Volchenko finds meeting of Kuban farmers with HRC members useless

At the meeting of farmers with members of the Human Rights Council (HRC), officials of the Krasnodar Territory tried to escape dialogue and present farmers' problems as insignificant, said Alexei Volchenko, the leader of the farmers. Vyacheslav Legkodukh, who represented the Kuban (Krasnodar Territorial) Governor at the meeting, said that farmers' problems are exaggerated, and Volchenko himself does not want to contact the authorities.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 22 members of the HRC under the Russian President formulated their proposals on improving farmers' situation.

The meeting with HRC members was unconstructive, largely because of the actions of Kuban bureaucrats, said Alexei Volchenko, the leader of the movement "Polite Farmers".

According to his story, farmers have no hope on the help of HRC members, since their conclusions are just advisory in nature. Now, all the hope is on direct appeal to Putin, Mr Volchenko has stressed, adding that they continue persecuting farmers' supporters in the Krasnodar Territory.

Thus, against the blogger and lawyer Sergey Zemtsov from the Kropotkin District, who had filmed policemen preventing farmers, a criminal case was initiated on slander.

Besides, according to Zemtsov, he receives calls with threats of criminal prosecution for extremism and incitement of hatred to policemen.

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