Belarus Riot Police Crack Down on Beach Nudity

The Belarusian authorities have found a new target in their ongoing campaign against free-living citizens by persecuting nudists at an unofficial nude beach outside the capital Minsk, local media reported this week. Riot police demanded nude beach goers at Minskoye More reservoir must cover up, claiming going naked equates to "hooliganism," the Belarusian edition of Komsomolskaya Pravda said. Police officers also fined several people, including at least one woman who was made to pay 300,000 Belarusian rubles ($35) for sunbathing in the raw, the daily said on Tuesday. The police picked out offenders by filming the beach and then studying the footage in their van, the report added. Naturists have gathered at the beach at Minskoye More for more than a decade, but the site has never been formally authorized for it by the authorities. The police have taken action against nudists in previous years, but usually just gave verbal warnings until recently. “Are you a Belarusian citizen? Obey the law, put some trunks on,” officers at the beach shouted through a megaphone last summer, Komsomolskaya Pravda said in 2012.

http://en.ria.ru/world/20130613/181644177/Belarus-Riot-Police-Give-Naturists-Raw-Deal.html
http://lenta.ru/articles/2013/06/13/nature/ (photo)