Shame of St. Petersburg

Petersburg workers of culture and art (musician Yuri Shevchuk, film director Alexander Sokurov, artist Dmitry Shagin), human rights activists (Yuli Rybakov, Natalya Evdokimova) and deputies - "Yabloko" of the city Legislative Assembly (Maxim Reznik, Boris Vishnevsky, Olga Galkina, Vyacheslav Notyag, Alexander Kobrinsky) and others on March 6 sent an official message to the head of the Northern capital Georgy Poltavchenko:

“We express our deepest indignation at the unjustified detentions of almost five hundred citizens at a meeting with deputies of the Legislative Assembly on St. Isaac's Square on March 5, 2012 and after it, and their unjustified detention in police stations until now. This is a shame for Petersburg. We demand the immediate release of citizens and the conduct of official proceedings against the persons who authorized these detentions,” people well-known in culture and politics told the mayor.

Smolny's reaction to this appeal has not yet followed. The governor, in obedience to his habit, has not even unsubscribed on Twitter yet.

Meanwhile, only according to official data of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, on March 5, 307 people were detained on St. Isaac's Square and taken to the police to draw up protocols on offenses. Unofficial estimates (they were carried out by representatives of the RSDSM, Yabloko, Oborona, Solidarity, UCF, etc.) indicate 400-500 detainees. Many of these people are still in police departments. Water, food, clothes, cigarettes are brought to them by relatives, friends and like-minded people. But far from all law enforcement officers are allowed to see those sitting in the bullpen, and they do not always pass the transmission to the latter.

“Law enforcement officers promised us that the cases of all those detained at the rally on March 5 will be considered before the end of the day on March 6, and people will be released home by evening,” Boris Vishnevsky, deputy of the city Legislative Assembly, told Novaya Gazeta.

However, despite the fact that five judges worked at the polling stations in the Central District Courts of Justice on Tuesday, they failed to cope with the flow (avalanche) of “violators” on March 6. The trial will continue on March 7. In most cases, people are fined for "participating in an unsanctioned rally". No one in St. Petersburg has yet received punishment in the form of administrative arrest.

Source: Novaya Gazeta