"We'll definitely go to the Supreme Court": Sergey Mamaev on lawsuits challenging the renamings

      The story of renaming Kirov’s streets and squares continues to spawn court disputes. As the head of the KPRF faction, Sergey Mamaev, reported, after first-instance decisions were handed down not in the plaintiffs’ favor, the cases moved to the appeal stage. If the communists do not succeed in overturning the city duma’s decisions there either, they are prepared to go further — up to the Supreme Court.

      “We have now advanced to the second instance, to the appeal. And we will go to the Supreme Court,” Mamaev said in a conversation with a Newsler.ru journalist.

      According to him, the citizens’ discontent is only growing:

      “We hold citizens’ meetings. Everyone is outraged. Especially the taxi drivers. People are also at a loss and confused.”

      Mamaev also emphasized that the authorities are still obstructing the holding of protest actions:

      “Our fundamental law is the Constitution of the Russian Federation. There is part 1 of Article 3 — ‘The bearer of sovereignty and the only source of power in the Russian Federation is its multinational people.’ And nobody asked the people! The people should exercise their power through the executive and legislative bodies of power.

      We are now holding gatherings, rallies. This is a form of the people governing with the authorities, of communication. The authorities forbid us! More than 100 times we have been refused permission to hold rallies! They write that at the same time and in that place another event has already been registered, although there is nobody there. Sometimes they suggest we go to Kostino. I tell them: ‘Are you sending us to the dump?’”

      Despite the setback in the first instance, the communists intend to pursue the matter to the end. The appeals in the cases are set to take place in mid-September; if the court there also does not rule in the communists’ favor, they will turn to the Supreme Court:

      “We will definitely go to the Supreme Court and will involve deputies so that they go with us. We’ve had that experience already: when Belykh sued me, all the courts issued decisions in his favor, but the Supreme Court overturned everything.”

      Mamaev noted that it is in the Supreme Court that one can still count on a fair decision: “We have justice, and the Supreme Court confirms that.”