Is it safe to send appeals?
We believe it is. Our lawyers carefully revise the appeals' content so that the authorities have no ground to put pressure on signees. A citizen has the right to apply to government agencies. The appeal may be oral, written or electronic, in the form of a proposal, statement or complaint. It may contain different requirements, for example, to conduct an inspection. Article 33 of the Constitution guarantees the right of citizens to apply personally, as well as to send individual and collective appeals to government and municipal agencies. This right is also guaranteed by the Federal Law "On the Procedure for Consideration of Appeals by Citizens of the Russian Federation".Article 6 of the above law guarantees the safety of a citizen in connection with their appeal — it is forbidden to persecute the author even if their appeal contains criticism of the authorities. The fact that you have submitted an appeal is public information, but its content and your personal data may not be disclosed. There have been several known cases of defamation based on the appeals' content, but to be qualified as defamation the information has to be deliberately false. If an appeal contains a request for verification or for any action to be performed (as is the case with our appeals), it cannot be qualified as defamation.
The text of an appeal may only lead to prosecution if the signee intends to cause actual harm, rather than protect their rights. This hypothesis does not apply to a requirement to conduct an inspection.