The Newsmen are Remonstrating Against the OMON Riot Police’s Action in Vladivostok

VLADIVOSTOK. December, 22. VOSTOK-MEDIA – The public association of journalists “Vostok” in Primorskiy Region demanded the regional Internal Affairs Derectorate to investigate the actions of OMON riot police, who had beaten and detained journalists covering the protest action of motorists in Vladivostok.
As a result of two protest actions, held in Vladivostok last weekend, 61 people were detained. The proceedings were initiated against several people for administrative violation (“Blocking of transportation lines” and “Infraction of meetings”). 6 of the detained were inflicted administrative 6-days term arrest.
Witnesses confirmed that in course of the arrests the members of Moscow OMON riot police “Zubr”, who were sent in Vladivostok for suppression of disorders, beat the people and acted against demonstrators of the action unlawfully in general. Moreover, during the detention of participants the police was catching newsmen. According to the data from the newspaper “Kommersant”, camera crews of “VGTRK”, “Fifth Channel”, “First Channel”, “TVC”, “NTV” were detained. The cameraman of Japanese TV company NHK had his camera broken.
During the weekends the police and OMON riot police were dispersing unauthorized protest rallies at the central square of Vladivostok. Around 500 people were gathered at the Central Square last Saturday. They were severely pushed away from the Square, 22 of them were detained. On Sunday up to 1000 people took part in the protest action. As the demonstrators unrolled the posters, OMON began to push them out. Meanwhile, the motorcades were formed in the different parts of Vladivostok city. They were driving with their headlights on and kept honking. On Sunday evening Sergey Darkin, the governor of Primorskiy Krai called the citizens on the air not to participate in protest action. “The government is informed about the problem and the measures are taken.”-said the Governor.
After authorized protest action in Vladivostok held on last weekend, some spontaneous pickets were formed. The picketers blocked the one of the main city highways for several hours. The participants also covered other minor roads, and stopped the traffic completely. Several thousand of remonstrants tried to break through the airport with their cars to block air-strips, but they were stopped by the police.
The decree of Russian Government concerning the hike of import car tax comes into operation on January, 12, 2009. The passenger car tax will be increased by half and the truck import tax by 3 times.
The decree triggered the wave of discontent among the motorists of Primorskiy Krai, for more than 90 % of vehicles are used Japanese ones.
The protest action took place in other Russian cities such as: Kazan, Belgorod and Ekaterinburg.