An auction will be held in Moscow in support of the “prisoners of Bolotnaya”

An auction in support of the “prisoners of May 6” will be held in Moscow this evening. The event will take place at the Winzavod contemporary art center in the Cultural Alliance gallery. Marat Gelman's project.

The event page on Facebook reports that all money raised from the sale of lots will be donated to the families of the “Bolotnaya prisoners” who are in custody.

The auction in support of the “prisoners of May 6” is being held for the fourth year in a row; in different years, the proceeds ranged from 200 to 500 thousand rubles.

The report also says that this summer, an hour before the start of the auction, Interior Ministry officers came to one of the Moscow clubs and threatened to close it with the management, so the event had to be postponed.

On May 6, 2012, an opposition march on Bolotnaya Square coordinated with the authorities ended in a clash between demonstrators and police. Authorities define these events as “mass riots.” Human rights activists and observers consider them politically motivated and argue that the authorities themselves provoked clashes between police and demonstrators. In total, more than 30 people are involved in the Bolotnaya case. Many of them have already been convicted.