"British graffiti artist Banksy may never have been seen in public but his nearest Russian equivalents cannot seem to keep out of the news these days - thanks partly to the Russian police.
Leonid Nikolayev and Oleg Vorotnikov, members of the radical art collective Voina, were freed from custody last week after nearly four months awaiting trial for overturning police cars in St Petersburg.
They held a press conference on Thursday to talk about their ordeal. On their way home, accompanied by Oleg’s wife Natalia Sokol and his two-year-old son, Casper, they noticed they were being followed by seven men, who looked like “typical thugs”.
When Natalia started taking pictures of the men, they tried to grab the camera. In the struggle she was pushed into a puddle and dragged by the hair, so violently that one of her braids was ripped out.
“They said they were from the Criminal Investigation department,” she said when I eventually reached her by e-mail. “But if they really were police investigators they behaved pretty strangely.”
Oleg added: “They waved their IDs, but we couldn’t examine them. Then they attacked Leonid from behind and rained down blows on my back and my head.”
The baby pram was given a violent push, knocking Casper’s face hard against a wall.
St Petersburg police could not be reached for comment but a spokesman told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti that “preliminary investigations” were under way.
The news conference was the artists’ first public appearance since they walked free from jail - thanks to Banksy paying 300,000 roubles (£6,500) bail for each of them."
-BBCSincerely,
L.C.
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