Orthodox Christians had their worship disrupted by an organized picket
February 10, 2017 – About 15 to 20 people began to actively take photos during Orthodox worship inside the Isaakevsky Cathedral in St. Petersburg (Russia), which attracted the attention of the church attendees. The picketers proceeded to create a single line on the Western side of the Cathedral, raising placards with individual letters, which read, “The museum belongs to the city”. The diocese representatives chose not to involve the law-enforcement agencies. The picketers were opposing the transfer of the Isaakevsky Cathedral.
The police did not consider the picket as a sign of a violation of public order, according to the Governor Georgy Poltavchenko. He made the statement in response to an inquiry from municipal deputies during a legislative meeting.
The disruption of the church service is part of a larger picket that took place earlier. On January 28, there were about 2,000 opponents of the transfer of the Isaakevsky Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church on the Field of Mars during a demonstration. The disagreement with the city administration took the form of a meeting with the deputies of the legislative assembly. The demonstration involved Deputy Boris Vishnevsky (“Yabloko”), Alexei Kovalev (“Just Russia”), and Maxim Reznik (“Party of Growth”).
Sources
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=66149