Hundreds of people were arrested across Russia on Sunday for taking part in anti-corruption protests that demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
The biggest was in Moscow, where around 8,000 people, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny and many young people, took part in an unsanctioned demonstration.
As law enforcement officers proceeded to detain protesters, one EPA photographer, Maxim Shipenkov, took a snap that immediately became iconic:
Image: EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
It shows riot policemen as they carry away a woman, who looks visibly stunned, with the alleged intent to take her in.
The woman's poignant expression, her grasping of the bag, the picture composition that evokes a classical painting, the officers' attire and their theatrical gestures — those are all elements that almost instantly resonated with people.
Unprecedented number of young Russians who've known no president but Putin came to protest him today. This looks like being the iconic shot http://pic.twitter.com/noRLeNNxDu
— max seddon (@maxseddon) March 26, 2017
Some people immediately compared it to Raphael's famed "The Deposition" painting:
"I followed the event shooting as news photographers usually do. There were many detentions and this photo is one of lots made by me and my colleagues," Shipenkov told Mashable.
"I don't know why the girl was arrested. The picture was made from a far distance from an opposite side of Tverskaya Street."
While the success of the photo could not be predicted, Shipenkov said that he immediately noticed it composition was quite successful.
"I suppose a good news picture may resemble classical school of painting rather often," he said. "It is a pleasure when the done work finds the way to people’s heart."
The woman in the picture was later identified as Olga Lozina, who in an interview with Meduza introduced herself as a graduate of the Physical-Technical Institute.
Lozina said she was returning from McDonalds along with her mum and sister when the road in front of them was blocked by riot police for the rally.
"A crowd of people was heading in our direction — [they] said that [the police] will not let people pass, and that we would have to go back," she said.
Suddenly riot police moved in and started to detain everyone.
"There was a flower bed and I jumped up to see where the crowds end. Then riot police demanded that we immediately got off the flower bed. Everyone quickly got off but police grabbed the last person to get down, a young man, and took him to a police van."
"My mum was there and asked police 'Why are you detaining him?' Then they grabbed my mum. And then my sister. They took them and I followed them without realising that they were detaining me as well," Lozina said.
The woman added that she wasn't rudely detained. Even from the picture it's possible to discern that police carried her rather carefully, which ironically adds to the solemnity of the photo.
"I would have gone myself if they told me why they were detaining me. But I didn't even have time to ask," she said.
"Then we were thrown into a police van, which was very hot and stuffy. We were brought to the Cheryomushki police station," she added.
"They aren't telling us anything, and we don't know when they'll let us go."
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