Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 24 – Russian
officials, disturbed by the appearance of a crowd of supporters of the
long-haul truckers police arrested in Khimki near Moscow on Sunday, not only
organized a late-night court session to fine the three strike leaders but
hustled off to some unknown location the nine others. Their fate is as yet unknown.
After the three were released
following the imposition of fines ranging from 10,500 to 30,500 rubles (200 to
600 US dollars), they spoke to the crowd and detailed the inhuman conditions in
which they had been kept (activatica.org/blogs/view/id/3507/title/s-zaderzhannymi-dalnoboyshchikami-proishodyat-strannosti).
The strike leaders indicated that
despite the fines, the truckers were going ahead with plans to establish a
second location in the Moscow region for striking truckers to park and provide mutual
support. And they said they would press
for the release of the nine others who were scheduled to face a judge on Monday
morning but did not appear before him.
The fact that the detained drivers
attracted a crowd of local supporters and journalists has made it more
difficult for the authorities to “fabricate cases and condemn innocent people,”
the Activatica portal says.
Another indication of the Russian
authorities’ nervousness about the long-haul drivers’ strike yesterday when the
Duma took up a measure that would extend the blocking of messenger services
like Zello that the drivers have used to organize the strike over the last two
months (mk.ru/politics/2017/05/24/gosduma-predlozhila-puskat-v-messendzhery-po-pasportu-i-cenzurirovat-ikh.html).
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