A musician was detained on Arbat

Musician multi-instrumentalist Roman Yezyk was detained on the Arbat. He told OVD-Info that he was playing the guitar and drums near the Rigla pharmacy, a man approached him with two policemen, and he was taken to the Arbat district administration. Ezyk's tools were taken away. He is accused of illegal provision of paid services, but he has not yet seen the protocol.

I just wrote my name, surname and registration on a piece of paper. I myself am from the Crimea - this is how our Crimea turned out.

According to Yezyk, while he was playing, no one complained about him playing loudly. He also did not see any written statements about his actions.

As OVD-Info was later told, the artist Yevgeny Abolin, who was detained on the Arbat, was also delivered to the Arbat District Council. According to eyewitnesses, he did not paint, but only laid out his things on the bench and waited for the person who was supposed to pick up his portrait.

Recently, musicians on the Arbat and other streets in the center of Moscow have often been detained. They are charged with either “organizing a mass simultaneous stay” (Article 20.2.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), or “carrying out entrepreneurial activities without state registration or without special permission” (Article 14.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). In the latter case, the administrative case is opened not in the police department, but in the district council.