Hardly had the tenants unfurled their posters as they saw a group of police. Upon checking the documents of Alexander Zimbovsky, a coordinator of Moscow Dormitory Tenants, the police started to insist that he follow them to get all those numerous papers formerly issued. The reason of why those papers could not be issued on site was not explained by the police.

The policemen just grabbed Alexander without further ado and dragged him to the police van despite the tenants’ resistance and protests.

The indignant tenants stood up in front of the van and, having blocked the way, started chanting: Free our comrade!
 
In the meanwhile, when most activists involved in the protest were blocking the police van, a decision was taken that it was necessary to stage a sole picket at the entrance to the Government House.

According to the Russian laws, holding sole pickets does not require any permits.

Elena Gavrilina, a tenant of house 30 located at Kaspiyskaya street, stood up with a poster which read ‘’Prosecutor’s Office and Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation are giving come-offs and don’t want to protect, and red tape has been grinding on for 12 years. Help those off the housing list receive the housing they are eligible to!’’ 
 
Then she was replaced by a tenant of the dormitories owned by the Tryochgornaya manufactura textile company. The latter also unfurled a poster demanding that all the dormitory houses be expropriated by the authorities from the self styled owners. The tenants of the houses previously owned by the Tryochgornaya state owned company were the first to have suffered all the harassment and lawlessness committed by the new owners – shutdowns of water and power supplies, blocking of the entrances, physical violence, destruction of walls and floors in the residential premises.

By the present time, the dormitory tenants have succeeded in legal seizure of one of the dormitory buildings from the false owners and getting its ownership title reassigned into the municipal housing stock. But the question is why the tenants of the rest of the dormitory buildings similar to the one described above have to suffer the new owner’s arbitrariness. The tenants can’t understand this! 
 
Ten minutes later, after Svetlana Gavrilina put down her poster she was arrested by the police. They did it after she had put down the poster which is strange as normally in Russia arrests are practiced during protest actions.

After Svetlana Gavrilina had been arrested other participants were also followed. No reasons were given by the authorities. As a result, seven people – activists Alexander Zimbovsky, Sergey Biyets, Elena Sidorenkova and Alexander Savalsky and dormitory tenants – Maria Kolesova, Elena Gavrilina, Svetlana Kolybelnikova - were also apprehended by the police and delivered to the Presnensky district police precinct. 
 
No explanations were given to those arrested in the police precinct regarding their unlawful arrests. Several hours later they all were let go without issuing any protocols of arrests as it is required under the applicable Russian laws. This might be put down to the fact that the police officers failed to substantiate their actions from the legal point of view.

The rest of the protest participants, those who had stayed near the Government House, were accompanied by the police officers to their homes, to the protesters’ great bewilderment.

The problem of dormitories previously owned by state owned Soviet companies has become one of the acutest ones in today’s Russia.

During the mass privatization campaigns of the 1990 ies many of those dormitories were illegally privatized and their tenants have been subject to evictions.

This has been bitterly resisted by some of the tenants.