Petition to lift ban on lezginka collects 370 signatures during one day

The ban to dance lezginka contradicts the Constitution and violates the basic rights and freedoms of Russian citizens. This is stated in the petition, which collected 370 signatures per day.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 13, YouTube published a video showing a detention of a man by policemen and Cossacks. The video is entitled "Cossacks and the police tie a lezginka dancer in Gelendzhik". According to eyewitnesses, the police detained four persons for dancing lezginka in the street. Meanwhile, a pepper spray was used in the course of the dancers' detention, and a female tourist was injured. During the detention of the dancers, the police claimed that "lezginka dancing was banned in the Krasnodar Territory," eyewitnesses said. On August 14, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) reported that the court found two lezginka dancers guilty of petty hooliganism and failure to obey to a lawful demand of the police and sentenced them to five days of arrest. Later, one of the dancers was released.

At night on August 15, the petition "To lift the ban on lezginka dancing in public places" was published on the Change.org platform by Russian resident Vladislav Goncharov.

"The ban to dance lezginka, a beautiful Caucasian dance, which is a national dance for all the peoples of the Russian Northern Caucasus, is unconstitutional, and it violates the fundamental rights and freedoms of Russian citizens," writes the author of the petition.

According to him, in connection with the incident in Gelendzhik, people should apply to the Constitutional Court and bring to justice Gelendzhik Mayor Victor Khrestin and police station chief Vadim Chikin.

"The implementation of unconstitutional decrees issued by local officials resulted in police violence and violation of the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens, as well as other officials who made such a decision," stated the author of the petition.

As of 6:10 p.m. Moscow time on August 15, there are 370 signatures under the petition. Meanwhile, the author of the petition set a goal to collect 500 signatures.

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