On International Day against Violence Against Women, once again Moscow police have acted in a completely unjustified manner. In St Petersburg a picket was held successfully and peacefully. In Moscow the authorities refused permission for an action, fearing it would be as big as last year’s when over a thousand attended. Once again Sotsialisticheskaya Feministskaya Alternativa was forced to resort to a ‘single person picket’ the only legal form of protest allowed.
From two locations eleven people were arrested by the police and taken to two different police stations. The first five were released after a couple of hours, but the six taken to the OVD Zamoskvorechye station have been told that they have been charged with disobeying police orders and will be held for 48 hours.
The six are Syrga Chidaran, Kseniya Bezdenezhnykh, Aleksandra Rogacheva, Marta Khromova, Elizaveta Drepeleva and Vitalii Kudrin.
They have been visited by the rights lawyer and have been passed food and water.
Please phone the police station and phone or email the Russian Embassy in your country to demand their immediate release. The phone number of the police station is +7 499 2370400.
