Detentions continue for the second day.
On October 8, Moscow police detained two members of the punk band Pussy Riot, Maria Alekhina and Nika Nikulshina, for a rally with rainbow flags they had participated in the day before.
Alekhina was detained at the entrance to the editorial office of the Dozhd TV channel, when she was going for an interview. Judging by the entry published by Dozhd, the police followed Alekhina to the second floor, she tried to hide from them in the office of the TV channel, but she was forcibly taken into a car.
Around the same time, Nika Nikulshina was detained in the Taganka area, and she was taken to the Meshchansky police station, said Pyotr Verzilov, a Pussy Riot member and publisher of Mediazona. He posted a short video in which the police are leading Nikulshina, and she asks why they are hurting her. Lawyers from OVD-Info left to help Nikulshina and Alekhina.
On the morning of October 7, on the 68th birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pussy Riot members held a rally in support of LGBTQ +. They hung rainbow flags on the “main symbols of Russian statehood”: the buildings of the FSB in Lubyanka, the presidential administration on Staraya Square, the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Culture and the Basmanny police department. Pussy Riot members put forward a number of demands, in particular, called for legalizing same-sex partnerships and investigating the murders and kidnappings of gay men in Chechnya.
Among others, the action was attended by Maria Alekhina, Nika Nikulshina and Alexander Sofeev from Pussy Riot, as well as journalist Renat Davletgildeev and municipal deputy of the Basmanny district of Moscow, Lusya Stein.
At the FSB building, police arrested Radio Liberty journalist Artyom Radygin, who was filming the action. An administrative protocol was drawn up against him on participation in an uncoordinated public event. Several hours later, Radygin was released, but the police refused to give him the phone. Pussy Riot representatives said that Sota.Vision correspondent Denis Styazhkin was detained at the rally near the presidential administration, but Styazhkin himself claimed that this happened when he was covering the Left Bloc rally.
On the evening of October 7, police detained activists Vasily Andrianov and Elizaveta Diederich, who were hanging rainbow flags on government buildings in Moscow. Then they were released under the obligation to report to the police. They intend to draw up administrative protocols on participation in an unauthorized action. Also, the police came to the home of other protesters Alexander Sofeev, Veronika Nikulshina, Lyusa Stein, as well as mother Maria Alekhina.
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