Solidarity with the accused

The organizers of the march and the failed rally on May 6 in Moscow published an appeal in which they declared solidarity with those accused of the riots on Bolotnaya Square and demanded their release. The appeal was signed by Alexander Belov, Denis Bilunov, Dmitry Gudkov, Sergey Davidis, Garry Kasparov, Alexey Navalny, Boris Nemtsov, Nadezhda Mityushkina, Andrey Piontkovsky, Ilya Ponomarev, Alena Popova, Alexander Ryklin, Alexey Sakhnin, Ivan Tyutrin, Sergey Udaltsov, Pyotr Tsarkov, Mikhail Shneider and Ilya Yashin.

The appeal states:

“We, the organizers and participants of the march and rally on May 6, declare our solidarity with the accused and suspects in the May 6 case.

The cause of the violence on Bolotnaya was the actions of the police and, probably, unknown provocateurs introduced into the crowd by the special services. But not a single policeman, not a single provocateur was brought to justice; all statements with such demands remained unanswered.

Instead, 14 people were under arrest and ordered not to leave the place, of whom, if anyone was guilty of anything, it was only in the necessary defense against lawlessness at an agreed rally.

An unprecedentedly huge investigative team in the case of riots that did not take place is fabricating false evidence of the participation of dozens of citizens, many of whom were not even present at Bolotnaya. At the same time, the Investigative Committee, without any hesitation, declares its intention, despite the absence of any evidence, to accuse the persons it appointed as “organizers” of non-existent mass riots.

We consider the case regarding the events of May 6 to be political, and those accused in it who are behind bars to be political prisoners.

We demand the immediate release of all accused from custody and the termination of the riot case. An investigation into violence against police officers can only be carried out in conjunction with the investigation of crimes committed by police officers and taking into account the necessary protection of rally participants from their illegal actions.

Only consistent pressure from society on the authorities can change the situation. Therefore, we consider a mass campaign of solidarity with the prisoners of May 6 and all those persecuted in this case to be extremely important, we support all initiatives aimed at developing such a campaign, and we intend to personally participate in it.

We demand:

Freedom to political prisoners Akimenkov, Arkhipenkov, Barabanov, Bakhov, Belousov, Dukhanina, Zimin, Kosenko, Luzyanin, Lutskevich, Savelov, Sobolev!

Stop the illegal persecution of Baronova, Kamensky and other real and alleged participants in the rally!”