Russian Police Thwart Kalmyk Rally in Support of Dalai Lama’s Visit

Text of report by Russian news agency Regnum

March 30: Buddhist pilgrims who were planning to go to Moscow have returned to Elista (Kalmykia). They did not stage a picket in support of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Russia, the editor of the Kalmyk newspaper Khalmg Unn, Sanal Shavaliyev, has told Regnum.

Shavaliyev said that the bus carrying the pilgrims did not reach Moscow. Officers of the law-enforcement agencies turned the bus back to Kalmykia.

It was planned to hold a picket outside the Chinese embassy and the Foreign Ministry in Moscow on 27 March. The pilgrims wanted to give the embassy staff a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao from the Kalmyk regional society of friends of Tibet.

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