Fear and Loathing in «Izmailovo»: Discussion of the «Lawyer’s Monopoly» by Dehumanizing Private Practice Lawyers

The article provides a critical analysis of a meeting organized by the Federal Chamber of Advocates (FCA) and the Moscow Region Chamber of Advocates (MRCA) on August 1, 2025, at the «Izmailovo» hotel. The event, framed as an open dialogue on the so-called «lawyer’s monopoly», is presented as a carefully staged propaganda spectacle. The main performer was Mikhail Tolcheev, the first vice-president of both the FCA and the MRCA, and the goal was not to discuss problems but to legitimize a bill that, according to the author, is detrimental to Russia’s legal system. The author argues that the FCA’s publications about the meeting, prepared by Tatiana Strelchuk, carefully filtered out facts that demonstrated Tolcheev and other speakers’ inability to answer lawyers’ questions. The article dissects Tolcheev’s statements, which the author claims contain demagogic ploys, half-truths, and outright lies. The author also analyzes the behavior of FCA representatives at the meeting, noting their aggression, rudeness, and use of political labels such as «maidan technologies». Particular attention is given to the dehumanization of private practitioners, who were compared to «killers» and «prostitutes» which the author finds unacceptable and indicative of a moral and professional crisis within the legal profession. The article concludes that the event was a propaganda effort intended to misinform the legal community and that the true goal of the contrreform is not to improve the quality of legal aid but to completely eliminate the independent legal profession.