The Supreme Court postponed for two months the consideration of the Ministry of Justice’s claim to suspend the activities of the Party of Cause

The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday suspended the proceedings on the lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice, which seeks to suspend the activities of the Cause Party for a period of two months. Judge Oleg Nefedov made this decision at the request of the plaintiff’s representatives, who recalled that during the federal election campaign, suspension of activities or liquidation of a party is not allowed. Representatives of the defendant categorically objected to this: in their opinion, in such a situation, the Supreme Court should have refused to satisfy the Ministry of Justice’s demands. But in the end, the court simply postponed consideration of the case until the official announcement of the results of the 2024 presidential elections.

The Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit to suspend the activities of the Party of Cause in early November: the department does not recognize the results of its August congress, which was supposed to correct violations identified earlier during the audit (for example, on the official website of the party, the chairman of its federal council, Konstantin Babkin, was referred to as “leader” organization). The party was also ordered to re-elect the working bodies and make changes to the charter to bring it into compliance with the law. On August 17, the party held a congress, the decisions of which took into account the comments, but the Ministry of Justice considered that the procedure for convening the congress was violated, and therefore its decisions were invalid. Discussing the possibility of suspending the process, the judge carefully asked the plaintiff’s representatives whether they saw any grounds for withdrawing the claims, but heard a firm “no.”

The Party of Action considers the Justice Ministry’s claims absurd. “They checked all our documents, including the decision to call a congress,” Alexei Lapushkin, secretary of the party’s federal council, told Kommersant. “No claims were made against these documents, we received an inspection report, held a congress, and submitted all documents to the Ministry of Justice . And in September they received a refusal to re-register the charter with reference to a technical typo in the decision to appoint a congress. And on the basis of this typo, the Ministry of Justice is trying to suspend the activities of a living party that is active and has regional and municipal deputies.”

Party representatives objected to the delay in considering the claim and intend to appeal this decision. The Code of Administrative Procedure does not provide for such a basis for suspending a case, notes Mr. Lapushkin: “One gets the feeling that the Ministry of Justice or its individual employees stirred up a mess out of the blue, and now they don’t know what to do about it.” And today’s decision of the Supreme Court is simply an attempt to save the reputation of the Ministry of Justice, he believes.

The Cause Party was founded by the co-owner of the Rostselmash plant, Konstantin Babkin, in 2010, but after two refusals it only managed to obtain registration in 2012, after the liberalization of party legislation. The party proclaims its main goal to be the development of the non-resource sector of the economy, and demonstrates activity primarily in the regions: in particular, it has municipal deputies in the Altai Republic and Primorsky Krai, and last fall the party waged an active campaign in Transbaikalia, Yakutia and North Ossetia.

Such “unauthorized” activity became the reason for the increased attention of inspection structures to the Party of Cause, electoral lawyer Anton Rudakov is sure, because the sudden appearance of a third, fourth or even fifth force in regional scenarios affects the predictability of the final result. Apparently, the existence of another party of entrepreneurs does not find support from the federal government, and in general we see a course towards reducing the number of political associations, the expert argues. Therefore, the pause taken by the Ministry of Justice should be considered technical, and after the end of the elections, the process of liquidating the Party of Cause will continue, Mr. Rudakov warns.

Anastasia Kornya