Chelyabinsk police demanded 2.1 million rubles from the participants of the rallies

According to Kommersant , citing the press service of the Central District Court, the lawsuit was brought against five defendants, whom the courts found guilty of organizing unauthorized protests in Chelyabinsk under Art. 20.2 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation.

"Among them are two heads of Navalny's Chelyabinsk headquarters (the activity was suspended by the decision of the Moscow City Court) Artem Yaumbaev and Alexander Kopyev, as well as three townspeople who are not employees of the organization - Oleg Shamburov, Pavel Strunin and Maria Makarova," the message says.

As follows from the text of the statement of claim of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a copy of which was published by civil activists in social networks, the “damage”, according to the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, consists in the fact that the leadership of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs had to pay the employees monetary compensation. It was intended "for the performance of official duties in excess of the established normal duration of service time." The total amount of "compensation" to the police was 2.15 million rubles.

Earlier it was reported that on January 23 and 31, as well as on February 2 and April 21, mass protest actions related to the arrest and imprisonment of opposition politician Alexei Navalny and other political prisoners swept across the country. Hundreds of thousands of Russians took part in the actions. Over 11 thousand people were detained, subjected to fines and administrative arrests. Criminal cases were initiated against some of the participants. In a number of cities, detentions were accompanied by unjustified brutality by security officials and brutal beatings of protesters. This caused outrage on the part of human rights defenders.

In Chelyabinsk, more than 2 thousand people took part in uncoordinated protests. On January 23, the police detained about 40 people, 31 - more than 170.