Rights activists want to discuss with Russian leadership law enforcement officers' actions at Moscow protests
MOSCOW. Aug 16 (Interfax) - Valery Borshchev, Svetlana Gannushkina and Lev Ponomaryov, veterans of the Russian human rights movement, have written a public address to the Russian leadership asking for a meeting to discuss the situation with detentions at opposition rallies in Moscow.
"This meeting should be held before the Moscow City Duma election," the human rights activists said in their address published by Ekho Moskvy radio on Friday.
"The attempts to interact with the Central Elections Commission and state human rights structures showed that these organizations cannot promptly influence the dramatic events that are unfolding in Moscow," the human rights activists said.
In their address, the human rights activists called the law enforcement officers' actions at the Moscow protests "law enforcement arbitrariness."
"This crisis, which is destructive to the entre society and Russian statehood, needs to be resolved urgently," the authors of the address said.
The human rights activists said they would like to communicate to the Russian leadership information on violations at the protests and discuss the protesters' demands.
Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on August 13 the Kremlin was registering materials indicating violations by both protesters and law enforcement agencies, but interfering in the situation is not a prerogative of the presidential administration.
"Only the court can make a decision," Peskov said.