Press Release, 15.06.2017

Deputies of the Yabloko faction in St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly Boris Vishnevsky and Mikhail Amosov signed a letter from three opposition factions of the city parliament proposing that Sergei Umnov, head of the Interior Ministry for St. Petersburg, be summoned to the next meeting of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg in connection with the actions of the police on June 12 in dispersing protesters and detention of 548 people, including 140 minors.

“I am outraged by the fact of detaining citizens, even if they did not apply for a permission, but conducted a peaceful protest action in Marsovo Polye, a “hyde park” specially designed for holding such actions,” said Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction.

Vishnevsky also noted that in 2012 the Yabloko faction received an explanation from the Prosecutor General’s Office, from which it follows that a refusal of a person to leave the place of an unsanctioned rally should be regarded as disobedience to a police officer, which may be punishable only by an increase of a penalty for participation in an unsanctioned rally, but this should not serve as a pretext for charging a person with disobedience and apply an administrative arrest to such a person.

“I personally went to different police departments, explained all this, but did not meet understanding,” Boris Vishnevsky added.