Kuban farmers accuse law enforcers of disrupting press conference

On February 22, Mineralnye Vody was to host a press conference dedicated to a new "tractor march" of Kuban farmers. According to the organizers, the event did not take place because of pressure from law enforcers. However, the farmers are not going to give up their protest action.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in December 2016, the farmers decided to hold one more "tractor march".

According to Alexei Volchenko, the leader of the movement "Polite Farmers", on the eve of the press conference, FSB agents and policemen blocked the activists at their apartments.

Alexei Volchenko claims that organizers in Mineralnye Vody were also subjected to pressure from the law enforcement bodies.

According to Alexei Volchenko, activist Nikolai Borodin, suspected of fraud, received threats that in case of his involvement in the press conference, investigators will file a motion to court with a request to change the pre-trial restriction measure to arrest.

Activist Oleg Petrov claims the authorities and the law enforcement bodies provoke the farmers to hold a new "tractor march", since at present, "instead of problems with seizure of land plots, the farmers face problems with institution of criminal proceedings against them."

According to Oleg Petrov, courts of the Krasnodar Territory have begun to consider cases on seizures of farmers' land plots "under the law, and raiders do not like that fact."

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