12.5.2006 18:47 MSK
Demonstrators not allowed to “drink poison"
RUSSIA, Moscow. Participants in the action "Drink Poison", organized by the movements "We", "Defense" and the Pacifist Committee, were detained by OMON several minutes after beginning the action. The demonstrators intended to serve passer-by Georgian wine and the mineral water, "Borzhomi", in order to prove the absurdity of the assertions of Russian authorities about the health risks of these beverages.

The action began at 1:00pm opposite the Rospotrebnadzor in the Vadkovsky Alley not far from Savelovsky Square in Moscow. Several days before, the organizers of the action explained their intentions: "In the field of fighting infection, Gennadi Onishchenko undertook a number of measures vitally important for rescuing the health of the nation: he forbade Georgian wine and "Borzhomi" water. WE, it goes without saying, believe this action has no relation to health policy. But in order to be finally to be convinced of the fact that Borzhomi and Khvanchkara are poison, WE (together with the movements "Defense" and the Pacifist Committee) will arrange a tasting of these dangerous beverages ".

As Maria Smirnova, one of the participants in the action, reported to the PRIMA -News Agency by telephone, OMON detained no less than seven people, including the leader of the "We" movement, Roman Dobrokhotov. All were placed in a militia bus, taken to a police station and charged with conducting an unsanctioned picket. After the detained were driven away, one of the participants in the action said that while Georgia has become a democratic country, Russia has become totalitarian. The President of Russia, Putin, has forbidden people to drink "Borzhomi". "I do not want to be taken away by the police for drinking mineral water on the street", she noted.

Translated by OM Kenney
PRIMA-News Agency [2006-05-11-Rus-18]
http://www.prima-news.ru/eng/news/news/2006/5/12/35910.html