Press Release, 22.09.2014
The provocateurs tried to sabotage picketing organised by the Novosibirsk branch of YABLOKO in support of Peace March on September 21. About 40 aggressive young men met YABLOKO activists by the entrance to YABLOKO office where the prepration for the picket was to take place from 03.00 pm till 04.00 pm. “One of the men tried to attack YABLOKO’s photographer but he managed to run in the building and block the door. The evening before the dialogue between two representatives of “organised groups” about gathering their people to sabotage YABLOKO’s picket was published on the Internet.

“Russia, wake up! You’ve gone mad. You are killing your sister Ukraine!”

Chair of the Novosibirsk branch of YABLOKO Alexandra Nalobina called the police and asked to order out police officers to see the activists to the place where the picketing was to be held. As a result police arrived only at 03.20 pm. The activists headed to the picketing place”, explained the activists.

The provocateurs offended the activists as they walked to picketing place and seized their placards.

“About a hundred people who awaited the activists were at the picketing place. They tried to hide their faces with masks and hoods. But the police didn’t detain them despite YABLOKO activists’ claims that those people weren’t activists. Police paid no attention at the flags of the so called Republic of Donetsk but at the same time the opposition activist Aleksei Manannikov was detained for rolling out the flag of Ukraine. Another Ukrainian flag was taken away from the activist who came with her child after the attempts to detain her”, said activists of the Novosibirsk branch of YABLOKO.

The organizers of the action also faced difficulties as the Mayor’s office representatives came up and said that the action was unlawful since some medicine (which one by no means needs to conduct picketing) was missing in the organizers’ medicine box.

The activists lost much time giving explanations to the Mayor’s office representatives. So, they managed to start the picket five minutes before it was supposed to be finished. When the time given for the picket was out, the police took some of the activists to a police office to “take evidence”.