Russia mayor bans election activists' toys protest (Toys cannot demonstrate.)

[pampango]

Officials in Barnaul were not amused by this protest

A mayor in eastern Russia has banned a humorous demonstration in which toys would replace human activists demanding a clean presidential election. The mayor of Barnaul in Siberia ruled that toys could not be participants in a demonstration.

Two such "nano-meetings" of toys sporting tiny placards were staged in a square in Barnaul earlier this month.

The Barnaul ban was reported by one of the Siberian activists, Sergei Andreyev, a member of the independent election watchdog Golos. He wrote in his blog that his group wanted to deploy more than 200 toys in a rally on 18 February - little Lego men, toy soldiers, Kinder Surprise figurines and cuddly toys.

The idea was to get round a ban on unauthorised demonstrations, but Barnaul police had already alerted the mayor about "the use by political opposition forces of new techniques at public rallies - nano-meetings with toys". A fellow activist, Olga Fotiyeva, said the event was intended to highlight a "violation of the right, under Article 31 of the Russian Federation Constitution, freely to hold peaceful meetings and demonstrations".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17049745