Oleg Shein announced conditions of his quitting the hunger strike

The ex-candidate for Mayor of Astrakhan Oleg Shein has announced the conditions, under which he will quit his hunger strike: he will stop it immediately upon release of four protesters. Mr Shein has emphasized that the main reason to stop the hunger strike was the statement of the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) about revealed violations during the election of the city Mayor.

"I am ready to quit the hunger strike as soon as they liberate our guys. However, my principal decision to stop the protest action was caused by the fact that yesterday, on April 20, we received the reaction of the CEC, where they admitted violations in 70 percent of polling stations of Astrakhan," Oleg Shein told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"I can't quit the hunger strike within less than 10 days just for the reasons of health protection. Same as you can't immediately stop a car, running at high speed. The exit (through drinking juices) may start even today," Ole Shein wrote in his blog.

Alexander Kirpichenko, Alexandra Daryanova, Darya Gladkikh and Alexei Sarmin were arrested yesterday, on April 20, during a flash mob called "For Fair Elections!" They were detained under Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code: "Disobedience to legal command of a policeman", Pyotr Rusanov, the head of the division for information and public relations of the Russian UVD (Interior Department) for the Astrakhan Region, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. This morning, the court has ruled to arrest of Darya Gladkikh for five days; and the remaining detainees – for three days.

"The trials were just a mockery – the judges refused to watch the video on how our guys were detained; they wouldn't listen to our arguments," said Oleg Shein. 'The young men just came in T-shirts with inscription 'For Fair Elections!' and they were arrested for that."

According to Oleg Shein, Sergey Mironov, the leader of the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (SR) (Fair Russia) Party, wrote a guarantee letter to the court; now the members of the Astrakhan Branch of the SR wait for it to be considered.