Thirteen environmental activists were arrested Tuesday in Russia after staging an anti-nuclear protest in Saint Petersburg, where leaders of G8 nations will debate energy policy at a weekend summit.
Protest organizers Bellona, a Norwegian environmental group, said the activists had been roughed up by Russian police at the rally, which was held to demonstrate against the storage of nuclear waste in Russia.
"Thirteen environmentalists including the deputy head of Ecodefense (a Russian group), Vladimir Slivyak, and a Bellona member, Vera Ponomaryova, were beaten and arrested by police in central Saint Petersburg," it said in a statement.
Local police confirmed the arrest to AFP but declined to comment on the reported rough treatment of the group. They did not say whether the 13 were still in custody late Tuesday.
The unauthorized protest was broken up only minutes after it started.
Russia stores considerable amounts of nuclear waste. On Tuesday it denied that it would use the Group of Eight nations summit this weekend to negotiate taking in nuclear waste from the United States.
