In Voronezh they tried to interfere with the rally

On September 20, 2005, as part of the All-Russian protest action of defense industry workers, a rally was held in Voronezh, which brought together about 3 thousand people, and they tried to prevent it in various ways.

Half an hour before the start, it was announced that a suspicious object had been found in an urn on the square - a wooden cuckoo clock, Novaya Gazeta correspondent Alexander Yagodkin writes. However, experts from the FSB destroyed the clock before the rally.

After the start of the rally, State Duma deputy Gostev said that the governor's team gave instructions to prevent the rally, and all the directors of defense plants were called to demand not to let the workers go. It also became known that the workers of the aircraft factory (7,000 people) were holding a separate rally, at their entrance.

Then, several dozen young people (who identified themselves as an "association of independent trade unions") with medical bandages on their faces drove up to the place of the rally in a Gazelle. They filled the front door with garbage bags, unloaded empty barrels on the sidewalk and began to beat them with sticks, shouting anti-mayor slogans.

Employees of the mayor's office wrote a statement to the prosecutor's office and the police department. They expressed confidence that Nashi had carried out the action against the mayor. Independent trade unions categorically deny involvement in the action.

Sources

• Yagodkin A. Meeting with cuckoos // New Newspaper. 2005. No. 71.