Lawyers pointed to the risk of Patyaeva's arrest after the picket in Grozny.
The protocol on repeated violations of the rules for holding public events may lead to a stricter punishment for Elena Patyaeva, including administrative arrest, lawyers indicated. In Chechnya, there is virtually no practice of solitary pickets, and a local participant in such an action and her family would face more severe consequences, noted Svetlana Gannushkina*.
As reported by "Caucasian Knot", on August 24, Elena Patyaeva left Chechnya after being released from the police department in Grozny. Law enforcement officials drew up a protocol against her for repeated violations of the rules for holding public events after a solitary picket demanding an investigation into the murder of Seda Suleymanova. On August 25, Patyaeva shared details of her detention. According to her, Chechen law enforcement behaved correctly, and one of the police officers, after a conversation about Seda Suleymanova's disappearance, noted that there are many similar stories.
Native of Chechnya Seda Suleymanova was detained in St. Petersburg in August 2023 and taken against her will to relatives in Chechnya. After that, she has not sent any messages. Her friends and human rights activists fear that she has become a victim of so-called "honor killing", according to the report of the "Caucasian Knot" "Abduction of Seda Suleymanova".
According to the law, a solitary picket does not require approval, noted lawyer Marina Agaltsova.
"However, we have, for example, in Moscow a decree from the mayor that classifies solitary pickets as mass events. This mayoral decree was issued during the coronavirus period and has remained unchanged. Therefore, in Moscow, for example, even solitary pickets are prohibited. This issue is generally regulated not by federal legislation, but by the legislation of the subject," she told a correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot".
Agaltsova noted that specialists monitored such decrees, and regional authorities did not abandon the bans on solitary pickets, citing the threat of a new coronavirus infection. "And the fact that Patyaeva was held accountable for the picket in St. Petersburg, all this, of course, forms a combination," Agaltsova said.
On March 20, 2025, Patyaeva already held a solitary picket in Grozny demanding an investigation into the disappearance of Seda Suleymanova. At that time, she was detained, but soon released without drawing up a protocol. On November 27, 2025, the Krasnoselsky District Court of St. Petersburg sentenced Patyaeva to 10 days of administrative arrest, recognizing her solitary picket near the police department, where Suleymanova was taken before returning to Chechnya, as a repeated violation of the rules for holding a public event.
The fact of repeated violation affects the punishment towards its tightening, noted lawyer Abusupyan Gaitayev. "They may apply administrative arrest," he explained to a correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot".
Gaitayev also pointed out that according to the law, a picket requires notification, not approval. "But in Chechnya, there is no practice of solitary pickets at all. It seems that no one goes out anywhere. And in some other regions, to accuse a person of violating the rules for holding a picket, they usually place their person among the solitary picketer, so that it is no longer a solitary picket, but an unapproved mass action," the lawyer explained.
One of the readers of "Caucasian Knot", commenting on the publication about Patyaeva's detention, noted that if a resident of Chechnya were in her place, strict measures would have been applied to her. "Usually, between administrative arrest and a monetary fine, Chechen law enforcement prefers the latter. What do they care if Patyaeva spends a month in detention? She is not Chechen, they cannot mock her, they cannot terrorize her relatives," he wrote.
If a resident of Chechnya were in Patyaeva's place, she would suffer more, and her family would at least face condemnation, noted the chairwoman of the "Civic Assistance" Committee* Svetlana Gannushkina*. The human rights activist pointed out that the case of Seda Suleymanova has become inconvenient for the authorities, and they do not want to attract unnecessary attention, especially in connection with the upcoming elections.
"They do not want unnecessary noise. But it should be remembered that the case regarding Seda's disappearance was initiated thanks to the intervention of [former ombudsman] Tatyana Moskalkova," Gannushkina* told a correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot".
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