ST. PETERSBURG, September 28 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – Russia’s Constitutional Court has found admissible an enquiry of the Protvinsky Town Court in the Moscow region as to the right of regional authorities to introduce travel restrictions aimed to prevent spreading of COVID-19, according to a statement published on the body’s official website.

The town court sought that the Constitutional Court examined if a provision of the Moscow Region Governor regulation introducing a high-alert regime for regional emergency agencies and certain measures aimed at prevention of spread of the novel coronavirus infection across the region, among them those prohibiting citizens to leave their places of residence with certain exceptions, conformed to the national Constitution.

The enquiry was made as the town court heard a case of a man, who was charged with violating a provision of the Code of Administrative Offences defining how citizens were to act under emergency procedures; according to the court materials, the man was arrested when out of his place of residence without a valid reason.

The town court asked the upper instance to decide if the charges relating to the man’s right to freedom of movement were constitutional, as the Russian Constitution directly guaranteed such a right across the whole national territory.

At the same time, the town court found than no law or rule cited to justify the Governor’s regulation envisaged that that official had the powers to limit citizens’ rights to the freedom of movement, the enquiry reads.