RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – Nov 3, 2009
The Other Russia reports that Konstantin Makarov, a member of the outlawed National Bolshevik Party, and organizer of an opposition rally planned for the 31st October in Voronezh, was detained and beaten by two policeman, one of whom was S. Yemkov of the notorious Interior Ministry’s Center for Extremism Prevention. According to Makarov, his torturers told him that he would face similar treatment after each rally held by the National Bolsheviks. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the press after his meeting with the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, that the pair had come to agreement on ‘three joint declarations’ of international concern, but the Kremlin will not change its position on the extradition of Andrei Lugovoi, the man accused of orchestrating the murder of Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko in London, the issue which first caused the diplomatic freeze. Miliband appears to be stoical: ‘We don’t paper over our differences. But we don’t allow them to block co-operation where possible’. The British politician did meet with human right activists, RFE/RL reports, including Memorial Director Oleg Orlov, and ‘expressed his concern over the killings of activists of nongovernmental organizations in Russia’.