Penza, 23 April 2015. PenzaNews. The head of the Penza CPRF regional committee press service Sergei Padalkin and his assistant Margarita Abramova has demanded to fire Alexander Artobolevsky from the Internal Policy and Mass Communications Department of the regional government due to his alleged involvement in administrative accusations against the Communists of unsanctioned event to commemorate the 145th anniversary of Vladimir Lenin.

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The CPRF representatives held two single-man pickets by the entry to the regional government hall in the afternoon of Thursday, April 23.

The first to approach the central exit of the building was Margarita Abramova with a banner that read: “Bochkarev, oust the Banderovtsy [radical anti-Communists] from government!”

Soon after, she was approached by a police officer who began inspecting the banner, and a woman who made several photos of the occurrence and entered the building. At the same time, two more police officers appeared not far from the location and stood several meters away from Margarita Abramova, making notes and giving reports via walkie-talkies. Noticing a PenzaNews agency photo reporter in the vicinity, they demanded him to remove the photos, but were rebutted after the former cited the federal law “On Media.”

Several minutes later, the law enforcement officers approached the young woman and asked her documents, after which one of them took more notes.

Throughout these events, the regional government officials in the building were frequently looking out of their windows.

Some time later, Margarita Abramova left the location, replaced by a one-man picket by Sergei Padalkin by the Kirova street exit of the building.

The passers-by had different reaction to the CPRF representative. One of them, Pavel Udalov, head of innovation policy and special projects office of the regional Ministry of Industry, walked by the activist as if he was not there.

All the while, Sergei Padalkin remained the object of attention of the same duo of police officers, who stood at the corner and regularly checked on him from afar.

Later, a female police officer entered the building through the exit were Sergei Padalkin stood, then shortly went outside, had a brief discussion with the activists, went to her colleagues at the corner and left.

Several minutes later, the two police officers were approached by their colleague, and the three shortly left towards Lenina square.

Neither one-man picket caused any disturbance.

Answering the questions of PenzaNews agency on the reasons for the protests by the regional government hall, Sergei Padalkin explained they picketed against the actions of authorities during the traditional CPRF action held on Wednesday, April 22.

“Today in the morning, I received a call from the governor [Vasily Bochkarev] who said he reproached the boss of Artobolevsky, Mr. Elatontsev [head of Internal Policy and Mass Communications Department of the Penza region] for the yesterday’s incident. Still, Margarita Abramova and I decided to go on one-man pickets, as she was detained yesterday as well, to protest and demand to fire the official,” said the speaker.

He stressed he thinks of such actions by the regional government official as unacceptable, as an “anti-Communism hysteria” is developing in Ukraine.

“Artobolevsky’s actions bring shame on to the regional authorities. We will demand to fire him,” Sergei Padalkin stressed, saying they will continue the one-man pickets if necessary.