'Parody of protest' rally halted in Novosibirsk on May Day

The 'Monstration' - with nonsensical slogans and chants - has become an annual event in the city but this year the 500 to 1,500 adherents were stopped from making their point as part of a 1 May rally. Organiser Artyom Loskutov, a performance artist, was detained by police and is expected to face a court on Saturday, charged with violating the laws on public gatherings. 

He denied the claim, and said: 'I hope everything will be all right.'

He urged 'Monstrators' to go home peacefully, it was reported. Ahead of the rally, organisers and the authorities had failed to agree a route. 

Police refused to let the participants join supporters of liberal political grouping Yabloko, cordoning off the gathering point.

Carrying gibberish slogans like 'Forward to a dark past' and 'I demand understandable slogans', the participants had hoped to talk to Novosibirsk mayor Anatoly Lokot, but a meeting did not go ahead.

'I can't get away from the sense that I'm living in some kind of absurd,' Loskutov told RFE/RL's Russian Service ahead of the parade. 

'Reading the news, I am always surprised by the direction we are going. That's why the 'Monstration' is the more honest and adequate reaction to our lives'.