I don’t know what could better characterize the “fight against corruption in Russia” than what just happened in St. Petersburg.
As I wrote, a UN conference is taking place there devoted to its anti-corruption convention.
And we at ACF (the Anti-Corruption Foundation) have an excellent brochure specifically about this convention and Article 20, which Russia has not ratified.
So the St. Petersburg ACF activists went to the conference to hand out some of our excellent topical brochures, which would undoubtedly be of interest to the participants.
This lasted literally just a few minutes. After that, the police decisively put an end to the presence of anti-corruption activists at an anti-corruption conference.
They even hauled off the photographer.
Right now, Fyodor Gorozhanko and another activist are at the police station. They are being charged under Article 19.3, which means they could be jailed for several days.
Here is what he said over the phone:
It’s not often that you can appeal to the UN without being considered crazy. This is exactly one of those moments—the conference is a UN one, after all.
Both I and everyone at ACF demand the immediate release of those detained; there were not the slightest grounds for their detention. We demand that the relevant UN body and the organizers of the conference in St. Petersburg state their position on the actions of the authorities, who are obstructing the free and lawful dissemination of information about corruption.
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