Two girls back at large after arrest for dancing at Novorossiysk memorial

Two girls, who spent 10 days in the detention centre of the Department for Novorossiysk of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) after dancing at the Memorial "Malaya Zemlya" (Minor Land) in that city, have been released.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 24 a video was posted on the Internet, in which girls from a dance studio of Novorossiysk performed the dance "tverk" near the Memorial Complex "Novaya Zemlya". Law enforcement authorities treated the dance as "petty hooliganism" and arrested the dancers for 10-15 days.

On April 27, a group of residents of the Krasnodar Territory began collecting signatures to the online petition asking to commute the girls' punishment. The girls themselves, according to a relative of one of them, repented of what they deed and were not going to appeal against their arrest.

According to their friends and parents, there was no political motive in their dance at the background of the Memorial Complex "Novaya Zemlya".

The dance "tverk" performed at the memorial, sacred to all Novorossiysk residents, split the city into two camps. Some strongly condemned the girls' action, while others believe that the punishment was too severe.

As stated by Nikolai Zagorodniy, the chairman of the city council of veterans of Novorossiysk, the city war veterans had strongly condemned the performance.

After the incident, the city authorities decided to strengthen the protection of the federal-value memorial: it will be fenced off, said Victoria Dikaya, the head of the division for information policy and media of the Novorossiysk Mayoralty.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.