Team 29

The Team 29^[1] is an informal association of lawyers and journalists aimed to counteract growing governmental closeness in Russia. The Team works since February 2015. Its leader is Ivan Pavlov, legal attorney. Most of the Team 29 members are ex-employees of the Freedom of Information Foundation, a NGO that worked in the field of FOI promotion and defense in Russia since 2004 and was in 2014 included in the list of "foreign agent" NGOs.  Working now without a legal entity in Russia, the Foundation team has managed to continue their work despite of governmental pressure over independent civic initiatives.^[2][3]

Legal Activities

• Termination of criminal persecution of Svetlana Davydova, a mother of many children, charged of high treason for a phone call to the Ukrainian embassy.^[4]
• Contesting President Vladimir Putin's Decree classifying information on military personnel losses in the time of peace.^[5]
• Victory in a judicial dispute between an ex-employee of the "pro-Kremlin online troll fabric" against her former employer. The court trial has catalyzed public attention to the problem of paid online propaganda in Russia.^[6]
• Victory in the Constitutional Court of Russia: the Team 29 lawyers have achieved that child adoption secrecy is considered not absolute.^[7]

Public Outreach

The Team 29 issued several media projects presenting legal guides for activists and the wide public.^[8] Within counteracting governmental closeness growth, the Team has launched "Closeness Chronicles", a chronology of governmental closeness growth facts happened in Russia during Vladimir Putin's last Presidency.

References

1. "Main page". team29.org. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
2. "Legal team defends sensitive political cases in Russia". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
3. "Russian Legal Activists Offer Advice for 'When They Come for You' | News". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
4. Reuters (2015-03-13). "Russia drops treason charges against Svetlana Davydova". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
5. "‘The Kremlin gets a monopoly on truth’ | A lawyer sets out to challenge Putin’s decree classifying Russian military deaths". Meduza. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
6. France-Presse, Agence (2015-06-23). "Russian 'troll factory' sued for underpayment and labour violations". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
7. "Тайна усыновления не устояла в суде". Газета.Ru. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
8. "The Right To Know". guide.team29.org. Retrieved 2016-03-09.