The police of St. Petersburg detained three activists of the Bulk of staff, who carried out single pickets near the hotel «Angleterre», where he welcomed many foreign guests arrived at the St. Petersburg international economic forum.
All three of them were holding posters in the style of the movie 2017, «Three of a Billboard on the border of Ebbing, Missouri.» The inscriptions on the banners was in English, which, according to the police, and was the main reason for the detention.
As reported by the Headquarters of Navalny Twitter, law enforcement officials don’t know English, so they detained the activists and confiscated the posters to check on extremism.
That is what «arbitrary detention» looks like. #SPIEF #SPIEF2018
The arbitrariness of the security forces in the four photos. #SPIEF #ПМЭФ2018 pic.twitter.com/aOSLSUNmbl
— The headquarters of Navalny in St. Petersburg (@teamnavalny_spb) May 26, 2018
In fact, a text written in English, was no different from the posters in the Russian language, which kept the other members of the organization. Here is what was written on them: «Censorship and lack of freedom of speech», «Controlled by the courts and tyranny of the security forces» and «it’s your thing, President Putin».
Today our activists have been detained because police officers don’t speak English and «need to translate the slogans to check them for extremism».#SPIEF #SPIEF2018 #SPIEF #ПМЭФ2018 pic.twitter.com/ubxc5nCQoR
— The headquarters of Navalny in St. Petersburg (@teamnavalny_spb) May 26, 2018
«Today, our activists were detained, because the police don’t speak English and «need to translate the slogans, to check them for extremism»».
In the organization suggest that the police simply tried to minimize the picket. Paimogo this, the staff also said that at the police station, the police threatened to beat and «pour the gas» one of the volunteers.
In the beginning of this month across the country took action «He is not our king», which was a protest against the re-election of Vladimir Putin in the 4th term. Because the demonstration was unauthorized, police arrested about 200 participants, including the main opposition leader and organizer of the campaign of Alexei Navalny.
