Police of Volgograd detain several demonstrators and picketers

Today, during the May Day march in Volgograd, the police detained several persons and brought them to the Tsentralny ROVD (District Interior Division). According to Alevtina Dupree, the coordinator of the social movement "The League of Voters", eight persons were detained.

"We were in the column with the 'Yabloko' Party," Alevtina Dupree told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "The organizers of the march said that we were not with them. Some unidentified persons took away out posters. Nikolai Cherniavsky was forced into a bus. Blogger Makhinya tried to film the incident; he was grasped and put into a GAZ car. Then, they put some more people into the bus a few more people. The policemen did not introduce themselves and did not tell where they were bringing us."

According to Ms Dupree, the detainees spent three hours at the police; then, they were released with apologies, saying that a misunderstanding had happened. "Unfortunately, Leonid Makhinya had accidentally erased all the records made from his camera," she added.

The second incident occurred in the centre of Volgograd, near the monument to Georgiy Zasekin. There, the members of the ethno-political association "Russians" had planned to hold a picket in support of political prisoners. Four persons were detained.

"We are now in police custody. At 12:30 a.m. a solo picket began at the Zasekin monument. A man stood there with a poster "Freedom to Danil Konstantinov, and all Russian political prisoners!" The picket lasted for about 15 minutes; then, men uniform asked us to fold down everything. They told us that we were holding an unauthorized picket. Although a solo picket can be held without any sanctions," said Artyom Brykin, a member of the "Russians".