Lawyers explained the reason for the rebellion of Ukrainians in Togliatti: they are afraid of their homeland

Citizens of Ukraine staged a riot in the TsVIG (Temporary Detention Center for Foreign Citizens) in the Samara region to draw attention to themselves. Prior to that, they went on hunger strikes and wrote appeals to various authorities asking them not to be sent to Ukraine or the DPR/LPR. They are afraid to repeat the fate of their brothers in misfortune, who were forcibly sent back to their homeland the day before. But they also do not want to sit in the receiver indefinitely and dream of the will that they have long deserved.

This rebellion may be the reason for making an important decision about the fate of all Ukrainians who must be deported (this decision is made in relation to those who were convicted and found undesirable) or expelled (those who committed an administrative offense and were given such a punishment) .

On the night of September 15-16, it was as hot as ever in the temporary detention center for foreigners on Novozavodskaya Street in Tolyatti. Special Forces officers in masks and with machine guns burst into the Center. The reason was the information that the TsVIG was rebelling: several prisoners broke windows and set fire to the mattresses on the beds, and then began to break the doors in the cells (since those were made of iron, the thugs could only slightly damage them). In the end, everything ended almost safely – no one was hurt. However, materials are being collected against the rebels to initiate a criminal case on mass riots. Interestingly, it almost does not scare them. As one put it, it would be better to go back to prison than to be in Ukraine now.

Recall that several hundred (more precisely, more than 400) citizens of Ukraine are stuck in the Russian TsVIG. All of them at one time received a term in Russia, served their sentences and were to be released after February 24th. But instead of their will, they ended up in a new “prison” – TsVIG, where they are waiting for their deportation (simultaneously with the imposition of punishment, the court decided that these people should not remain in Russia). But how to expel a person in this difficult period, when all diplomatic ties between Russia and Ukraine have been severed? Bring to the border and leave there?

The Ukrainians themselves do not want to be sent back to their homeland, especially since many have no relatives or housing left there (even before their arrest, they had lived in Russia for many years and created families). And the Ministry of Internal Affairs agreed with this. No one is forcibly sent to Ukraine, they say that this is possible only with voluntary consent.

However, this does not apply to cases where a person is registered in the territories of the DNR or LNR. They are sent there forcibly. Recently, one of the citizens of Ukraine begged not to be expelled from the TsVIG of the Irkutsk region. The man sent a photo from the station where he was brought, in the hope that human rights activists would be able to stop the process. Failed. And then he received an answer from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (at the disposal of the editors): “Since you are a citizen of Ukraine, registered in the city of Horlivka, you were deported to the Donetsk People’s Republic.”

The logic is strange. But it is no better for the rest (who have registration on the territory of Ukraine, and not in the DPR or LPR). These Ukrainians applied for temporary refugee status and for the cancellation of the deportation decision.

– In our TsVIG (Belgorod region), everyone receives refusals, – says Artur Davydov. – Why? Let at least those who have wives, parents who are ready to bail them out be allowed to stay on the territory of the Russian Federation until the end of the special operation. My mother is a citizen of the Russian Federation, a Muscovite. Wife and children are also citizens of the Russian Federation. I haven’t received a denial yet, but I’m almost sure (no one from our ZVIG has approved their applications). We all sit and sit. We are very tired. How can? When will we be released?

Ukrainians are asking either to leave them in the Russian Federation, or send them to third countries. The Ministry of Internal Affairs says that they do not have such an opportunity.

In general, the situation with expulsion and deportation is fundamentally different. And here it is important to understand the difference between them. By decision of the Federal Penitentiary Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, those whose stay is undesirable are deported (they were convicted, for example). And expulsion in itself is a form of punishment for violation.

“In connection with the rather large-scale problem of expulsion under the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, we have begun to develop a rather broad judicial practice, where the courts directly write about the impossibility of executing this type of punishment,” says lawyer Roman Kiselev. “They indicate the reason: in connection with the implementation of the CBO and the inability to comply with the procedure, as well as the risks associated with forced return to the territory where armed operations are taking place. And now there are already many decisions at the level of district courts, and at the level of courts of subjects and at the level of cassation courts. Moreover, even without ships, you can not send people. The UFSSP for the city of Moscow in June 2022 decided to send applications for the termination of the execution of sentences in terms of expulsion for Ukrainian citizens held in the Sakharovo TsVIG. As a result, after 2.5 months of ordeals, most of the people are already free. It is not clear why other services responsible for organizing the deportation cannot follow this example.

In fairness, it should be noted here that the FSSP made such a generous decision only in Moscow, and in other regions it did not show such an initiative.

“It’s a completely different situation with regard to deportation,” continues Roman. “The courts do not overrule decisions. And here few of the citizens of Ukraine rise above the appeal (although there is almost no positive practice in the cassation). Although it is obvious that in the case of deportation, there are even fewer grounds for the indefinite and purposeless detention of people in conditions of deprivation of liberty. Because if, according to the Code of Administrative Offenses, expulsion is a measure of administrative punishment for an offense, then deportation is the result of the exercise of executive discretion, and in the strict sense of the word it is not associated with any guilt of people. The state simply does not want to see them on its territory. And as a result of this reluctance, people are imprisoned indefinitely, and in some cases, as we now know, they are sent to the war zone.