Moscow: photographers get detained for a picket of solidarity with Belarusian colleagues
Photo by "Novaya Gazeta"
The police detained Russian photographers at a picket in support
of their Belarusian colleagues this morning.
The picket was
organized by the photographer Viktroriya Ivleva in protest against
the burning of 41 copies of the compilation album “Press-photo of
Belarus” by the Belarusian customs office.
The Moscow
authorities refused to authorize the action without offering
sufficient grounds for such a decision.
As soon as the
picketers lined up with their posters, policemen came up to them and
demanded to stop the action. Ivleva did not agree and argued with a
police major for quite a long time, convincing him that the action
ban was illegal.
The UN sent a note of protest to the Russian
MFA, pointing at the inadmissibility of using international
agreements for justification of prohibition of mass events.
Despite
the 30-minute discussion concerning the legality of the action ban,
its participants were taken to the Basmannoye District Police
Department. Among them there are Viktoriya Ivleva, Kseniya
Zhykhareva, Mariya Ionovan-Gribina and the editor of the “Russkiy
Reportyor” magazine Artyom Chernov.
According to "Novaya
Gazeta"
