You're reading: Svoboda activists questioned due to explosion of monument to Stalin

Two members of the Zaporizhia branch of the Svoboda Party, who were detained by police officers on suspicion of blowing up a monument to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin on the territory of the Zaporizhia regional committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, have been released after questioning.

The head of the Zaporizhia branch of the Svoboda Party, Vitaliy Podlobnikov, told Interfax-Ukraine that the interrogation had lasted about half a day and that investigators had spoken with three other party activists.

"My assistant Yuriy Hudymenko and I were the first people detained by police after the explosion of a monument to Stalin on New Year’s Eve. I spent 11 hours at the police department, while my friend was detained for over 14 hours. We consider this detention to be a flagrant violation of our civil rights, because no formal charges were brought against us, and by law the police had the right to detain us only for three hours," Podlobnikov said.

He said that "during the questioning at the police department psychological pressure was put on me and my assistant Yuriy Hudymenko." He said that "the investigator demanded that we provide information about our organization," and was interested whether Svoboda activists could blow up the monument.

"The police are trying to prove that we blew up [the monument to] Stalin," he added.

Podlobnikov also said: "Three more of our activists were summoned to the police on Sunday [January 2]. This means that the police are seeking evidence inside our organization, and we anticipate that we should expect searches and detentions."

He said that "such significant attention by law enforcement officers to Svoboda members is a political provocation and an attempt to tarnish the entire Svoboda organization, which does not hide its negative attitude towards the communist ideology, but defends its own views through its ideological struggle, rather than terrorism."

As reported, unknown individuals blew up a monument to Stalin near the headquarters of the Communist Party of Ukraine in Zaporizhia on New Year’s Eve on December 31. The bust was completely destroyed when an explosive charge was detonated, and the party building sustained serious damage. The communists claimed that they had suffered over UAH 230,000 worth of property damage. The police opened a criminal case under Part 2, Article 194 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (the deliberate destruction of property by arson, explosion or in any other dangerous way).