Russian Supreme Court Authorizes Wiretapping of Oppositionists

The Russian Supreme Court recognized as lawful the wiretapping of a regional opposition member, Maxim Petlin, on Thursday, upholding earlier decisions made by a court in Yekaterinburg. The Supreme Court (in a decision by Judge Istomina) ruled that spying on Petlin, now Yekaterinburg head of the opposition party Yabloko, and hacking into his phone was lawful. A lower court in Yekaterinburg allowed “special investigative activities” due to signs of “public calls for extremist actions” detected in his words. The records from Petlin' s phone were among evidence in an extortion case opened against him in 2011 which he called trumped-up. Sergei Mitrokhin, Yabloko’s national leader, said the case would become a precedent for the whole judicial system and result in a new period of persecution of political activists. According to the Supreme Court, the "signs" of extremism, being the ground for wiretapping, were: (1) calls to change "the regime of Putin and Medvedev," (2) calls to eliminate the "monopolism in politics, economy, and information," (3) calls for the democratization of the country, (4) refusal to cooperate with the current authorities, (5) organizing protest actions, (6) criticizing the current authorities "against the background of financial and economic crisis", (7) distributing opposition newspapers and leaflets, (8) organizing economic and human rights consulting centers, (9) participating in actions in support of the Article 31 of the Russian Constitution (freedom of assembly), (10) sharp criticism of the current authorities in public meetings, (11) a negative appraisal of the expansion of the State Security Service (FSB) powers.

http://themoscownews.com/politics/20121214/191005903.html
http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/nossik/968580-echo/
http://www.yabloko.ru/files/petlin.pdf (Supreme Court document)