Freedom of speech, not murderers!

In Moscow, in Novopushkinsky Square, on October 7, a rally was held in memory of Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed exactly two years ago.

About 300 people came to honor the memory of the journalist. The rally participants held posters with the slogans “Murderers and their patrons brought to justice!”, “Don’t shoot!”, “Freedom of speech, not murderers,” “We demand an open trial of murderers.”

The host of the rally, President of the Glasnost Defense Foundation Alexey Simonov, read addresses to participants from journalistic organizations in France, Italy, Belarus, Romania, Japan, Slovakia, Sweden, Finland, Cyprus, Great Britain and Ireland.

Speakers at the rally included editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta Dmitry Muratov, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva, Boris Nemtsov, Garry Kasparov, Mikhail Kasyanov, Viktor Shenderovich, and first deputy editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy Sergei Buntman. Leonid Gozman, acting Chairman of the Union of Right Forces party, whose political council last week announced its readiness to merge with the Democratic Party of Russia and Civil Force. During his speech, all other speakers left the podium.

A rally in memory of Politkovskaya is taking place on October 7 in Yekaterinburg. A similar event is planned in St. Petersburg, but it was not without a scandal: local authorities offered participants instead of Trinity Square, where “improvement work” would be carried out, a park named after the 50th anniversary of October on Metallistov Avenue. Meanwhile, the Committee for Improvement and Road Maintenance of Smolny reported that no work is planned on Trinity Square. Participants are going to come to Trinity Square despite obstacles from the authorities.