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![\"activists](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.towleroad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/stpetersburg_Activists.jpg?resize=195%2C195\")
<\/p>\n30 Activists Arrested in St. Petersburg, Russia Protesting Ban on LGBT Pride Event: VIDEO<\/b>
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Approximately 30 people were detained (above) in St. Petersburg Russia\u2019s Palace Square on Saturday protesting a ban on an LGBT Pride event that was banned by authorities.<\/p>\n
Reuters reports<\/a>: \u201cPolice detained campaigners who unfurled rainbow flags or held placards, dragging them into a police bus. There were no clashes between police and the activists.\u201d<\/p>\n Yevgenia Litvinova, an\u00a0opposition journalist and pro-democracy (anti-Putin) activist, whose organization, Democratic Russia, is allied with the LGBTI movement in St. Petersburg, published an account of the arrests on The Russian Reader<\/a>.<\/p>\n Wrote Litvinova: \u2018Palace Square was completely cordoned off and chockablock with cops. I got held up, and when I got to the square, Alexei Sergeyev had already been detained. Then\u00a0Alek Naza<\/a>\u00a0(Alexei Nazarov<\/a>) was detained: he had no placard, only a rainbow flag. Before that 28 more people had been detained. That is a total of 30 people detained for trying to hold solo pickets [which, according to Russian law, can be held without permission and without notifying authorities in advance<\/em>]. There are minors among them. Some have been taken to the 74th Police Precinct (in particular,\u00a0Alexander Khmelyov<\/a>), while a third group is still being held in a paddy wagon, as far as I know.\u2019<\/p>\n The post 30 Activists Arrested in St. Petersburg, Russia Protesting Ban on LGBT Pride Event: VIDEO<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad Gay News<\/a>.<\/p>\n