Russian opposition activists in Moscow threw tomatoes at visiting Dutch King Willem-Alexander on Saturday to protest the January suicide of one of their members turned down for asylum in the Netherlands. None of the tomatoes hit the king, the Ria Novosti news agency reported. Sergei Aksenov, one of the leaders of The Other Russia opposition party, said on Twitter two activists were arrested for the fruit-throwing.
He said the protest was to highlight the death of Alexandre Dolmatov, a party member who took part in a May 2012 demonstration on the eve of President Vladimir Putin's re-election investiture. Dolmatov was arrested then released, but fearing re-arrest on serious charges levelled at others, fled to the Netherlands to seek asylum. He committed suicide in January after the request was rejected and he was placed in a holding centre.
The Dutch king on Friday met Putin to discuss bilateral issues. Dutch-Russian ties have become strained in recent weeks because of the Russian coastguard arresting the crew of a Dutch-flagged Greenpeace ship used to stage a protest on a Gazprom oil platform in the Arctic, and a number of diplomatic incidents in both countries.
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