On 13 and 14 of March, the forum of the United Democrats organization could be held in the Izmailovo Hotel in Moscow. The two-day forum was to include lectures and workshops to help independent MPs organize their re-election campaign. But less than an hour later, the police appeared, saying that the event was prepared by an “undesirable organization” and all its participants should be detained. Protocols were drawn up for all the detainees under Article 20.33 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (cooperation with an undesirable organization) — for individuals, it provides for a fine of 5 to 15 thousand rubles.
“The reasons for the detention were explained to the participants. Certain violations were recorded, ” — Peskov replied to a question from journalists about mass detentions, adding that the question should be addressed not to the Kremlin, but to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In turn, it commented on the detentions as follows:
“A group of citizens-representatives of a public organization — attempted to hold a public event in violation of the established sanitary and epidemiological requirements that apply in the capital due to the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. In addition, among the participants, members of an organization, whose activities are recognized as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation were identified.”
According to RBC, the decision to disperse the forum “was made not by the Moscow authorities, but by the FSB of Russia.” The events were “an intimidating action before the Duma campaign,” sources close to the mayor’s office, RBC reported.
Among the detainees were Moscow City Duma deputy Mikhail Timonov, Moscow municipal deputies Ilya Yashin, Ilya Sviridov and Yulia Galyamina, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Maxim Reznik, politicians Vladimir Kara-Murza and Yevgeny Andrey Roizman, Executive Director of Open Russia Pivovarov, as well as a number of journalists-Anastasia Melnikova from the publication Znak.com, Nikita Stupin from Avtozak Live and Emil Yunusov from Sota Vision. But by 21:00, all participants were released after drawing up the protocols, according to OVD-info.
“The police had no reason to detain the participants of the forum, since the United Democrats have nothing to do with Open Russia (an undesirable organization in Russia), “Open Media reported” Maxim Dbar-Press Secretary of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who supports the United Democrats project”.
