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Over 100 unauthorized rally activists detained in Moscow
Published: 31 January, 2010, 20:50
Edited: 09 February, 2010, 05:04
TAGS: Russia, Protest, Politics
Russian police have detained over 100 participants of an unauthorized rally in Moscow to defend Article 31 of the Constitution. The article guarantees the freedom of gatherings.
“On Sunday, opposition representatives attempted to hold an unauthorized rally,” the head of the Moscow police information and PR department, Victor Biriukov, told Interfax.
“As a result, police have had to detain the most active participants, who held banners and called out anti-government slogans,” he added.
According to Biriukov, the number of protesters totaled about 300 people, of which 150 were journalists. Russian politician Boris Nemtsov and human rights activists Lev Ponomaryov and Oleg Orlov were among those detained. About 50 of them, including Nemtsov and the opposition activist Eduard Limonov, were released by the morning.
According to Limonov, the leader of the Moscow Helsinki group, Lyudmila Alekseeva, and the representative of the Left Front organization, Konstantin Kosyakin, had earlier applied to Moscow city authorities to allow them to hold the rally on the square on January 31.
However, city authorities declined the request as another event, called Winter Plays, was scheduled at the site on that date. They offered protesters to gather at other sites in the center of the city.
Opposition activists, in turn, filed a law suit claiming that in 2009 they were refused the opportunity to rally on the square five times.
The previous unauthorized attempt took place on December 31 and also resulted in the detention of the participants.
31.01.2010, 17:21
8 comments
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@ rally When there is an organized gathering in a public place, street etc. then the State has to secure the gathering, to make it safe. There is the difference between the state that cares about its people and safety of such an event and the one which doesn't. The first one cares about what general freedom and well-being and therefore, if the gathering is not appropriate or safe, or inflicts on the others (because NOT EVERYBODY wants to say and think what you do, and NOT EVERYONE wants you to block the street or whatever...) than there is the right to organize in an organization, party, citizen group and so on, which is only yours and nobody can take it from you (unless if you want to act against the State and the Constitution). You can rally all day long, there in the US. Those who decide would just say "let them rally, we'll do it our way". Btw, what did they achieve, the protesters, besides being high and acting strange. Freedom of speech is extremely important but is also just next to freedom to be stupid and arrogant. We want to be free of those attention-grabbing hypocrites.
@ rally, agree, and we also busted heads in the '60s and '70s, too. Check out then-Governor Reagan's response to the hippie protesters in "People's Park" in Berkeley. Kent State, Ohio, also comes to mind. Then there were the labor riots a century ago that were lethally put down by either the army or the police, or even private security thugs hired by the factory owners. I think this episode is indeed part of the growing pains for Russian democracy. Hopefully the police will refrain from shedding blood this time.
The Russia enemy are using freedom to gather as tool to destabilize Russia. Moscow Should assigned an area away from Moscow center and near police camp as area for demonstrators to gather with police permission. Freedom to gather is good, but the peoples can be misled to create kiosk, which bring unnecessary injury and death.