Russia’s highest court rules buying GPS tracker for cow is not crime

It seems the time when people in Russia could get into really big trouble with the law for buying ‘spy’ tools like a GPS tracker or a secret surveillance cam for home is finally over after a final ruling by Russia’s Supreme Court.

In its ruling announced on Tuesday, the Supreme Court made it clear, that gadgets like hidden cameras are not necessarily tools of a professional spy and people who purchase them as toys or for household purposes should not be treated the same way as illegal spooks and stalkers.

The decision is somewhat of a victory for RT, which took it upon itself to fight against the apparent injustice which people faced over the supposed spy equipment.

The article that criminalizes purchases of “special technical means for clandestine collection of information” existed in Russia for quite some time, either as a separate crime or as circumstantial factor under an article on illegal surveillance and wiretapping.

The problem arose when pinhole cams and similar gadgets became affordable enough to become household products, not expensive tools for professional detectives. Over the years, dozens of people in Russia found themselves on the wrong side of the law after making an innocent purchase on AliExpress. People, who obviously posed no threat to public safety, would be tried and fined or even sentenced to short prison terms.

Enter the case of Yevgeny Vasiliev, a farmer from a small village in the southern part of greater Urals, who bought a $7 Chinese GPS tracker to make it easier to find his wandering cow. The purchase drew the attention of the Russian security service FSB, who noticed that the tracker had a small microphone that could be turned on remotely. So hypothetically the device could be used to snoop on someone’s private life, which made Yevgeny a suspected criminal.

RT brought the case to the attention of President Vladimir Putin during his annual Q&A session last year. He was quite surprised that spying on a cow was a crime in Russia and ordered a thorough inquiry into how and why this law is enforced.

Now, the Supreme Court has instructed all judges in Russia how to handle frivolous cases involving spy equipment. For one, items for the goal of personal security, like hidden cameras for your own home or a tracker for your pet, can be bought without problem. And if a person purchases a genuine spy tool without knowing he or she was doing something wrong, that is still not a crime, the court said. Prosecutors have to prove there was a criminal intent to illegally spy on somebody to make the charge stick.

“We have won,” RT’s chief Margarita Simonyan tweeted after the news about the decision came.

As for Yevgeny, the cow-spying farmer, all charges were lifted from him and the local prosecutor’s office sent him an apology for the trouble. He said it was ‘OK’ and he understood the criminal code needed improvement.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!