17:17, 15 February 2017

Krasnodar farmers report detention of Alexei Volchenko

Alexei Volchenko. Photo: Nikita Tatarsky (RFE/RL)

According to Oleg Petrov, a farmer, today, Alexei Volchenko, the leader of the "Polite Farmers” movement, was detained by law enforcers. "I managed to call him and talked to him for a few minutes, he said that he’s suspected of bribing a medic," Oleg Petrov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The farmer has noted that "he knows no details of Volchenko’s detention." When Petrov called him, Alexei said that "some unknown man came to him and offered to make some medical certificate for money." "Volchenko said he lodged an application to the police about the man, but in the end he was detained himself," said Petrov.

On August 21, 2016, the protesting farmers held a rally and began their so-called “tractor march” to Moscow, but law enforcers interfered, stopped the action and punished the participants with administrative arrests and fines. After their disrupted "tractor march" and a failed attempt to meet President Vladimir Putin, farmers have repeatedly stated the authorities' attempts to suppress the protest movement in the Krasnodar Territory.

Sergey Zemtsov, a lawyer and a blogger, who is representing the interests of Krasnodar farmers, did not rule out that Volchenko’s detention has to do with a new "tractor march".

"Farmers have begun winning trials against large agro complexes; and now we are pressed by special services," Sergey Zemtsov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

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

Author: Anna Gritsevich

Source: CK correspondent