About 50 people gathered at an oppositional meeting in Rostov-on-Don

About 50 people gathered at an oppositional meeting “For honest and legitimate authority” held on May, 6, in Rostov-on-Don. The main slogan of the action was “Freedom to political prisoners!”.

The participants explained that both the choice of the slogan and a small number of people at the action were connected with arrest of the organizers of the meeting Vladislav Ryazantsev and Pavel Nagibin who got a penalty of 10 and 15 days of administrative arrest. One of the activists Boris Bogaty was also detained. Trial on his case will be held on May, 10.

A crowd of inquisitive townsmen strolling nearby added to the small number of participants. Some stopped and asked questions from the speakers, others waved their hands and passed by. Beside the slogan “Freedom to political prisoners!”, the participants chanted: “Russia without Putin!”. Schoolchildren riding bicycles shouted in reply: “Putin is steering the wheel!”.

“On the eve of the meeting Vladislav Ryazantsev was arrested. He was detained near his friend’s house and accused of violation of public order and insubordination to the policemen”, Boris Papayan, activist of the unregistered “PARNAS” (“Party of People’s Freedom”), said adding that the next day he went to court where he was admitted as Ryazantsev’s public defender.  

According to him, in court they “were writing complaints, petitions and motions till one o’clock in the afternoon but the judge granted none of them”. “At one o’clock the bailiff ordered a recess and asked us to leave the courtroom. We did so and half an hour later I saw Ryazantsev being taken away from the court, placed in a car and they took him to a temporary isolation ward, as it emerged later. The assistant judge told me that the court had already brought a verdict and Ryazantsev was sentenced to 10 days of administrative arrest. Being his public defender I was not even let into the courtroom at the moment of pronouncement of the verdict”, Papyan explained.