Thursday, February 23, 2012

Russia

Russian Man Protests 'Persecution Of The Opposition'

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January 16, 2012

KIROV, Russia -- A one-man protest against the "persecution of the Russian opposition" has been held in the northwestern city of Kirov, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

Russian language and literature teacher Yevgeny Yushkov staged his single-man demonstration at the entrance to the headquarters of the local branch of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) by shouting "the secret services are a state within the state. Nobody, but Comrade [Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin controls them. It is time to stop these spy games!"

FSB officers attempted to stop the protest and demanded that an RFE/RL correspondent filming the protest turn off his video camera. The FSB officers then called the police, who checked the documents of everyone at the scene. Nobody was detained.

Yushkov's protest continued for about one more hour after police left.

Russian law allows one-person protests to take place without the authorities' preapproval, which is required for all other gatherings that include more than one person.

Read more in Russian here

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