Pickets in support of youth centre for consulting and training held in Volgograd

Today, more than 25 persons have held the single and mass pickets in support of the youth centre for consulting and training in Volgograd.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in December 2014, the Volgograd Department of the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) conducted an inspection at the autonomous non-commercial human rights organization "Youth centre for consulting and training". As a result of the inspection, the youth centre was recognized a "foreign agent". In March, the magistrate court of the Krasnooktyabrsky District of Volgograd fined the youth centre for consulting and training for 300,000 roubles for its activities without registration as a "foreign agent".

Pickets were held from 11:00 a.m. till 6:00 p.m. Moscow time at the embankment, in Alley of Heroes and in Chuikov Street, the "Caucasian Knot" was told by Temur Kobaliya, a founder of the Youth centre for consulting and training.

"The action has been attended by activists and volunteers of the youth centre, who support us. In their hands, they were holding posters reading: 'We will stand up for the youth centre' and 'Hands off the youth centre'," Temur Kobaliya has said.

"We believe that foreign agents are those MPs, who take millions of roubles away from the country and spend money abroad and whose children spent hundreds of thousands of US dollars for their studies abroad. And public organizations are not foreign agents, since they, on the contrary, bring money, employ people, and provide citizens with free consultations on legal issues," believes student Ivan Skorobogatov, who attended a picket. And he continues: "We came to pickets and showed our position. And I hope it will be heard."

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