RU / ENG

April 25th – the third day of the Delivery Club couriers’ spontaneous strike – law enforcements broke into the apartment of the Trade Union Leader Kirill Ukraintsev right on his birthday. The police turned his apartment upside down and confiscated all computer equipment, including smartphones, from him, his mother, and his girlfriend.

After the search, Kirill was taken to an investigative committee for interrogation. He is charged with Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Dadin article”) – a repeated violation of the procedure for holding mass events. He faces up to 5 years in prison. On April 27th, the Savelovsky District Court of Moscow sent Ukraintsev to a pre-trial detention center until June 25th.

The fact that Kirill was persecuted under the “Dadin article” confirms that the case is purely custom-made and repressive. The article was invented to make people afraid to participate in rallies and pickets to defend their rights and interests: if you go to a rally three times in six months, you can get a "criminal case".  Cases under this article are initiated selectively and only by direct order.

We believe that the owners of food delivery services, VK and Sber corporations (owning the Delivery Club service), who profit from the cheap labor of couriers, are interested in persecuting the trade union activist.

The authorities and corporations want to shift all the hardships of the growing economic crisis onto the shoulders and wallets of employees. We see mass layoffs, sending workers on downtime or unpaid leave, and falling incomes.

In the coming months, the situation will only get worse. People will organize and strike, demanding higher wages or defending the very right to work.

We call on food delivery men, customers, and all those who are not indifferent to stand up for the trade union activist and express their support to him! The authorities decided to respond to the dissatisfaction with repressions against the leaders and activists of the labor movement. The case of Kirill Ukraintsev is the first important precedent. We must protect him!

We demand to release Kirill Ukraintsev immediately and remove all charges against him. Trade union is not a crime!

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