By their visit to Astrakhan deputies hope to draw Putin's attention to hunger strike

In Astrakhan, the residents, who support hunger-strikers, held a rally in the city centre, marking the arrival of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, physician Elizaveta Glinka, and Dmitry Gudkov and Ilya Ponomaryov, the deputies of the State Duma from the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (Fair Russia) Party. Another event is to start at 6:00 p.m. Elizaveta Glinka said that on April 11 she would persuade three persons to stop participating in the hunger strike.

Initially, it was planned to conduct a meeting of Alexei Navalny with citizens; however, in the morning, activists of the movement "Nashi" (Our people) appeared in place of the meeting. According to witnesses, the opposition rally was disrupted by Alexander Zhilkin, Governor of the Astrakhan Region, who instructed the activists of the movement "Nashi" to come in advance to take place at the venue of the meeting with Alexei Navalny "Nashi".

Besides, public employees, students, and pupils were gathered in the square. They could not answer for what reason they were gathered there.

"The activists of the movement "Nashi" came to the park, where the rally of the opposition was to take place. It was decided to go to the Governor's residence; however, the police blocked the road. People managed to break through the first cordon; however, they were stopped at the next cordon. We had to turn around and go back," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by one of the protesters.

The opposition activists returned to the park and installed a tent city, consisting of four tents. Oleg Shein sat at one of the tents, and Alexei Navalny at another one. The police tried to remove one of the tents; however, the city residents did not allowed them doing that.

Witnesses of the events reported that after that unidentified people seized one of the tents and dragged it outside the OMON (riot police), without encountering any resistance from power agents. The police blocked the streets and did not allow city residents moving freely. When people tried to film the events on cameras, the policemen knocked the cameras out of the people's hands.

Dmitry Gudkov and Ilya Ponomaryov, the deputies of the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya", who arrived in the place, managed to affect the situation.

He has noted that once he defines the place of his residence, he will meet people and discuss further actions. "We will be here today, tomorrow and as long as it is necessary," said Dmitry Gudkov.

Then, Ilya Ponomaryov took the floor: "Our number increases and increases! Tomorrow, the State Duma will be approached by the next guarantor of the Constitution (on Wednesday, President-Elect Vladimir Putin will visit the State Duma, - note of the "Caucasian Knot"). Our visit to Astrakhan should draw his attention to the problem."

Dmitry Gudkov thanked the hunger-strikers for the fact that their actions could "shift the situation".

Physician Elizaveta Glinka also attended the rally. "Three persons promised to stop their participating in the hunger strike tomorrow. This is the main purpose of my visit," told Elizaveta Glinka to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

She confirmed the information that the police blocked the streets. "We were surrounded by a ring of the police, and a helicopter flew over us. This is very strange, since we committed no violations," emphasized Elizaveta Glinka.