Residents of Arkhangelsk held a rally on Lenin Square on December 12. A video from the scene of the event was published in the Arkhangelskaya EcoBessrochka (‘termless environmental protest in Arkhangelsk’) Community. According to the post’s authors, the police detained activists Vladimir Kogut and Sergei Antufyev at the rally.
In early December, activists filed a notice of a rally with the city administration, which refused to negotiate a public event. Two days before the rally, Vladimir Kogut and Sergei Antufyev published a video message in which they said that an activist had been detained for posting campaign materials on December 9 and insisted that the rally was legal.
According to the SOTA Media Outlet, up to 100 people gathered on the square on December 12. After the detention of Kogut and Antufyev, residents went marching to the police station in Loginov Street, where those detained during their rally were brought; they also made a formation facing the Pomorye STRBC and demanded that the governor, who was conducting a direct line that day, "go out to the people."
Journalist Ilya Leshukov was among those detained. He was wearing a yellow vest with the inscription "Press". The police asked him to go to the department under the pretext of suspicion that he "put up agitation products."