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Police let opposition leaders go without charges

Udaltsov, Yashin and Sobchak was detained as "the organisers and abettors who urged people to organise an unauthorised event"
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, December 15 (Itar-Tass) —— Opposition activists Sergei Udaltsov, Alexei Navalny, Ilya Yashin and TV anchor Ksenia Sobchak detained by police earlier on Saturday, December 15, for organising an unauthorised rally in Moscow’s central Lubyanka Square have been released.

“They all were let go without official protocols being drawn up,” Navalny’s lawyer Vadim Kobzev told Itar-Tass.

Udaltsov, Yashin and Sobchak was detained as “the organisers and abettors who urged people to organise an unauthorised event”, police said.

All four of them were taken to the Tekstilshchiki district police station. “They are taking our explanations. What charges will be brought against us is not clear yet,” Udaltsov said earlier. “Another seven activists are here together with us,” he added.

The Moscow city authorities offered several alternative routes for an opposition march on December 15, but its organisers rejected the offer and kept insisting that the march should end at Lubyanka Square in the park where the Solovki Memorial Stone stands because one of their key slogans was “Freedom to political prisoners!”

Police detained about 40 people for participating in an unauthorised event at Lubyanka Square.

“After repeated warnings by police that the event was not authorised, some of the people obeyed the legitimate demands of the police. But law enforcers had to detain those who continued unlawful actions. About 40 people were taken to police stations for proceedings in accordance with effective legislation,” the press service of the city’s interior department told Itar-Tass.