Moscow authorities make excuses for the “Right March”

On November 14, 2005, the Moscow City Duma held parliamentary hearings on the topic "The need to amend the legislation of the city of Moscow in terms of holding rallies, marches and demonstrations." The reason for holding the hearings was the "Russian March" , held on November 4 in Moscow by right-wing radical organizations.

Deputy Chairman of the Prefect of the Central Administrative District Sergey Vasyukov explained that due to the fact that 4 applications were submitted for holding a rally - from three organizations (ECM, LDPR and the Union of Christian Revival) and a group of citizens, the prefecture decided to unite them in one event . Subsequently, the permission of the rally, despite the formal grounds for its ban (exceeding the declared number), was connected, according to him, precisely with the fact that those who had gathered represented various organizations.

The deputy prefect also said that after a warning received from Ella Panfilova, chairperson of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for promoting the development of civil society institutions and human rights, that the action could provoke ethnic strife and riots in the capital, the organizers of the action were invited to a conversation in the prefecture and warned about liability in case of violation of the law (use of nationalist slogans, etc.). According to the deputy prefect, during the discussion of the upcoming rally with the applicants, "no issues related to nationalism, with forceful actions against non-indigenous residents of Moscow" were raised.

Nevertheless, the rally took place precisely under nationalist slogans and was not stopped by the authorities! ( were detained ). only 12 RNU members

As a result of the hearings, it was decided to revise the legislation governing the conduct of public events in the direction of tightening, in particular, to expand the grounds for their termination, to indicate an exhaustive list of slogans in the application, etc. The head of the Moscow police department, Vladimir Pronin, suggested introducing temporary bans on holding public actions for an organization that violated the rules for holding such actions - for example, for six months.

Sources

• The Moscow City Duma considered the possibility of changing the legislation on holding rallies and marches // IA REGNUM. 2005. November 14.