Riot police on Wednesday detained some 30 people dressed as mummies, who attempted to gather on Moscow's Red Square calling for the burial of Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin, a police spokesman said.
On Wednesday Russia celebrates the 85th anniversary of Lenin's death. His embalmed body has been on display in a glass case in a mausoleum in Red Square since his death following a series of strokes in 1924. His continuing presence in the heart of Moscow has been an ongoing source of controversy since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
On Wednesday Russia celebrates the 85th anniversary of Lenin's death. His embalmed body has been on display in a glass case in a mausoleum in Red Square since his death following a series of strokes in 1924. His continuing presence in the heart of Moscow has been an ongoing source of controversy since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Another police source earlier said 25 people were detained.
"A group of 25 young people, carrying a cardboard coffin, were detained by police officers," a police source said, adding that the detainees were taken to a police station for questioning.
Some 50 young people wrapped from head to toe in white bandages and carrying coffins with Lenin's name were due to join a procession of thousands of communists who will lay wreaths at the mausoleum on Red Square.
"There will be no crowd standing and chanting slogans... The mummies will join the procession of communists," a member of the yet-unregistered organization, who identify themselves as Orthodox monarchists, said, promising that "the mummies will be quiet, just the way mummies should be."
The spokesman said the protestors had been detained on the grounds that the rally had not been sanctioned by Moscow authorities, but a spokesman for the protestors said anyone could join the communists' march as long as they did not disrupt public order.
An opinion poll has shown that two-thirds of Russians believe the embalmed body of the architect of the 1917 Russian Revolution should be removed from its mausoleum on Red Square and properly buried.
Demands to transfer the Russian communist leader's body to a regular cemetery have consistently been countered by Russian communists, who insist that the tomb on Red Square remain his final resting place. They marked this week's anniversary by demanding Lenin be decorated a ‘Hero of Russia', the state's highest honor. "Lenin was a very humble man, but we have no right to forget his services... Especially now, when the world capitalist system is collapsing," appealed communists from St Petersburg and Leningrad Region.
"A group of 25 young people, carrying a cardboard coffin, were detained by police officers," a police source said, adding that the detainees were taken to a police station for questioning.
Some 50 young people wrapped from head to toe in white bandages and carrying coffins with Lenin's name were due to join a procession of thousands of communists who will lay wreaths at the mausoleum on Red Square.
"There will be no crowd standing and chanting slogans... The mummies will join the procession of communists," a member of the yet-unregistered organization, who identify themselves as Orthodox monarchists, said, promising that "the mummies will be quiet, just the way mummies should be."
The spokesman said the protestors had been detained on the grounds that the rally had not been sanctioned by Moscow authorities, but a spokesman for the protestors said anyone could join the communists' march as long as they did not disrupt public order.
An opinion poll has shown that two-thirds of Russians believe the embalmed body of the architect of the 1917 Russian Revolution should be removed from its mausoleum on Red Square and properly buried.
Demands to transfer the Russian communist leader's body to a regular cemetery have consistently been countered by Russian communists, who insist that the tomb on Red Square remain his final resting place. They marked this week's anniversary by demanding Lenin be decorated a ‘Hero of Russia', the state's highest honor. "Lenin was a very humble man, but we have no right to forget his services... Especially now, when the world capitalist system is collapsing," appealed communists from St Petersburg and Leningrad Region.
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