A protest meeting in support of Russia’s political prisoners took place in front of the Russian White House in Moscow, according to the Russian online  daily newspaper Grani.Ru which reported the ‘Day of Freedom’ on August 22.  The newspaper claimed that a few hundred people attended the demonstration and none of the protesters were detained by the police.

The organisers of the ‘Day of Freedom’ comprised a variety of groups and political parties, including the political party Republican Party of Russia RPR – Parnas, the united democratic movement Solidarnost (Solidarity), the May 6th Committee,  the White House Defenders Movement, the Moscow Helsinki Group, the For Human Rights movement, the White Ribbon movement and the 5^th December Party.

The Solidarnost’s executive secretary of the political council Mikhail Shneider said:

“Today, on Russian Flag Day, we have a protest meeting called the ‘Day of Freedom’. We want to emphasize the fact that over the years, we again have lost the freedom which was defended by the Muscovites, the citizens of St. Petersburg and residents of other cities, who came out on the streets 22 years ago. We now have political prisoners in our country and there are political trials, the May 6 Bolotnaya square case, in particular.”