Kirill Prokhorov, head of the Gorodskie proekty (Urban Projects) organization department in Petrozavodsk, was detained on March 13 in Moscow at a forum of municipal deputies. The police entered the hall of the Izmailovo hotel half an hour after the start of the event and detained more than 150 people, in fact disrupting the forum. Prokhorov himself told 7x7 about this.
As the activist explained, at the Municipal Russia forum, organized by the United Democrats, an all-Russian project to support competitive elections, current and future municipal deputies from dozens of Russian regions planned to discuss the political situation in the country and plans for the upcoming elections. The discussion was disrupted by police officers.
- Half an hour after the start, the police came: they said that the event was over, detained the organizers and said that they would detain all the forum participants. There were more than 150 participants, - Kirill Prokhorov told 7x7.
At the time of communication with the 7x7 correspondent, the activist was in a paddy wagon, together with other detainees he was brought to the police department in the Moscow region of Novogireevo. “There are a lot of deputies from different cities around here,” he described the situation.
According to OVD-Info, the police sent at least 24 detainees at the Municipal Russia forum to Novogireevo, the rest were assigned to nine more police departments in eastern Moscow. Lawyers working with OVD-Info and Apologiya protesta organizations have already left for almost all departments. In total, according to the updated data of human rights activists, at least 170 people were detained.
According to the Telegram channel of the Dozhd TV channel, the event was organized by the United Democrats project, but the arrests are carried out for the activities of Open Russia, which is recognized as an undesirable organization in Russia.
Kirill Prokhorov before the start of the forum. Photo by Kirill Prokhorov.
Kirill Prokhorov confirmed to 7x7 that there will be protocols drawn up on the participants for cooperation with an undesirable organization (Article 20.33 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation).
- The United Democrats have nothing to do with Open Russia and other [undesirable] organizations. Therefore, everything that happens is absurd, - he said.
Kirill Prokhorov is the head of the Gorodskie proekty (Urban Projects) department of Ilya Varlamov and Maxim Katz in Petrozavodsk. The public activist maintains a blog called Gorozhanin (The Citizen), dedicated to the city and urban environment.
Among the detainees are also Moscow City Duma deputy Mikhail Timonov, St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly deputy Maxim Reznik, Moscow municipal deputies Ilya Yashin and Yulia Galyamina, politicians Vladimir Kara-Murza and Yevgeny Roizman, Open Russia executive director Andrei Pivovarov, Syktyvkar municipal deputy and Shies activist Viktor Vishnevetsky, deputy of the Yoshkar-Ola city council Anton Sokolov, ex-employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Ivanovo region Sergei Rimsky, who quit the police after beating protesters on January 23d and 31st, and others.
