Rostov prosecutor's office fears opposition walks

On May 30, 2012, the coordinator of the “Citizen Observer” project in Rostov-on-Don, Alena Rudko, received a warning about the inadmissibility of violating the law and a summons to the prosecutor’s office to give an explanation.

The prosecutor's office of the Voroshilovsky district of Rostov-on-Don saw the possibility of violating the legislation on countering extremist activities in an attempt to "hold a public march of activists of the regional non-systemic opposition along the central streets of Rostov-on-Don" in order to "create a public outcry and promote radical opposition ideas under the guise of an organization excursions for a delegation from Moscow... This event is being presented as a “people's walk”; no official approval has been received from local authorities for its holding,” and “calls for participation in a mass action... are being distributed on the Internet.”

The prosecutor's office was alarmed by information posted on social networks about the arrival in Rostov of the co-founders of the League of Voters Tatyana Lazareva and Sergei Parkhomenko.

As A. Rudko herself reports, assistant prosecutor Inessa Polunina refused to disclose the reasons for calling the prosecutor’s office and issuing an order, citing classified information and an order from her superiors.

In our opinion, the warning issued by the prosecutor’s office was unlawful, since regardless of possible violations of the Law “On Meetings, Rallies, Demonstrations, Processions and Picketing,” the walk is not subject to the Law “On Combating Extremist Activities.”

Sources

• Extremism was discovered during a walk by Parkhomenko and Lazareva in Rostov // PublicPost. 2012. May 31.