Photographer from Pskov Dmitry Markov has sold the only signed print of his photo, which he took in the police department after being detained on the day of politician Alexei Navalny's trial, at a fundraiser auction. A certain Ekaterina bought the photo for 2 million rubles. Markov reported this on his page on Facebook.
Dmitry Markov took a photo of a law enforcement officer, who was sitting under a portrait of Vladimir Putin in camouflage and a mask, on February 2 at the Kosino-Ukhtomsky Police Department, where he had been taken after being detained near the Simonovsky Court (there was a trial on replacing Alexei Navalny's suspended sentence with jail time in the Yves Rocher case). It instantly became a symbol of the protests and an Internet meme, turned into dozens of doctored pics by netizens.
Dmitry Markov. Photo from the personal page on Facebook
The photographer announced the auction on the afternoon of February 6, it lasted about a day. The opening price of the photo was 10 thousand rubles. Markov promised to transfer the money from selling the photo to the OVD-Info and Apologia of Protest Public Organizations, which help detained protesters, in equal amounts.
This is not the first charity event of Dmitry Markov. He has also helped raise money for buying the equipment for the workshops of the Rostok (‘Sprout’) Charitable Foundation for Handicapped Orphans in Pskov Oblast.
Politician Alexei Navalny returned to Russia from Germany, where he was treated in the Charité Clinic for five months after being poisoned, on January 17. On February 2, a court in Moscow replaced his suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case with jail time and sent the politician to a penal colony for two years and eight months. On January 23 and 31, as well as on February 2, numerous unagreed protests were held in support of Navalny in Russia, the police having detained more than 10 thousand people there.
