Federal Migration Service raided a meeting of youth civil activsts in Ryazan today. Participants from Oborona, Memorial, Avtonomnoe Deystvie, YHRM, Free Radicals, Russian LGBT Network met to exchange expertise in public civil campaigns at Solotcha Hotel. FMS officers arrived there in the morning with an “extraordinary check”, disrupted the workshop and demanded some documents from guests from Czech human rights NGO People in Need.

In early August Oborona will hold a summer training camp Partizan-2009. The event will take place at Volga river and will gather members of Oborona and other youth democratic organizations as well as socially and politically active youth from Moscow and regions of Russia.

Trainings, workshops and lectures on youth political and civic activity under authoritarian regime will be held for the camp’s participants. A discussion will take place on August 9, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s rule: he was declared Boris Yeltsin’s successor on this day in 1999. Team-building and educational games will also be organized for the participants and guests of the camp. The event is funded by its participants.

This will be the second such event of Oborona. A two-day training camp Partizan-2008 was held last August. This year’s camp will be longer, have more participants and for the first time, journalists are invited to see it.

Journalists and guests who wish to visit the camp should write to camp@oborona.org or info@oborona.org.

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