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Lenin Protest Lands Kazakh Communist In Psychiatric Clinic


Kazakh communists rally to mark the anniversary of the October Revolution near a monument to Vladimir Lenin in Almaty (file photo).
Kazakh communists rally to mark the anniversary of the October Revolution near a monument to Vladimir Lenin in Almaty (file photo).
QARAGHANDY, Kazakhstan -- A Kazakh communist activist has been released from a psychiatric clinic where he was kept for two days after taking part in a protest, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Aleksandr Bondarenko was released from the clinic in the central city of Qaraghandy today.

Bondarenko's wife Larisa told RFE/RL that he was taken to the clinic on December 6 after he and several other communist activists protested the local authorities' decision to remove a monument to Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin from the city center.

She said Bondarenko was forced to undergo medical tests to determine whether he had any psychological problems, and that the tests proved negative.

Another communist activist, Andrei Tsukanov, was sentenced to seven days in jail for resisting the police.

The Lenin monument erected in central Qaraghandy in 1975 was removed to a park on the city outskirts on December 6.

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