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Presidential Council head to find out reasons for detention of people wearing white ribbons

Several hundreds of people, most of them dressed in white clothes, have gathered on Arbat. Reinforced police details and police buses are on guard

MOSCOW, May 27 (Itar-Tass) —— Chairman of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov said he would find out why the police had detained people wearing white ribbons on Moscow’s Arbat Street on Sunday.

“The wearing of white ribbons, the same as ribbons of other colors, as well as white and other clothes is not an administrative offense. We need to know why the police detain these people. I do not know that so far, but I will do my best to verify actions of the police,” he told Itar-Tass.

A number of opposition members wearing white ribbons have been detained on Arbat in downtown Moscow. Some were detained near Arbat and others on Arbat Street where opposition ‘walkabout’ near the Bulat Okudzhava Monument had been on for several days. The opposition called its action Occupy Arbat.

Earlier in the day more than 100 people wearing white clothes and white ribbons strolled across Red Square and Manezh Square before heading to Arbat. No one was detained on Red and Manezh Squares.

Several hundreds of people, most of them dressed in white clothes, have gathered on Arbat. Reinforced police details and police buses are on guard.

The working group of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights will discuss the detentions on Monday, although its meeting agenda is focused on amendments to the bill tightening punishment for rally violations, Fedotov said.

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