Activists of "PARNAS" party detained in Rostov-on-Don during their congress

Several activists of the Party of People's Freedom ("PARNAS") were detained in Rostov-on-Don on May, 11. They were delivered to the Department of Interior Affairs of Lenin district in Tekuchev street where protocols of administrative infractions were drawn up concerning them. 

Political scientist Sergey Reznik told us that Vitaly Pavlov, the party emissary from Saratov, and Rostov activict Andrey Grekov were among those detained. They took part in the constitutive conference of Rostov branch of "PARNAS" in Sports Palace interrupted by a sudden arrival of the police. One more Rostov party activist Evgeny Platonov was taken as witness of impoundment of the ballot-boxes for secret voting. The operation was guided by colonel Victor Kuchuev. 

In the Department of Interior Affairs we were told that the personnel detained the participants of the action for the reason of having received an information that a meeting was going on in Sports Palace and there should be a notification of a meeting ten days before its holding. 

Today the detained will have to go to Lenin Department of Interior Affairs at ten o'clock in the morning from where they will be taken to magistrate's court for hearing of their cases. The personnel of the Department of Interior Affairs failed to explain which exactly investigative actions the ballot-boxes for voting impounded from the hall of the congress had undergone. In spite of all the obstacles, the congress was held successfully. 

Evgeny Platonov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that protocols of administrative infractions were drawn up concerning Grekov and Pavlov. 

Platonov supposes that the telephones of the organizers of the action had been illegally tapped by the personnel of law enforcement bodies and they were well aware that no meeting was held by "PARNAS". He considers that the real purpose of the policemen's arrival was pressure upon the leaders and supporters of the oppositional party.

According to Platonov, it was not the first episode of pursuit and detention of his comrades in Rostov-on-Don. He reminded that this April, the police put obstacles in Boris Nemtsov's meeting with the residents before his arrival in the city.

Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" reported that 330 people were present at the constitutive conference of the regional branch of the Party of People's Freedom, all in all there are over 500 members of the party in Rostov at the moment. Sergey Prokopenko who had been one of the party's coordinators in the region before was elected Chairman of the branch. 

According to the organizers of the action, they had been afraid that the authorities would put obstacles in holding the congress, therefore the premises were rented literally a couple of hours before the beginning of the congress. The place had not been broadly announced beforehand. 

According to the members of "PARNAS", the party program includes establishing conditions for fair election, division of the branches of government and increase of effectiveness of local self-government.

It should be reminded that on April, 23, a constitutive congress of regional branch of the Party of People's Freedom was held in Ingushetia.

Note. The party of People's Freedom "For Russia without arbitrary rule and corruption" (Russian abbreviation "PARNAS") is a coalition of Russian "off-system" political organizations sticking to liberal ideology. Creation of the organization was announced on September, 16, 2010, at a press-conference in Moscow. The constitutive congress of the party was held on December, 13, 2010. The party is planning to gather the necessary number of members by April, 2011, and submit documents for registration to the Ministry of Justice.