Yerevan hosts picket in defence of Yashin and Navalny

Today, in Yerevan, in front of the Embassy of the Russian Federation, a protest action was held. The protesters urged the Russian authorities to release opposition members detained during the protest actions after the elections to the State Duma.

"After the elections to the Duma, many well-known activists and bloggers were arrested. I believe that every action has its own results. We once again voice our protest against restrictions of freedom in the post-Soviet space," says Araik Arutyunyan, a participant of the protest action.

During the protest action held on December 5 in Moscow, about 300 people were detained, including Alexei Navalny, the lawyer and the well-known blogger, Ilya Varlamov, the photographer and the blogger, and Ilya Yashin, the member of the bureau of the federal political council of the united democratic movement "Solidarity". After the protest actions in Moscow and Saint Petersburg held on December 5, 6 and 7, the social networks have created communities of more than 100 cities, where protest actions are to be held on December 10. Organizers and participants of protest actions coordinated their activities through social networks.

The protest action in Armenia was also organized with the help of the social network Facebook; the organizers created a page "Free citizens for free citizens".

Participants of the protest action were holding posters reading: "Free citizens for free citizens!", "Freedom to Yegor Sargsyan, Ilya Yashin, Alexei Navalny!", the of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

"We always raised our voices in protest against fraud at elections, regardless of where the fraud took place. In this case, we are talking about Russia, where the elections held were disgraceful, when voters, authorised persons, and media representatives were under pressure," stated the human rights defender Arthur Sakunts, Chairman of the Vanadzor Office of Helsinki Civil Assembly.

Samvel Karabekyan, Professor of the Yerevan State University, said that protest actions "demonstrate the degree of the society's activity."