Actions in support of political prisoners passed off in Rostov region

Yesterday, April, 5, actions in support of detained political prisoners passed off in two towns of Rostov region. As a result of the picket in Rostov three activists of "Another Russia" were detained. Activists in Taganrog had to organize a single-person picket because the municipal administration prohibited holding a meeting. 

Administration of Rostov-on-Don disallowed a picket in the center of the city and suggested to hold the action in an unpopulated place near Sports Palace. Rostov oppositionists tried to litigate the municipal administration's decision in court. 

"The judge brought in a vague verdict. As a result no one could make clear whether we were allowed to hold a picket or not", Pavel Nagibin, one of the organizers of the action, said to a correspondent of "Caucasian Knot" before its beginning. He also added that on the day of the trial the activists were refused receiving the court decision in the written form. 

Still the organizers decided to hold the action. About twenty representatives of local oppositional movements gathered near the office of Plenipotentiary of the President of the Russian Federation in Southern Federal Okrug at the appointed time. The policemen who also arrived there started recording the information of all the participants. At this moment activists of "Another Russia" Grigory Yelizarov and Egor Mirchuk stretched out a poster with a slogan "Freedom for the prisoners of conscience!" and Pavel Nagibin started speaking through a megaphone that the participants had come to support the demand to release the political prisoners. 

The policemen first asked Nagibin and then Yelizarov and Mirchul too to follow them and took the oppositionists to police department in their cars. In this way, the picket ended in twenty minutes. 

"We were held in the department till about ten p.m. and then everyone was just released", Grigiory Yelizarov said to a correspondent of "Caucasian Knot" on the phone. 

In the town of Taganrog, Rostov region, a picket in support of political prisoners passed off without detentions. "I held a single-person picket collecting signatures of the townsmen in support of our demand to release the prisoners of conscience. All the time crowds of policemen were moving round me", Nicolay Getmantsev, activist of "Another Russia" said. 

According to him, on April, 5, a mass picket had been planned in the town but local administration prohibited it. 

A correspondent of "Caucasian Knot" was told at the office of Taganrog Administration that according to legal regulations, "the authorities have no right to prohibit public actions. According to Federal Law No 54, we only coordinate the time and place of holding the actions", Inna Titarenko, Head of Analytic Department of the municipal administration said and advised the journalist to talk to another official. 

"We had not coordinated the action of April, 5, - Tatiana Tokareva, employee of the same department, explained. - We did not coordinate the place and time of holding the action for these claimants usually reject our alternative suggestions, so this time we did not even offer. Let them tell you in detail why there had been no coordination". 

The official reply from Taganrog Administration runs that "there is no permission of holding the action on April, 5" for the holiday mentioned in the letter of notification (The Day of the Nation, i.e. anniversary of the Battle of the Ice - note of the "Caucasian Knot") "is not on the list of official holidays". Another reason for refusal was posting the information of the action on an interdicted web-site of National-Bolshevist party. 

"Why should we adapt the action to any list of official holidays? The reference to the information being placed on a certain web-site is groundless, it can be found in many other sources", Nicolay Getmantsev commented on the Taganrog Administration's reply.

Similar actions in support of political prisoners passed off on that day in many cities and towns of Russia.