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| AP
Young Yabloko
activists demonstrating outside FSB headquarters on Tuesday. Their
sign says, "Down With Police Autocracy." |
Two young Yabloko party activists who protested outside the FSB's Lubyanka
headquarters on Tuesday were hospitalized after police officers broke up
their unsanctioned demonstration, the party said.
Alexei Kozhin, 19, and Irina Vorobyova, 21, were hospitalized from
injuries sustained during their detention, Yabloko spokesman Sergei Kozakov
said.
Kozhin was in "fairly critical condition," he added, and
Vorobyova was
believed to have internal bleeding, but both refused further treatment
and
were released later in the day.
The rally's organizer, Ilya Yashin, who heads Yabloko's youth wing,
said Kozhin was beaten during questioning by a senior lieutenant in the
Federal Security Service, whom he identified as Dmitry Streltsov, the
Regnum
news agency reported.
Yashin was among nine demonstrators detained out of the 15 who
participated.
Yabloko intends to report the cases to prosecutors, deputy party
leader Alexei Navalny said in a statement.
"We believe the actions of police and FSB officers were completely
inappropriate. Yes, the rally was not sanctioned, but there was absolutely
no reason to beat the protesters during detention," the statement
said.
One of the protesters, Yulia Ryzhkina, said by telephone Tuesday
evening that she and the others had gathered at noon at the Lubyanka metro
station, wearing black T-shirts reading, "No to Big Brother,"
and showing a
diagonal red stripe over the image of President Vladimir Putin.
NTV television footage showed protesters throwing balloons filled with
red paint at a plaque on the building's wall honoring Yury Andropov, a
former KGB chief and Soviet leader. They also unfurled a banner reading,
"Down With Police Autocracy."
Ryzhkina, a 17-year-old student at the State Humanities University,
said she and a friend ran toward the FSB building ahead of the group,
threw
the paint balloons and sprinted away before law enforcement officers arrived
"literally 20 or 30 seconds later."
The others scattered leaflets and shouted, "Lubyanka should be
demolished, the regime should be ousted!"
Protesters aged 18 and over were detained and taken first to the FSB,
Ryzhkina said. Later, after a Yabloko lawyer arrived, they were transferred
to the Interior Ministry's Meshchansky district division.
Ryzhkina said that, to the best of her knowledge, seven activists
remained there in custody. "We haven't heard from them, so I guess
they're
still there," she said.
NTV reported that the protesters were being held on charges that
included vandalism to a cultural monument.
The rally was held on the anniversary of the 1826 execution of leaders
of the Decembrist revolt against tsarist-era repression, Yashin told Ekho
Moskvy radio before he was detained.
"We want to draw attention to the fact that the police state regime
in
Russia in that era has not changed since," he said. "In fact,
it has been
preserved under Putin."
Ekho Moskvy reported that some 10 journalists covering the rally were
also detained, but they were released shortly afterward.
See also:
the original at
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