Ivan Yuryevich Pavlov (Russian: Иван Юрьевич Павлов; born 1971 in St. Petersburg, Soviet Union) is a Russian advocate and open government activist. He participated in the development of Russian federal and regional freedom of information legislation. He specializes in protecting the right to access government information in Russia, and defending citizens from ungrounded accusations of disclosing state secrets, high treason, and espionage. Additionally, he focuses on raising public awareness of the need for modern legislation on state secrets and the use of current legislation as a means of repression.
As of 2022, his law office is in Tbilisi, Georgia; previously it had been in Russia.
Contents
Biography
In 1997, Pavlov received his J.D. degree from St. Petersburg State University, and was admitted to the Russian defense bar. Pavlov received his Candidate of Law Science degree (Ph.D.) in 2009 from the Institute of State and Law, Russian Academy of Sciences.
From 1998-2004, Pavlov headed the Environmental Human Rights Center Bellona (St.-Petersburg, Russia).
FOI initiatives
In 2004, Pavlov founded the Foundation “Institute for Information Freedom Development”, or Freedom of Information Foundation (FIF). For ten years, FIF rendered legal assistance to citizens and organizations, defending their rights to information access. FIF specialists also audited government bodies' official websites for compliance with actual FOI legislation requirements.
In 2014, FIF was included in the state register of "foreign agent" NGOs. After a series of court hearings where Pavlov and other lawyers of the FIF contested the "foreign agent" status, the Freedom of Information Foundation formally suspended its activities.
Team 29
However, the work has not ceased. Several ex-FIF staff members, led by Pavlov, have been joined by Team 29, the only Russian non-governmental initiative performing professional defense of the citizens’ right to freely look for, receive, transmit, produce, and distribute information by legal means. Team 29 transformed into a new organizational structure without having to create a legal entity, as a free partnership of lawyers, journalists, and civil activists. In 2015, Pavlov became the leader of Team 29. Since February 2015, Team 29 protects the rights of Russian citizens to court information and performs public outreach activities, publishing materials on governmental closeness and legal advice for citizens on its website.
On 16 July 2021, the website of Team 29 was blocked by Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media at the request of Prosecutor General of Russia. According to official letter, Prosecutor General of Russia identifies the Team 29 to Czech nonprofit organization "Společnost Svobody Informace" which was designated undesirable on 29 June 2021. Team 29 doesn't agree with that but it made a decision to dissolve itself because of risks involved with criminal prosecution under article 284.1 of the Criminal Code of Russia against its members. Team 29 will delete its digital archive including judicial documents. Team 29 recommends to delete direct links to its documents because such links can be regarded as a participation in the activity of undesirable organization and be grounds for criminal prosecution. Former members of Team 29 will continue to work in their personal capacity.
High-profile cases
Access to information
In 2006, Pavlov initiated a court case that resulted in a judicial obligation for the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology (Russian: Rostechregulirovanie) to publish texts of national standards online. Previously, a fee was required for the public to access the standards. FIF lawyers won their victory in the first court instance in February of that year. The Rostechregulirovanie filed a cessation appeal. Its hearing was scheduled for 23 May 2006, but the federal agency's officials did not attend the court. The hearing session was adjourned to 8 June. On 31 May 2006, Pavlov was assaulted and taken to hospital with head injuries. Since the assaulters took none of his personal belongings, Pavlov linked the assault to his professional activities, namely the case on open online access to national standards. The criminal case was initiated but the criminals have not yet been found.
In 2015, Team 29 lawyers, led by Pavlov, prepared a claim against President Vladimir Putin's decree classifying information on military personnel losses within special operations during peacetime. The claim is supported by well-known human rights activists and journalists who believe that the decree would help state authorities to suppress the situation at the Ukrainian South-East. The team argued that Putin had exceeded his powers by classifying information regarding military losses as Russia's constitution clearly states the constitutional right to freely seek, receive and circulate information which can only be restricted by federal law. On 13 August 2015 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation ruled the decree to be legal. The ruling gives grounds to apply to the constitutional court and request a proper assessment of how information in Russia is classified as state secret.
Defense of citizens persecuted by state security bodies
Pavlov has been involved with the defence of rights of citizens charged by state security bodies of high treason, unlawful access to security bodies’ secret archives, or state secret disclosure. According to statistical data from the Judicial Department under the Supreme Court of Russia, from 2010 until the first half of 2017, 57 sentences were given for high treason, 11 cases for espionage, and 137 cases for state secret disclosure. Zoya Svetova, a Russian human rights journalist, has defined the current state of affairs as immersion of Russia by “spy mania”.
Pavlov defended Alexander Nikitin, an environmentalist accused of high treason for having prepared the research report The Northern Fleet: A Potential Radioactive Contamination Threat for the Region. Nikitin was detained from February to December 1996; his case was widely covered by media, NGOs, and political organizations in Russia and Europe. Amnesty International recognized Nikitin as a prisoner of conscience. In 1998, the court sent the case back for further investigation. In 2000, Nikitin was fully acquitted by the Supreme Court of Russia.
Pavlov represented Grigory Pasko, a military journalist arrested in 1997 and accused of high treason, alleging that when Pasko had flown from Russia to Japan, some documents had been taken from him and a preliminary studied had shown that they contained state secret-compromising information. The Amnesty International recognized Pasko, too, as a prisoner of conscience. In 1999, the military court of the Pacific Fleet sentenced Pasko to a year of imprisonment for abuse of official powers, immediately including amnesty; he was released from the courtroom.
In 2000, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of Russia canceled Pasko's sentence and the case was sent back for re-examination. On 25 December 2001 the military court of the Pacific Fleet found Pasko guilty of high treason in the form of espionage and sentenced him to four years of imprisonment. Having stayed in a penal colony for more than half a year, Pasko was released on parole.
Ivan Pavlov defended Svetlana Davydova, who had been accused of high treason for a phone call to the Ukrainian embassy. Davydova became the first person accused in accordance with Article 275, which states that any assistance to a foreign state or organization, or to its representative, in activities aimed against security of the Russian state, is considered high treason. The Davydova case is the first known accusation of pro-Ukraine espionage since the beginning of the war in Donbas.
Other cases
The case on search of the Memorial Research Center
In 2009, Ivan Pavlov managed to achieve a court decision considering unlawful the search that had been performed by investigative bodies in the Memorial Research Center (St.-Petersburg, Russia).
Ivan Pavlov defended Mikhail Suprun, a historian accused of privacy abuse in 2009 for preparing a memory book of Soviet political repression victims. In January 2014, the European Court for Human Rights started communicating with the Government of the Russian Federation upon the application from Suprun and Pavlov.
In St. Petersburg there is a company whose employees are paid for aggressive pro-governmental posts and comments in the Internet. Lyudmila Savchuk, a former employee of that "troll-factory", sought to disclose its activities and filed a claim in court for labor violations. Ivan Pavlov represented Ms. Savchuk, and the defendant "troll-factory" agreed to pay Savchuk her withheld salaries and to restore her labor rights.
The Aleksandr Eivazov case
Ivan Pavlov is defending Aleksandr Eivazov, former judicial session secretary in the Oktyabrsky district court of St.-Petersburg who told publicly of law violations in the court. Eivazov took the position of judicial session secretary in the Oktyabrsky district court of St.-Petersburg in October 2016. According to his own words, he regularly met law violations (e.g. by judges) in the court. In December 2016, he left the job and submitted to the Ministry for Interior, to the Investigative Committee, to public prosecution, and to some other government bodies tens of complaints against labor law violations, procedural breaches, and ethics abuse by officials.
In August 2017, Eivazov was arrested and charged of legal obstruction. According to the investigation, Eivazov had not executed a number of documents in a proper way, trying to damage the judge he had conflicted. Eivazov himself stated that he had not finalized and signed a protocol for one case, having first been on medical leave and then left the job in court immediately; he had considered that it would have been a law violation for him to sign a protocol ex post facto, being not an official of the court. In January 2018, upon a statement by Judge Irina Kerro he had worked with, Eivazov was charged also of libel against her.
Awards
In 2015, Ivan Pavlov received the Moscow Helsinki Group Award for defending human rights in court.
In March 2018, he received the Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism, awarded by the Human Rights Watch to activists who put their lives on the line to protect the dignity and rights of others.
Persecution by Russian authorities
Criminal prosecution
On 30 April 2021, Ivan Pavlov was detained. He was charged in the violation of the secret of the investigation, specifically the disclosing contents of the investigator's decision, in the case of Ivan Safronov accused of treason allegedly committed at a time when Safronov was journalist. The investigator's decision was not classified as state secret, and Russian legislation does not provide for the obligation for an advocate to keep a secret of the investigation. The Bar association of Saint Petersburg, of which Ivan Pavlov is a member, stated that criminal proceedings against Ivan Pavlov is contrary to the law.
Emigration
Ivan Pavlov left Russia on 7 September 2021 due to the impossibility to proceed his activity as an advocate as a result of the persecution by Russian authorities.
"Foreign agent" status
On 8 November 2021, Ivan Pavlov was labeled as "foreign agent" by the decision of Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. Ivan Pavlov stated that he would not mark his messages in social media as "distributed by foreign agent", as required by Russian law.
Suspension of advocate's status
On 15 March 2022, the counsil of the advocate's chamber of Saint Petersburg decided to suspend the advocate's status of Ivan Pavlov due to the fact that "he had not been able to perform his professional duties for more than six months". The decision of this suspension was made on involuntary basis because Pavlov had not filed an application for suspension his advocate's status. The president of the advocate's chamber warned Pavlov personally that he had the right to carry out advocate's activity no more (even on non-profit ground) under the sanction of involuntary termination of the advocate's status and lifetime deprivation of the right to represent people in courts. Pavlov stated that he would appeal the decision of the advocate's chamber.