Hello everyone!
First and foremost we’d like to thank all of you for your continued support for Open Russia’s human rights team. Without you, many more politically active Russians would spend significantly more time behind bars, in detention centres and left without the defence of good human rights lawyers, which can often make the difference between receiving a five-year sentence in a prison colony, and going home to your family.
Your generosity has exceeded our expectations this month, and so the Open Russia team would like to extend a warm and sincere thank you to all of our supporters. Your contributions are making a difference.
Here are some of the top stories this week:
Police Storm Open Russia Conference, Beat And Detain Activists
Vladivostok. June 12
During Open Russia’s regional conference in the far-eastern city of Vladivostok, police officers stormed the event, violently arrested a number of Open Russia members and local activists including Open Russia Movement Chairman Andrey Pivovarov and press secretary Natalia Griaznevich, as well as three other local activists. Fines were given to those detained,
Activist Fined For Lone Picket
Moscow. June 9
Co-chairman of the union “University Solidarity” Andronik Arutyunov was detained and left in a cell overnight, later receiving a 20,000 ruble fine. Andronik had been undertaking a lone picket in support of Dmitry Petelin, the Moscow State University student detained for an inscription he made on a World Cup sign.
Anti-Putin Demonstrator Held In Arbitrary Detention
St. Petersburg. June 5
Mikhail Tsakunov, who was detained during nationwide “He’s Not Our Tsar” demonstrations against Putin’s 4th inauguration, has been kept in arbitrary detention since his arrest. Regardless of the lack of evidence against him for supposedly using force against the police officer that was detaining him, Tsakunov has been kept in a detention facility for two months now. A video taken by bystanders clearly shows Tsakunov being dragged into a police van by officers while standing peacefully with his friends.
Raided And Interrogated By Anti-Extremism Police For Livejournal Post
Moscow
Alexey Kasyan, a member of the Faculty of Linguistics at the Russian Academy of Sciences, was raided and his girlfriend interrogated for a post he wrote on his blog on Livejournal. The investigation concluded that Kasyan wrote a post on the popular blog-website which, according to “experts”, was deemed to be extremist in nature.
Navalny Demonstrator STILL In Detention Centre After 4 Months
Moscow
Konstantin Saltykov, accused of using force against a police officer during the “Voter Boycott” demonstrations earlier this year, has once again been put under arrest. This is the fourth month he has spent in a detention centre, and throughout this time no investigative actions have taken place to ascertain his guilt.