Screenshot: SOTAvision
A Moscow court has sentenced a correspondent for independent news channel SOTAvision to 13 days at a special detention centre for disobeying security forces after she filmed a protest action near the Kremlin, independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Wednesday.
According to the court, Veronika Orlova was detained at 8:20am on Tuesday and taken to a police station to make a statement on violating rules of assembly, but allegedly began to resist the police officers escorting her before entering the police department at 8:45am.
Orlova said she was detained as she was coming off the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, where veteran Russian activist Grigory Saksonov had conducted a protest, carrying a sign saying Putin Hitler. She said security forces asked if she had been drinking alcohol, before putting her in a police car. Orlova said she did not resist arrest.
According to the journalist, she was accredited to cover a hearing at the Supreme Court on Tuesday. As she found herself with time to spare, she decided to take a walk as far as the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge. Once there, she saw an emergency services boat and shot three videos.
Saksonov, also known as Uncle Grisha, climbed over the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge and jumped into the water on Tuesday, according to SOTAvision, before being pulled out of the river by security forces and taken away in an ambulance. Saksonov was held at a police station overnight and appeared in court on Wednesday, where he was sentenced to 15 days’ arrest for disobeying a police officer and fined 20,000 rubles (€217) for taking part in an unauthorised action.
