Five people picket in Volgograd in support of opposition leader Navalny

Today, in Volgograd, in the Alley of Heroes, the regional branch of the "Progress Party" has held a picket in support of Alexei Navalny. Out of the applied 30 persons, just five have actually appeared.

On July 18, Alexei Navalny, known for his active struggle against corruption in state procurement, including in the regions of Northern Caucasus, was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of embezzlement at the State Company "Kirovles". On October 16, the Kirov Regional Court changed his sentence from real custody to conditional imprisonment.

The today's picket in Volgograd had been agreed with the authorities, Dmitry Kostikov, the chairman of the regional branch of the party, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, adding that there were five picketers.

"We believe that the case against Navalny is exclusively political; that is, they pursue the aim to eliminate him from public policy in order to remove his influence on the political processes underway in the country," said Dmitry Kostikov.

Policemen supervised the action; and it passed without incidents.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.