Russian participants in a peaceful demonstration in Minsk jailed for 10 and 15 days

On 26 July two activists from the Russian youth organization “Oborona” [“Defence”]  Nikolai Zboroshenko and Yekaterina Vinokurova, who is also a leader of the youth branch of the Republican party of Russia, were jailed for 15 and 10 days respectively by the Tsentralny District Court in Minsk. On July 23 the young activists had taken part in a demonstration outside the Russian Embassy in Minsk demanding that Russia stop supporting Lukashenka’s regime. The Russian citizens were charged with having taken part in an unsanctioned rally. They will serve their sentences in the special detention centre on Okrestina St.
Those taking part in the demonstration had attempted to unfurl a banner reading: “Russia without Putin, Belarus without Lukashenka”. They also chanted the slogans: “We need a different Russia, we need a different Belarus!”, “No support for the Belarusian dictator””.
As reported already, on Belarusian Solidarity Day, 16 July, 47 Belarusian citizens were arrested near the Russian Embassy in Minsk. They wished to demand that the Belarusian issue be raised at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg and to urge Russia to stop supporting the Belarusian dictatorship. They held portraits of politicians and a journalist abducted in Belarus as well as candles burning in solidarity with political prisoners and Belarusian victims of repression. The riot police were very violent when detaining demonstrators.