To test the limits of his right to peacefully demonstrate in Kazakhstan, Aslan Sagutdinov stood in a public square holding a blank sign, predicting he would be detained. He was right. Mr. Sagutdinov’s encounter with the police in the city of Uralskon Monday, which was filmed and posted on YouTube, came as the country prepares for a presidential election in June, its first transfer of power in decades. “I want to show that the idiocy in our country has gotten so strong that the police will detain me now even though there are no inscriptions, no slogans, without my chanting or saying anything,” Mr. Sagutdinov said in the video.

Source: International New York Times May 09, 2019 09:22 UTC