Russia: Action in defence of the Constitution and in breach

Peaceful protest in support of honest elections and observance of Russia’s Constitution (which young people are animatedly reading in the picture) brought around 50 detentions during Saturday

Saturday in Moscow brought more peaceful protest “For Fair Elections”, and more detentions.  Grani.ru reports that the “mobile camp” of opponents of Vladimir Putin have moved from the Monument to Bulat Okudzhava on Arbat to the Andriei Sakharov Centre where the “Freedom Festival” has been taking place over the last few days.

The police on Friday dispersed the mobile camp from another location in Moscow.  At least 26 people were detained. They were released the next morning without protocols being drawn up.

On Saturday, the Radio Svoboda Russian Service reports that around 50 people were detained. 

The decision to move the camp was taken during Saturday evening, however at least 100 people remained on Arbat.   The photo shows the kind of “seditious behaviour” underway, with young people reading the Russian Constitution.  One of the correspondents running the Novaya Gazeta online report said that at around 2 a.m. activists were writing in chalk on the asphalt the numbers of highly relevant articles of the Constitution (10 – about the division of powers; 29 – freedom of speech and views; and 31 freedom of peaceful assembly.

During the day there was also a procession by artists through the central boulevards, followed by several hundred people.