Dissenters March planned in Samara during EU-Russia summit

"On 18 May, European and Russian leaders are to meet in the Russian resort town of Samara for a bi-annual EU-Russia summit," wrote one web-site. The summit will take part on 17-18 May. And no, Samara is not a resort. By no means. The summit will take place in the hotel Volzhsky Utyos, which is not a town. By no means. It is a nice place, though, and the visitors will enjoy it, if the summit takes place, which is not certain, given the new iron curtain being thoroughly, with love and care, built by Putin's administration. If the summit is to happen, after all, the guests will fortunately avoid the views of dirty and kitschy Samara, since they will arrive to Volzhsky Utyos on comfortable hydrofoils.

On the other hand, they will miss an event which was planned for them by the Russian opposition — the seventh Dissenters' March. It is scheduled for May, 18, 17:00 local time (12:00 UTC).

On 3 May, at 8:00 the organizers came to the city administration and at 9:00 they filed their notification. At 11:00 they started a press-conference in the Hansa hotel. During the press-conference, a large group of policemen (15-20 people) entered the hotel and blocked the exits. They demanded the visitors (including journalists) to show their IDs and collected the names of all attendants. On 4 May, police attempted to detain one of the organizers, Mikhail Gangan, for unexplained reasons. He escaped and is still hiding. Another activist of the Prohibited Party Whose Name We Are Not Allowed To Mention (earlier known as National-Bolshevist Party), Ilya Guryev, who was earlier sentenced to probation after the seizure of a cabinet of the presidential administration building, was arrested. Journalist Dmitri Treschanin, also a member of the PPWNWANATM, was detained on the railway station when he came to Samara, sent to the conscription point and drafted. The drafting officers said the he will be sent to Dagestan. The local police has already promised that "all provocations will be severely suppressed."