Colleagues told about the mobilized lawyer from St. Petersburg who died in the North-Eastern Military District

“Called – I’m going”

Andrey Nikiforov, a mobilized lawyer of the Neva St. Petersburg Bar Association, died on October 7 in the NVO zone near Lisichansk. He was mobilized on 25 September. Alexander Zelensky, President of the Collegium, told us about it.

According to the law “On Advocacy and Advocacy in the Russian Federation”, if a defender is called up for military service, his status must be suspended. To do this, a lawyer must apply for the suspension of his status to the Council of the Chamber of Lawyers of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation, in which he is a member – so he can, for example, not pay fees to the chamber and collegiums.

A participant in the Second Chechen War and a member of the Neva Bar Association, 41-year-old Andrey Nikiforov, could not even think of avoiding being sent to the NVO zone. As a man with combat experience, Nikiforov was called up at the very beginning of the partial mobilization in September. He fulfilled his military duty to the last.

While getting in touch with his relatives, Andrei said that they were being taken to Vyborg, and then that he was in Kamenka. The lawyer had the rank of private. Details, circumstances of death, as well as the date of the funeral are not reported.

About what kind of person Andrei Nikiforov was, “MK” was told by the president of the Nevsky Bar Association Alexander Zelensky

– The specifics of the work of a lawyer is such that we see each other less often than journalists. We are not going to planning meetings every day, we do not see each other every day. Andrei has been a lawyer since September last year. He has been with us at the Collegium since June 2022, before joining our collegium I did not know him, but he is characterized by his very act – a relative received a summons, he, without hesitation, packed his things, appeared the next day at the military registration and enlistment office and left. It’s simple – I didn’t think about whether I was healthy or not. I did not express any doubts, they called me – I’m going.

– How did the team react to the news of Andrei’s death?

– Many colleagues do not know each other by sight, and only recognize when they receive some kind of informational news or hear somewhere. Many of them knew Andrei only by his last name, and on the street they could have walked past him, not knowing that he was their colleague from the same team, but the impulse was the same: A lot of lawyers offered material assistance to his family. Everyone expresses condolences, many help with finances. The position is the same.