Nearly 400 protest participants arrested in Russian cities
In a number of Russian cities about 400 supporters of Vyacheslav Maltsev, leader of the “Artpodgotovka” movement, were arrested in Russia, after Maltsev urged them to start a revolution on November 5, Deutsche Welle reports.
Police in Moscow arrested 263 of Maltsev’s supporters. All of the detained persons have been taken to the local police departments for the relevant legal procedures.
Another 13 people were arrested in Saint Petersburg. Arrests also took place in Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Perm and Rostov-on-Don. According to the advocacy portal OVD-Info, a total of 380 people were arrested.
Since 2013, the nationalist video blogger Vyacheslav Maltsev has been calling on followers of his Artpodgotovka blog to take to the streets of Russia to start a revolution on November 5, 2017.
Last Friday the Russian FSB announced that they had clamped down on an Artpodgotovka cell which was allegedly planning to set fire to administrative buildings and attack police stations on 4-5 November. The Artpodgotovka movement and the online project with the same name were created by Maltsev with the goal of organizing a revolution in Russia, the Russian intelligence agency believes.
In July a case was filed against Maltsev according to Sec. 1 Art. 280 of Russia’s Criminal Code (public calls to extremist activity). Fearing a possible arrest, Maltsev left the country.