The sources of information for the monitoring were publications in the media and social networks (see Monitoring Methodology in Russian for details). Although the results do not allow conclusions about the actual number of lawyers who are not admitted, they do give some idea of the specificity and geography of the problem. The monitoring revealed reports of 159 cases of non-admission of lawyers to defendants in 2021: to police departments, courts, institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service and when conducting investigative actions. Non-attendance at police stations took 86.2 per cent of all detected cases.

The number of publications about lawyers not being allowed to attend clients increases sharply on the days of mass protests and the detention of protesters. In total, the three dates for such actions in 2021 — 23 January, 31 January and 12 April — account for more than 65% of the identified non-admissions.

Most of the published reports of non-compliance were in Moscow (62 cases, 39%) and St. Petersburg (41 cases, 26%).

The "targets" of publications on non-admissions in 2021 were 98 lawyers. Leaders in non-admissions: Fedor Sirosh — reports of 6 cases were revealed, and Alexander Nemov — 4 cases.

Leaders in reports of lawyers not being admitted in 2021:
 — Nevsky District Court, St. Petersburg — 5 cases
 — Police Department #8, Lipetsk — 5 cases
 — Gagarinsky Police Department, Moscow; Police Department #9, Yekaterinburg and pre-trial detention center #6, Moscow — 4 cases each.
In pre-trial detention center No. 6, on different days, four different lawyers were not allowed to one defendant — Lilia Chanysheva.

What kind of monitoring is this?

This is a project that collects and summarises information on violations of lawyers' professional rights in Russia. The pilot monitoring of reports on non-admission of lawyers to clients in 2021 has been completed. Now we are collecting data on violations (non-admissions, searches, criminal prosecutions, etc.) in 2022 from all available sources. The results will be presented on the map and in the report.


What can you find out?

Where, how and in what circumstances lawyers' rights are most often violated in Russia. The monitoring uses information published in open sources (mass media, information resources) or received directly from lawyers. This means that the results of the monitoring cover not all violations of lawyers' rights that have occurred in the country, but only those that have become known. But even such incomplete data give an idea of the overall pattern of violations.


What can be done about it?

The main goal of the project is informational. We try to find all available reports of violations and present them in a convenient and understandable way. The main goal of the project is informational. We try to find all available reports of violations and present them in a convenient and understandable way.