The police of St. Petersburg today detained about 10 activists of the organization "Democratic Petersburg", who were going to walk along the street with flags of foreign countries: Ukraine, Great Britain, the USA, Finland, Israel, Georgia and the European Union.
Liberals were going to express their protest against Russian policy towards Ukraine and Crimea. However, the authorities of St. Petersburg did not approve the holding of their procession, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Then "Democratic Petersburg" decided to join someone else's procession - the column of the "Beautiful Petersburg" organization, which was marching to the Field of Mars for a rally on urban planning. Krasimir Vransky, co-organizer of the "hail protection column", was categorically against the politicization of his event, so the liberal activists were detained.
They will stay at the police station for 48 hours, because, according to law enforcement officers, they resisted them. LGBT activist Aleksey Nazarov with a rainbow flag was also detained.
And a member of the "Party of the Dead" Varvara Mikhailova with an installation of portraits of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Several dozen people with a banner "Wake up: crimes are being committed on your behalf" nevertheless walked along one of the central streets of St. Petersburg.