An attempt to stop a picket in Nizhny Novgorod

On June 22, 2005, a sanctioned picket was held in Nizhny Novgorod for organizing a referendum on the choice or appointment of the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region. Some time after the start of the event, unknown people who introduced themselves as employees of the office of the Federal Inspector for the Nizhny Novgorod Region, without presenting documents, took one of the posters and took it away in an unknown direction. Next came the engineering protection service of the city, whose employees, according to human rights activists, without going into explanations and also without presenting documents, requisitioned the remaining poster.

An hour later, the organizers of the picket received a call from the office of the Federal Inspector for the Nizhny Novgorod Region, who apologized and offered to return the requisitioned poster. No such proposals were received from the city's engineering service.

Sources

• Human rights activists continue to protest against the abolition of direct gubernatorial elections // Human rights in Russia. 2005. June 22.