Press release, 10.03.2016
Today, on 10 March, YABLOKO’s activits have participated in one-person pickets demanding that the attack on the journalists and human rights defenders, which took place on the boarder of the republics of Ingushetia and Chechnya yesterday, must be investigated. The pickets were held outside the Presidential Administration.

Deputy Chair of Moscow YABLOKO Grigory Semyonov and head of YABLOKO liaison office Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko took part in the action.

The activists demanded that the law enforcement must investigate the crime, find the attackers and those who ordered the attack.

“Both the federal and republican authorities must find the guilty and prove that the laws are in force within the territory of the whole country, including the republics of the North Caucasus, and that there are security guarantees for journalists and human rights defenders,” Grigory Semyenov said.

He also reminded that several repressive laws against human rights organisations had been adopted in recent years, but it had not come to violence before.

On the evening of 9 March, a minibus carrying journalists and human rights activists on a tour of Russia’s Northern Caucasus region was attacked by a group of about 20 armed men at the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia. A number of the journalists were beaten and their bus was set on fire. Several people including foreign journalists were hospitalised.

Today YABLOKO has adopted a statement against the persecution of journalists and human rights activists.