Action against Olympic Games dispersed in Moscow because of a jest about Putin

On July 3, an authorized picket against Sochi Olympics was held in the Triumphal Square of Moscow under the slogan "Sochi will win - nature and people will lose!" Four activists went out from behind the monument to Mayakovskiy with their skis on, symbolizing the readiness for Winter Olympics. Three of them were dressed in camouflage, and the fourth one in the centre was in a black suit with a tie and in Vladimir Putin's mask.

However, the "head of the state" was given no chance to speak out the problems of West Caucasus and answer the journalists' questions: militiamen unmasked the activist and detained two persons. Then, the participants of the action were ordered to disperse under the pretext that they had applied for a picket, not a theatrical action. According to the organizers, they had notified the prefecture about a "theatrical action," but they were told that there was no such notion in the law, and advised to correct it for the picket.

In the opinion of Olga Miryasova, one of the organizers of the action and sociologist of the Institute "Collective Action," the militia tries to stop everything, which, as it seems to them, is beyond "certain political correctness":

"There, we have an inviolable person - Mr Putin - and it's prohibited to laugh at him. Why - it's not clear. Not long ago the "Puppet Show" on TV... I think satire should be a usual instrument of affecting the public opinion."