in Authoritarian Regimes,” 10(1) Annual Rev. of Law and Social Science 281–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moyn, Samuel (2012) The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History. Cambridge: Belknap.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mukhametshina, Elena & Churakova, Olga (2016) “Kritika Zakona Ob Inostrannykh Agentakh Stala Povodom Dlya Priznaniya Agentom.” Vedomosti, May 11, 2016. Available at: https://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/articles/2016/05/11/640573-kritika-zakona-inostrannih-agentah-yavlyaetsya-povodom-priznaniya-organizatsii-agentom (accessed 26 March 2018).Google Scholar
Nathans, Benjamin (2007) “The Dictatorship of Reason: Aleksandr Vol'Pin and the Idea of Rights under ‘Developed Socialism',” 66(4) Slavic Rev. 630–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nesossi, Elisa (2015) “Political Opportunities in Non-Democracies: The Case of Chinese Weiquan Lawyers,” 19(7) The International J. of Human Rights 961–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pallin, Carolina Vendil (2017) “Internet Control through Ownership: The Case of Russia,” 33(1) Post-Soviet Affairs 16–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paneyakh, Ella (2014) “Faking Performance Together: Systems of Performance Evaluation in Russian Enforcement Agencies and Production of Bias and Privilege,” 30(2–3) Post-Soviet Affairs 115–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavlov, Ivan (2015) “The Kremlin Gets a Monopoly on Truth’: A Lawyer Sets out to Challenge Putin's Decree Classifying Russian Military Deaths.” Meduza, June 17, 2015. Available at: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2015/06/17/the-kremlin-gets-a-monopoly-on-truth (accessed 5 July 2017).Google Scholar
Petrov, Nikolay, Lipman, Maria, & Hale, Henry E. (2014) “Three Dilemmas of Hybrid Regime Governance: Russia from Putin to Putin,” 30(1) Post-Soviet Affairs 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pils, Eva (2014) China's Human Rights Lawyers: Advocacy and Resistance. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Popova, Maria (2012) Politicized Justice in Emerging Democracies: A Study of Courts in Russia and Ukraine. 1st ed. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Přibáň, Jiří (2005) “Political Dissent, Human Rights, and Legal Transformations: Communist and Post-Communist Experiences,” 19(4) East European Politics and Societies 553–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verdict, Public (2016) Drop Unfounded Criminal Charges against Russian Human Rights Activist Valentina Cherevatenko: Statement of Representatives of Russian and International Civil Society Organizations. May 17, 2016. Available at: http://en.publicverdict.org/topics/news/7404.html (accessed 3 November 2016).Google Scholar
Pushkarskaya, Anna (2018) “Inostrannye Agenty’ Otvetili Minyustu.” Kommersant, March 13, 2018. Available at: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3570102 (accessed 26 March 2018).Google Scholar
RAPSI (2015) Obzhalovan Prigovor Eks-Sotrudniku GRU Kravtsovu Po Delu o Gosizmene. RAPSI Rossiiskoe Agenstvo Pravovoi i Sudebnoi Informatsii. October 2, 2015. Available at: http://www.rapsinews.ru/incident_news/20151002/274656806.html (accessed 2 December 2016).Google Scholar
RFE/RL (2017) Seven Years For An SMS: Activists Alarmed Over Southern Russia Treason Convictions. RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. December 6, 2017. Available at: http://www.rferl.org/a/russia-seven-years-prison-treason-text-message/28159839.html (accessed 8 December 2016).Google Scholar
Robertson, Graeme B. (2009) “Managing Society: Protest, Civil Society, and Regime in Putin's Russia,” 68(3) Slavic Rev. 528–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosbalt (2016) V Peterburge Predsedatelya Pravozashchitnogo ‘Grazhdanskogo Kontrolya’ Vyzvali MVD. Rosbalt. October 12, 2016. Available at: http://www.rosbalt.ru/piter/2016/10/12/1558064.html (accessed 28 November 2016).Google Scholar
Sakwa, Richard (2010) “The Dual State in Russia,” 26(3) Post-Soviet Affairs 185–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarat, Austin & Scheingold, Stuart A. (2006) “What Cause Lawyers Do for, and to, Social Movements: An Introduction,” in Sarat, Austin & Scheingold, Stuart A., Cause Lawyers and Social Movements. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press. 1–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheingold, Stuart A. (1974) The Politics of Rights: Lawyers, Public Policy, and Political Change. New Haven, London: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Scheppele, Kim Lane (2013) “The Rule of Law and the Frankenstate: Why Governance Checklists Do Not Work,” 26(4) Governance 559–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Side-by-Side (2013) “Side by Side LGBT International Film Festival Wins ‘Foreign Agent’ Case on Final Appeal in City Court, Saint Petersburg.” www.Bok-o-Bok.Ru. October 2013. Available at: http://www.bok-o-bok.ru/news/archive?pid=25&lan=1&tid=992 (accessed 19 May 2016).Google Scholar
Soldatov, Andrei (2015) “The Taming of the Internet,” 53(5–6) Russian Politics & Law 63–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soldatov, Andrei & Borogan, Irina (2013) “Russia's Surveillance State,” 30(3) World Policy J. 23–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sperling, Valerie (2009) Altered States: The Globalization of Accountability. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, Rachel E. (2013) Environmental Litigation in China: A Study in Political Ambivalence. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Stern, Rachel E. (2017) “Activist Lawyers in Post-Tiananmen China,” 42(1) Law & Social Inquiry 234–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sundstrom, Lisa (2012) “Advocacy beyond Litigation: Examining Russian NGO Efforts on Implementation of European Court of Human Rights Judgments,” 45(3–4) Communist and Post-Communist Studies 255–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sundstrom, Lisa (2014) “Russian NGOs and the European Court of Human Rights: A Spectrum of Approaches to Litigation,” 36(4) Human Rights Q. 844–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Team 29 (2017) Esli Za Vami Prishli. 2017. Available at: http://guide.team29.org/fsb (accessed 31 October 2016).Google Scholar
The Moscow Times (2016) Russians’ Average Salary On Par With Kazakhstan. May 24, 2016. Available at: https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/russians-average-salary-on-par-with-kazakhstan-52985 (accessed 20 June 2017).Google Scholar
Thomas, Daniel C. (2001) The Helsinki Effect: International Norms, Human Rights and the Demise of Communism. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trochev, Alexei (2012) “Suing Russia at Home,” 59(5) Problems of Post-Communism 18–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Vet, Freek (2012) “Seeking Life, Finding Justice: Russian NGO Litigation and Chechen Disappearances before the European Court of Human Rights,” 13(3) Human Rights Rev. 303–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Vet, Freek (2014) “Holding on to Legalism: The Politics of Russian Litigation on Torture and Discrimination before the European Court of Human Rights,” 23(3) Social & Legal Studies 361–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Vet, Freek & Lyytikäinen, Laura (2015) “Violence and Human Rights in Russia: How Human Rights Defenders Develop Their Tactics in the Face of Danger, 2005–2013,” 19(7) The International J. of Human Rights 979–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vanhala, Lisa (2012) “Legal Opportunity Structures and the Paradox of Legal Mobilization by the Environmental Movement in the UK,” 46(3) Law & Society Rev. 523–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Sophia (2017) “Cause Lawyering in Revolutionary Ukraine,” 5(2) J. of Law and Courts 267–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Cases Cited

European Court of Human Rights:Google Scholar
Pasko v. Russia, no. 69519/01, ECtHR 2009.Google Scholar
Anchugov and Gladkov v. Russia, no. 11157/04, ECtHR 2013.Google Scholar
Konstantin Markin v. Russia, no. 30078/06, Grand Chamber ECtHR 2012.Google Scholar
OAO Neftnaya Kompaniya Yukos v. Russia, no. 14902/04, ECtHR 2014.Google Scholar
Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation:Google Scholar
-P/2014 Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, 8 April 2014.Google Scholar
-P/2015 Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, 14 July 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar