Direct speech

Alexander Ryklin , editor-in-chief of Daily Journal :

Initially, the mayor's office did not want to allow any procession at all, but proposed holding a rally in front of Sakharov. And she abandoned this only after the negotiators made a fairly large amount of effort and brought up many different arguments, the most important of which was that this proposal of the mayor’s office was completely illegal. Because, according to federal law, the executive branch does not have the right to offer organizers a different format for holding an event other than the one they themselves planned. Proposing a rally instead of a march is absolutely illegal. The organizers somehow managed to convey this simple idea to the employees of the Department of Public Security under the Moscow government, and eventually a procession was agreed upon along the boulevards, along the route that had become familiar to us - from Pushkinskaya Square to Chistye Prudy. We wanted a procession - we achieved a procession. True, we planned a different route, but that’s okay, over time we will achieve other routes.

It’s difficult to say how many people there will be. For several years now I have not been trying to make such forecasts; I tried a long time ago, but nothing worked. If it seemed to me that there would be few people, many would come, and when I thought there would be many, fewer would come. But still, the fate of these completely innocent people, who have been kept in prison for so many months and are about to be sentenced to serious terms - five, six years, cannot leave anyone indifferent. At least those people who had already somehow participated in the protests and somehow positioned themselves in them. The prisoners of Bolotnaya are random people; anyone could be in their place. This march was organized by the “Protest Action Committee”, as always, but I don’t know who the leaders will come. We will not invite anyone specially, especially to an event of this kind. Whoever deems it necessary for himself will come.

How cold weather will affect all this is unknown. We remember very numerous rallies at the beginning of the winter of 12, when there were severe frosts, and last winter, when there was a “March against the Executioners” on January 13, it was not hot. It seems to me that if this is some kind of factor, it is not very significant; if a person decides to come, then he can dress warmer. But in general, we try to abandon the rally format in winter so as not to freeze people too much.