[4] In August 2013, Dobrynin requested that the Attorney General of the Russian Federation investigate the activities of the groups affiliated with the Neo-Nazi Maxim Martsinkevich.
Senator Dobrynin expressed his dismay at the lack of reaction on part of law enforcement agencies and stated the opinion that the groups were tied to Nazi and nationalist ideologies.
[5] Dobrynin became known for publicly criticizing plans for tougher legal norms, in particular, the Roskomnadzor's ban on publishing the causes for suicides of terminally ill people, the law on the right to be forgotten on the Internet, the Dima Yakovlev Law,[6][7] as well as Irina Yarovaya's bill to prohibit the criticism of the Allies in World War II.
In late June 2015, Dobrynin supported the possibility of recognizing same-sex marriages in Russia and the need to decrease the level of social aggression[8] toward sexual minorities.
He also proposed that the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin probe into the mental state of Vitaly Milonov, a member of St. Petersburg municipal legislature.
Specifically, he opposed Russia's withdrawal from the U.S.-run FLEX[10] student exchange program, appealing to President Dmitry Medvedev.
[11] The program was created in 1992 by former Senator Bill Bradley as a way to achieve mutual understanding between the two cultures long separated from each other by the Iron Curtain.
[16] The bill proposed that the subjects of the Russian Federation make their own decisions based on local culture and traditions on whether to create sites to anonymously abandon newborn babies on their territory.
[18] In addition, he proposed prohibiting "memorializing individuals implicated in the crimes of Stalin's totalitarian regime when naming geographic sites, streets, roads, and metro stations".
[19] At the same time, he composed and sent an official statement to Russian President Vladimir Putin,[20] detailing a program of essential steps toward de-Stalinization of Russia.
After Dobrynin left the parliament, the bill was declined by the State Duma legal department due to lack of financial and economic foundation.
[23] In the course of the conflict, Poklonskaya submitted 43 parliamentary inquiries[24] to the Attorney General's Office, including some asking the prosecutors to commence a criminal case against Alexei Uchitel.
The threats came from the leader of an unregistered organization The Christian State – Holy Rus Alexander Kalinin and were later carried out in Yekaterinburg, Saint Petersburg, and Moscow.
[25] As a result, five criminal cases were commenced against the individuals preventing the release of the film, including Kalinin himself, who was arrested and subsequently convicted.
In 2017, Dobrynin proposed that the government eliminate Article 122 "Criminal transmission of HIV" from the Penal Code, insofar as it "increases stigmatization of HIV-infected people".
[30] Dobrynin was the first Russian lawyer to publicly support Ukrainian sailors[31] who were detained – in his view, illegally – during an incident in the Kerch Strait.
At the same time, other board members published a message in support of the operation conducted by the Russian Federation in Ukraine, which was also deleted from the web site.
[35] On March 3, 2022 Dobrynin resigned the position of the State Secretary of the Federal Bar Association, which he also announced on his Facebook page.
Dobrynin reminded that "those deliberately spreading false information, including those doing so under someone's name or under cover of other individuals are liable for their actions and can face criminal prosecution."
Ivan chooses an unorthodox interpretation for his work, which incurs the wrath of the conservative Russian parliament member Tatiana Nagibina.
In 2016 – 2017, ultraconservative Russian Orthodox Christians led by the State Duma member Natalia Poklonskaya started a public campaign against Uchitel.