Participants in a picket in support of political prisoners were detained in Moscow

In Moscow, participants of the picket in support of political prisoners - Pavel Stepanchenko and Alexander Kuznetsov - were detained. This was reported by OVD-Info.

According to the publication, the activists were detained near the Presidential Administration building. As an eyewitness told OVD-Info, when one of the activists was standing at the picket, the police stopped another and during the search they asked to unfurl the poster. After this, the security forces said that the activists were not maintaining the minimum distance allowed between picketers - 50 meters - and detained them.

Stepanchenko and Kuznetsov were taken to the Khamovniki police station. The security forces kept the detainees in the paddy wagon for 40 minutes, not allowing them to go to the toilet or drink water, the publication adds. Kuznetsov soon became ill and an ambulance was called. A few hours later the activists were released. A protocol was drawn up against Kuznetsov for repeated violation of the rules for holding pickets (Part 8 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code), and for Stepanchenko - for disobedience to a police officer (Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code), writes OVD-Info.

DOXA reports that another participant in the single picket, a student of the Higher School of Economics Dmitry Zair-Bek, was detained at the Chistye Prudy metro station. Zair-Bek was taken to the Basmannoe police station, reports OVD-Info. The security forces argued that formally the student is not considered detained, and they just need to check whether he has a criminal record. After some time, Zair-Bek was released .

Updated and corrected at 22:40, 22:50 and 0:31: Added information about the release of activists.