Sobyanin hid from the “Other Russia”

Supporters of the "Other Russia" party and participants of " Strategy-31 " came to the Moscow City Hall and staged a sit-in there.

The party's press release states that "a peaceful seizure of the Moscow City Hall has been carried out." Activists demand a meeting with Sergei Sobyanin and the opening of Triumphal Square for citizens and rallies. Officials at City Hall said the mayor had left the building. At the moment, riot police have been deployed to the site of the protest. All entrances to the building are blocked.

Alexander Averin, press secretary of Eduard Limonov:
There is an action by “The Other Russia” and civil activists: they came to the mayor’s office and demanded a meeting with Sobyanin, they want Triumfalnaya Square to be liberated. The activists are now inside, the building itself is blocked by the police. None of the leaders take part in the action; there are no representatives of the Left Front among them, only other Russians. Riot police arrived, but so far no one has been detained.

Dmitry Kolesnikov, participant of the action, activist of “The Other Russia”:
Occupy City Hall is happening, the National Bolsheviks and comrades are here, about 10 people, maybe more. The officials are screaming, frightened. And we came in and demanded the mayor. We were told that the mayor had been evacuated. They called the riot police, and they arrived and didn’t know what to do with us. We are not violating anything, we came and demand a meeting with the head of the city. We have now raised a call through Twitter and other social networks for people to come and support us.

Police officers handed one of the “invaders” of the city hall, Marat Salakhiev, a summons to the military registration and enlistment office right at the city hall. As PublicPost correspondent Evgeniy Natelashvili reports, the summons was handed to Salakhiev by the deputy head of the Tver Department of Internal Affairs, Sergei Nikitin.

Evgeniy Natelashvili, PublicPost: As a result, the police took Salakhiev to the city hall building, down the stairs. Activists shouted after him: “Say hello to Sobyanin!”

The mayor's office is open until 17:00, the protesters assume that arrests will begin at this time.

photo: Igor Sizov

photo: Evgeniy Natelashvili/PublicPost

Evgeny Natelashvili, PublicPost: At 17:00 a police officer came out to the striking Limonovites and said that they had 3 minutes to leave the premises, otherwise they would be detained.

photo: Evgeniy Natelashvili/PublicPost

Evgeniy Natelashvili, PublicPost: At 5:07 p.m., a group of police officers entered the city hall and, without further ado, detained the protesters and put them in a paddy wagon, which was driven to the building. Marat Salakhiev remained inside the mayor's office. What happens to him there is unknown.

Evgeniy Natelashvili, PublicPost: at 17:10 a funny event happened: the paddy wagon did not have time to drive away, the Limonovites opened the door, and everyone fled. Now the police are in pursuit of the fugitives.

Evgeniy Natelashvili, PublicPost: Some of the National Bolsheviks were finally caught. It is difficult for me to name the exact number of detainees. I observed the following picture: the policeman who commanded the arrest called his superiors on the phone, the conversation was tense. After the conversation, a colleague in civilian clothes approached the policeman and asked: “Well, what’s going on, Alekseich?” To which the policeman said: “Yelling like crazy: “Why the hell were they detained…”

After the National Bolsheviks, only stickers on the walls remained in the city hall. Photo: Nikita Batalov

Vintage. Moscow City Hall. Photo by Nikita Batalov

Eduard Limonov and like-minded people from Strategy-31 will try to hold a rally on Triumfalnaya Square on Friday evening. They tried to approve the action, but received the traditional refusal.

“We informed the main department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for Moscow, the Moscow prosecutor’s office that this action was not coordinated, and about the need to take measures to restore order,” Alexey Mayorov, head of the Moscow regional security department, told Interfax.