on Russian Border Guards’ Unlawful Actions against RA Citizen
On August 30, 2016 in Moscow Sheremetyevo airport the border guards of Russian Federation arrested Dr. Stepan Grigoryan, an active and experienced representative of Armenian civil society, former deputy of the RA Supreme Council and former adviser to RA Minister of foreign affairs, Chairman of the board at Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation. After 10 hours of detention, during which his passport was seized, he was deported to Armenia from Russia. In addition, the border guards justified such attitude towards him by the fact that he was denied entry to the territory of Russian Federation until 2030 under articles 26 and 27 of Russian Federal Law on “The Procedure for entering the Russian Federation”, in particular under point 9 of Article 26 “on deportation of the foreign citizens, that participate in the activities of undesirable international organizations on the territory of Russia”. Later, however, it appeared that according to the Russian Federal Migration Service website, Stepan Grigoryan has the right to enter the territory of Russian Federation without any restriction.
We consider that the Russian authorities’ groundless and unlawful actions which restrict the right to free movement of the citizen of the Republic of Armenia have political grounds, as Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation, whose head Stepan Grigoryan is, actively cooperates with European non-governmental organizations and does not conceal the fact that they see the future of the Armenian people in the family of European countries based on democratic values. It is also noteworthy that visa-free regime is set between Armenia and Russia. For that reason it gave rise to doubt in Armenia that Russia has a “sanction list” of undesirable Armenian citizens. Finally, Stepan Grigoryan does not perform any activity in the Russian Federation and his objective to enter that country for several hours was merely of personal nature (a visit to the deceased father’s grave). Imposing sanction on Stepan Grigoryan for the latter’s activity in Armenia and third countries, the Russian authorities, in fact, intervened into the internal affairs of Armenia and those countries, where Stepan Grigoryan performs legitimate activities.
It is not the first time recently that Armenian civil society representatives are targeted by Russian state or non-state actors. Not long ago a similar incident happened when an unknown website, serving well-known interests, disseminated a list of alleged American agents, which contained the photos and data of a number of active representatives of Armenian civil society.
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Armenian National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum condemns the unlawful action committed by the Russian state body against Stepan Grigoryan.
Knowing that RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent an inquiry to the Russian Embassy in Armenia on Stepan Grigoryan’s case, we call on the diplomatic service of Armenia to demonstrate adherence to principles and consistency in the protection of the violated rights of the RA citizen.
We also call on the Russian Embassy in Armenia, suggesting to provide clarifications on the following questions:
- What does Stepan Grigoryan, who does not perform any activity in the Russian Federation, have to do with the list of international non-governmental organizations, whose activity has been recognized as undesirable on the territory of Russia (https://minjust.ru/ru/activity/nko/unwanted)? Are the representatives of any organization cooperating with the organizations of that list subjected to the effect of articles 26 and/or 27 of Russian Federal Law all over the world?
- Does the action taken against the representatives of any organization that cooperates with the ones included in that list refer to the use of Russia’s airports as transit stops by the latter?
- On what principles and criteria are the “undesirable international organizations on the territory of Russia” defined?
We also state that in case of absence of full-fledged and comprehensive response to these questions, as well as in case of repetition of such actions against any representative of Armenian civil society, we will have to call on all our partner organizations operating in the EaP and EU countries to refrain from visiting Russian Federation or using the territory of that country as transit zone.