Penza, 16 August 2015. PenzaNews. Unidentified people who unfolded banners on Lenin Square in Penza, where the meeting of Saratov activist Evgeny Shirmanov and his followers took place, triggered the detention of a group of young people by the police. The friend of Evgeny Shirmanov, Igor Goryunov said.

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He explained that a few weeks ago in Penza, there was filmed a video about the work of traffic police officers, after which local followers of Evgeny Shirmanov, asked the blogger for a meeting, which eventually gathered about 50 people.

“Half an hour later, there came a few strangers. They brought banners that read “We are against corruption.” It was about 20.30. Immediately, there came people with cameras and began to film the happening. Then the police arrived and detained all of them, taking to different places,” Igor Goryunov said.

Later, the participants were asked to remove the footage of detention shot by cell phones, “Versia-Saratov” agency reports.

On Saturday, August 15, Evgeny Shirmanov performing civilian monitoring of traffic police activities and widely publicizing the violations made by the officers, planned to meet with his supporters on Lenin Square in Penza at 20.00.

At 20.42 Vkontakte he posted that the police arrested him and “took to the police department for unknown reasons.”

On August 16, Nadezhda Ivanova, chief of media relations in MIA in the Penza region, informed PenzaNews agency that the day before, on Lenin Square, they detained a group of young people for committing an administrative offense under Part 1, Art. 20.1 of the Administrative Code “Disorderly conduct.” Three of them are the residents of the Saratov region.