Journalists banned from drinking water at meetings of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg

Journalists were forbidden to drink water during a meeting of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly. About this in the Telegram channel reported correspondent of “Echo of Moscow in St. Petersburg” Andrey Okun.

According to him, when Kommersant journalist Oleg Dilimbetov took out a bottle of water before the meeting, Alena Kukushkina, head of the logistics department of the Legislative Assembly, ran up to him and demanded to remove the water.

“Drinking is prohibited in the meeting room! If you spill even a drop on the carpet, four rows are removed! ” – quoted her Okun.

The press secretary of the Legislative Assembly, Elena Gavrishchuk, warned journalists that they must sit strictly in the places designated for the press, and only photographers and cameramen can walk around the hall.

Journalists were caught at a meeting of the city parliament for the first time in a long time due to a pandemic. At the same time, only employees of TV channels and photographers managed to get on the balcony for the press, the rest were offered seats in the neighboring auditorium and a TV broadcast.

At the beginning of the meeting, Yabloko’s representative Boris Vishnevsky asked to allow all the remaining journalists into the hall, but Alena Kukushkina said that everyone should not be allowed, since coronavirus restrictions are in effect until the end of October, and the admitted media representatives were additionally checked. One of the photojournalists who got into the hall told Interfax that there was no check.

As a result, the new speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Alexander Belsky, nevertheless ordered to open the doors for the media.