Freedom of assembly (April 15-21)

Events on Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012

The Commission to Investigate the May 6 Events Partially Published the Results of its Work

Vedomosti , April 18:

“As follows from the report, prepared on the basis of the testimony of 600 people and video recordings, experts came to the conclusion that what happened on Bolotnaya cannot be qualified as mass riots. In their opinion, the actions of the march participants were self-defense and a necessary defense against the aggression of the police and riot police.”

“The authors of the report are not the people whom the authorities are ready to listen to, and the majority of society is not interested in the events on Bolotnaya: the report is unlikely to receive much resonance outside the group of people who have already formed their opinion about the causes of the clashes, says political scientist Evgeniy Minchenko.” .

“Kommersant” , April 18:

“According to the report, several factors contributed to the escalation of the rally into clashes with the police, starting with a change in the previously approved scheme of the rally that was “uncoordinated with the organizers.” The “unexpected transfer of the cordon chain” created a “bottleneck” in front of the columns and led to “squeezing the crowd.” “At the same time, the first people they came across were snatched from it, and mass beatings began, which were supposed to increase panic and provoke defensive responses,” the report says.”

“The press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs assured Kommersant yesterday that the police make arrests “only if there are sufficient grounds within the law,” and “the calculation of forces and means is made depending on the complexity of the event, location and coordination.”

“The Kremlin is ready to familiarize itself with the report, but this is not the Kremlin’s question,” presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Kommersant. “There are law enforcement agencies and the court that are authorized to make such assessments.”

TV channel “Rain” , interview with Mikhail Kasyanov, April 18:

“The lawyers who are involved in the case of defending accused activists do not participate in the commission and were not part of the public investigation, but they are familiar and now have the opportunity to become acquainted. And many told us that yes, there are materials there that will be useful to them in that formal defense, in those cases that are now fabricated against their clients. It's useful for that too. The first is public opinion, people should know what happened, the second is, of course, we must stand in solidarity and help those people who have been sitting in prison innocently for almost a year.”

“By law, both the Prosecutor General and the head of the Investigative Committee are obliged to respond to this. When the trial begins, parallel hearings of this commission will be held, proceedings on each fact of those activists who are in prison today, who will soon be brought to trial, as we understand. Therefore, in parallel, the public will do everything to ensure that state propaganda does not succeed in creating the impression that all this was organized and all violations were committed by demonstrators. This is not true, this is a lie, and for good reason. The facts that have been studied make it possible to draw completely unambiguous conclusions.”

“The next stage, when the official trial begins, will also be public, then the specific names of the accused and the specific names of those who should have become accused will appear in connection with this or that incident that took place on Bolotnaya. This is the next stage, moreover, I am sure that based on the results of the next stage, a certain list of violators, notorious violators of human rights in the May 6 case will be compiled. Such a “list of shame.”

“Lenta.Ru” , April 19:

“The main feature of the public investigation is that the authors of the report either describe the most complex and ambiguous moments in the behavior of opposition leaders and ordinary rally participants either as briefly as possible or completely overlook them.”

“Journalist Svetlana Reuter, who wrote extensively and in detail about the Bolotnaya case, says that “the investigation turned out to be too one-sided, and the opposition turned out to be white and fluffy.” “This doesn’t look like an investigation at all, because there are no conversations with police officials, people from the mayor’s office, or riot police. It’s very strange to pretend that on May 6, while the protesters were being beaten with batons, they all stood with their arms stretched out at their sides and prayed to Andrei Sakharov.”

“Maria Baronova is one of the defendants in the Bolotnaya case: “Why was the presence of opposition provocateurs at that rally never investigated? Maybe, for example, I'm a "Murzilka"? It is wrong to pour one propaganda against another propaganda, it is necessary to prepare legal documents, since only this makes sense for the ECHR.”

“Members of the public commission resolutely reject the critics’ claims. Georgy Satarov, who wrote the report, admits: “This is, of course, one-sided, one hundred percent, but everything that happened before was one-sided.” And he immediately adds: “In order to objectively understand the first one-sidedness, we need to consider the second one-sidedness.” In his opinion, all the facts that play against the opposition have already been “perfectly collected by the other side,” and the commission did not set itself the task of “supporting the accusation.” The main goal of the report is to draw attention to violations committed by law enforcement agencies.”

The New Times publishes on April 22 excerpts from the evidence base of the report - eyewitness accounts, as well as comments on the investigation:

Vadim Klyuvgant, lawyer: “Everything that is meaningful and related to the events of May 6, of course, will help in the defense, but for this you need to see these materials, and probably everything there is not equally useful. But I have no doubt that there are really valuable materials there, testimonies of people, eyewitnesses, and such materials, of course, we will use.

Actually, the very fact of such public hearings is undoubtedly help and support. Because this is a kind of public control, an indicator that shows that on the part of the authorities there is a one-sided and, even more so, false presentation of events - I can already say this, since I have become familiar with the materials of the criminal case, which has been completed in relation to 12 people, and soon, probably , will go to court. And the commission’s version is objective, comprehensively examines what happened, and is based on facts, and not on the memorized “testimony” of people in uniform.”

Former Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov comments on the “Bolotnaya case” in an interview with Lenta.Ru:

“How do you assess the Bolotnaya case?

It seems to me that there is no element of mass unrest there at all. According to the qualifying criteria, all this should have been accompanied by pogroms and arson. It is still necessary to investigate the activities of the internal affairs bodies. Why did it happen that they changed the location of the passage, why they narrowed it, because there were plans for the event on the part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. We need to look at who is to blame for this situation; after all, they themselves provoked this with their actions. But the situation was tense, and any actions gave rise to an inadequate reaction. Yes, of course, they violated administrative legislation, but there were no mass riots, and this is already a violation of this article.

Is this a political show trial?

Markin himself actually admitted this, and the whole society understands this. The goal is to put the opposition in its place using harsh methods.”

“Big City” publishes an interview with Ilya Ponomarev on April 19:

“In my opinion, there were no riots. Yes, the procession has organizers, they are known: Udaltsov, Navalny, and your humble servant. We had certain roles, the script of the action was spelled out. Ultimately, there was a broad group that included both Yashin and Navalny. There was a narrow group of leftists, which included me, Seryoga, Lenya (Razvozzhaev - BG) and several other comrades, about whom I will not talk, since there are no charges against them. There were several possible scenarios for the rally, the main question being whether people would put up tents.”

“Before the rally, I had the main question: are we carrying out this action for an indefinite period or not?”

“How does the general staff operate during war? They have envelopes: if the enemy does this, then we take envelope No. 5 and act according to such and such a scenario, if not, we take envelope No. 2. So, in preparation for a mass event, people follow the same pattern. The nationalists had plans to capture Manezhnaya Square, the paratroopers planned to walk around the Alexander Garden - on May 6, everyone wanted to distinguish themselves, and we were working on plans for what we would do in this or that case. I must say that in the end we implemented a plan that we had not thought about, because we could not imagine that everything would turn out so stupid and primitive. We even thought about what to do if the anarchists immediately went to break through to the Stone Bridge: it is impossible to control the anarchists, and we thought about how to take this into account. One of my intelligence tasks was to understand whether such a scenario was feasible? I looked: there were a lot of cops standing on the Bolshoi Kamenny Bridge, and if the anarchists had gone to mess with them, nothing would have worked out for them.”

On Saturday, April 22, during a rally in support of those involved in the “Bolotnaya case” on Red Square, 24 people were detained .

The Coordination Council of the Opposition decided to hold a march on May 6

“Kommersant” , April 20:

“Submit notice of a march and rally on May 6th. I ask anyone to vote for this proposal,” said Mikhail Gelfand, speaker of the seventh meeting of the CSR on Saturday. 23 council members spoke in favor of this proposal, and it was adopted. The application is expected to be submitted on Monday.”

"Rain" :

“There is such a character - Pavel Shelkov, he behaves quite actively in the auditorium, one might say, somewhat defiantly, apparently, he is very worried about what is happening. He himself, as well as his supporters, sought to have two actions - one on the 5th, on Easter, on a day off, and the second on the 6th, as the Constitutional Court is going to do, but the members of the Constitutional Court clearly called this a spoiler action and refused. Alexey Navalny spoke quite recently and suggested that the head of the working group on organizing this action, Nikolai Tsarkov, agree among themselves, with the members of the working group, so as not to find out at the general meeting where and on which side the columns will stand. Usually this question, who will go to the right, who will go to the left, who stands closer to the stage, who is farther away, always causes the greatest controversy, but people in a narrow circle of members of the Constitutional Court will have to decide this. The issue of financing is much more pressing. As it turned out, the balance of this action is negative, money will have to be collected very urgently, Evgenia Chirikova called on all resources to be devoted to collecting money now for holding the action, so that there is a decent stage.”

“Moskovsky Komsomolets” ,

“According to the general decision of the Constitutional Court, the action will consist of a procession and a rally. “Most likely, the procession from Kaluga Square will take place from 17 to 19 hours, and from 19 to 22 evenings there will be a rally on Bolotnaya,” Gennady Gudkov, a member of the Constitutional Court and ex-State Duma deputy, told MK. He considers it important that the Moscow authorities approve the event as early as possible, then the organizers will have enough time to think through security and identify provocateurs.

The opposition wants to make sure that the rally is vibrant and dynamic; a special creative group will even write a separate script for the event. A speech by the leader of the Rospil project, Alexei Navalny, is definitely planned. The coordinator of the “Left Front” (more precisely, now the “New Left Front” - due to accusations of extremism, this unregistered organization slightly changed its name) Sergei Udaltsov, who is now under house arrest, can record a video message for the rally. “We are ready to give the floor not only to the Constitutional Court and not only to our supporters,” said Gennady Gudkov. “If Yavlinsky wants to, let him come to speak, let Zyuganov come, Mironov, if he changes his mind.” Let us remember that the leader of A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov, was the initiator of Gudkov’s expulsion from the party for refusing to stop his activities in the opposition Constitutional Court. The May 6 action is expected to be supported by Yabloko, Parnas, and People's Alliance (a party supporting Alexei Navalny). Gennady Gudkov also really hopes for the participation of Mikhail Prokhorov’s Civic Platform.”

Hyde parks

Gorky Park and Sokolniki Park began accepting applications in Moscow began accepting applications for holding public events in connection with the law on Hyde parks

“Rosbalt” , April 17:

“The other day, in two capital parks - the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Culture and the Sokolniki Park of Culture and Culture - applications were opened for holding mass events in specially equipped Hyde parks. To “legalize” an event in them, you do not need to obtain permission from the city authorities, but simply send an application to the park management in advance.”

“Sections have appeared on the websites of both parks with a description of the innovation, as well as an application form for holding a public event. The Gorky Park portal reports that the Hyde Park space is located on Pushkinskaya Embankment near the Crimean Bridge and can accommodate no more than 2 thousand people. The site’s opening hours are from 7:00 to 22:00.”

“The document must indicate the purpose of the public event, the date, time of its start and end, the expected number of participants, the last name, first name, patronymic or name of the organizer of the event, information about his place of residence or stay and other data.”

“RBC daily” (April 16)

“There were those who supported the idea,” the leader of the Young Guard of United Russia, Maxim Rudnev, told RBC daily that his organization is interested in this endeavor, since in the summer there are a lot of young people in the parks: the “guardsmen” can hold volunteer project events and debates there etc.”

““The protest cannot be driven into Hyde parks. The goal of any event is to communicate demands not to oneself, therefore actions should take place in urban space. No one needs to express their political preferences among the green trees; citizens already have the right to picnics,” says Grigory Okhotin, a participant in the OVD-Info project.

“Until the first meetings take place in Moscow, it is difficult to say what they will be like. As happened in Europe, Hyde parks began to attract various city crazy people and a wide range of people who wanted to try themselves in public space. Rallies with a protest agenda will not be limited to these sites. People will not give up Bolotnaya,” suggests Alexander Bikbov, coordinator of the “Research Institute of Rallies.”

“Opinions.Ru” , April 18:

“It makes no sense to seriously comment on the authorities’ statements about the culture of protest; this would mean completely losing our sense of humor. It seems to me that the main task of the Moscow and federal authorities is to drive the protest movement into a ghetto.”

“Kommerant FM” , April 15:

Chairman of the Moscow City Duma Security Commission Inna Svyatenko: “I don’t know if you really like holding a rally in the city center when everything is blocked off by riot police to protect civilians who want to move around the city and shout out various unpleasant things towards the protesters because they are being prevented from living in this city, breathe, walk along the streets they want. Of course, I think we should be mutually polite.”

Ilya Yashin, member of the bureau of the federal political council of the Solidarity movement: the Moscow authorities “seem that sites for rallies are needed because people like to hold rallies. People go out onto the street with posters not because they like to stand in front of riot police and draw these posters. People take to the streets to draw attention to the issues that concern them.”

RBC , April 15:

leader of the unregistered party “Other Russia” Eduard Limonov: “E. Limonov called the comparison of Moscow’s Hyde parks with London’s ridiculous. “There has never been a single political rally in London’s Hyde Park. It was a place that was intended for English “dummies” and blasphemers to gather there and do whatever they wanted for which they would not be condemned,” explains the politician.” .

State Duma deputy, former member of the A Just Russia party Dmitry Gudkov: “According to D. Gudkov, the idea of ​​​​creating “Hyde parks” could be useful if the authorities listened to the wishes of the protesters themselves. “I proposed to create platforms on Pushkinskaya and Bolotnaya squares, but they refused. We will not go to a place where no one hears or sees us,” said the politician.”

“Kommersant” , April 18:

“All the time while the project was being prepared, the capital’s authorities reminded that they were guided by the experience of other states. Indeed, freedom of speech and the right to peaceful assembly are enshrined in the fundamental laws of many countries around the world. As a rule, legislation does not establish special places for their implementation. However, in some states there are so-called freedom of speech zones, which, due to tradition or by decision of the authorities, are used for individual or mass speeches.”

“Deputy head of the Moscow regional security department Vasily Oleynik also says that there will be no restrictions on the topics of the actions (see interview). Officials are ready to see both LGBT activists and nationalists in the park, but only if they do not violate Moscow and federal laws. The mayor’s office, in general, does not hide the fact that the presence of two permanent sites in the city, ready to accommodate 2 thousand demonstrators, will make life easier for officials who are forced to conduct lengthy negotiations with the opposition over the location of the next rally in defense of political prisoners.”

“Izvestia” , April 17

“The first rallies in the capital’s Hyde Parks will be dedicated to the survival of single girls in Russian reality and the advantages of physical labor over sitting in an office. They will take place on the opening day of the venues, May 1, in Gorky Park and Sokolniki.”

“In addition, Gorky Park received about 10 applications that had to be rejected. The fact is that the site will open only on May 1, and many applicants wanted to hold the action in April.”

“In particular, among the applications were: a picnic in honor of the birthday of 20 people,“ a rally in support of the integration processes of innovative technologies of the Russian Federation ”, a rally of solidarity with the Buddhists of Tibet, a meeting of fans of Chillaut-music (up to 1 thousand people) and an event in honor International Day of missing children. Applications were submitted for Harinama - a promotion of Krishnas, during which there is a public joint chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra.

- In April, they also wanted to hold a rally of up to 50 people "for the speedy onset of summer." The application stated that this is a protest “Against the climatic tyranny of nature” and for “The right of Muscovites to decent weather conditions,” said the representative of the park.

In addition, on April 19, an application was submitted for a rally for the legalization of same -sex marriages. She was rejected as not corresponding to the regulations. However, as specified in the administration of the park, even the timely submission of an application would not guarantee permits for the action. Decisions on topics capable of provoking public resonance are adopted by the Department of Regional Security and internal affairs bodies. ”

Opening of the Triumphal Square

Interfax (April 16):

“On the triumphal square of Moscow, work begins to clean the territory to make part of the area available to citizens, said Alexei Mayorov, head of the regional security department of the Moscow Regional Security Department. "The work begins. Today they will see what needs to be done. In the near future, free access will be provided for part of the square. This will happen in April," Mayorov said. "

The “Interfax correspondent” became an eyewitness to how two workers on the triumphant square fenced on Tuesday were removed not melted snow. Dismantling work of the fence is not yet underway. ”

“Vedomosti” (April 16):

“The Triumphal Square in 2010 was surrounded by a fence in connection with excavations and plans for the construction of underground parking. On the 31 of each month, “another Russia” is trying to hold an action there in support of the 31st article of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of the meeting. As a rule, the city authorities do not allow these shares, and their potential participants are detained on the approaches to the square. ”

“Rosbalt” (April 17):

“Probably, on May 31, Strategy-31 will not be held at a narrow intersection under the plate of house number 1 in triumphal square, and directly at the monument to the poet, it is unclear, however, whether this factor will affect the increase in the number of participants.”

Read also:

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Detentions at the “One Day, One Name” rally on Red Square; schoolchildren on the “Day of Russian Wrath” and Hyde parks in Moscow - read about this in the weekly OVD-Info digest dedicated to freedom of assembly.

Freedom of assembly: media digest (April 1-8, 2013)

Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights, who is optimistic about the situation with the right to freedom of assembly in Russia; analysis of the national legislation of the Russian Federation to ensure freedom of peaceful assembly; initiation of a criminal case under Article 318 of the Criminal Code against Anastasia Bryazgina, detained at a feminist rally; as well as a chronicle of arrests in Moscow and other cities - in the weekly digest on freedom of assembly OVD-Info.

Freedom of assembly: media digest (March 25-31, 2013)

Detention at a single picket is against the registration law; festivities in defense of prisoners on May 6 around the suddenly closed Red Square; a record low number of arrests at Strategy-31 and the crackdown on emoticons on Old Arbat in Moscow - in the latest weekly digest of OVD-Info, dedicated to freedom of assembly.

Freedom of assembly: media digest (March 18-24)

“The Omsk City Hall, without explanation, canceled the approval of the “Farewell to Winter” holiday, which local Rodnovers planned to hold on Sunday in the Green Island park. According to the organizers of the holiday on the page on the Vkontakte network, the authorities made this decision after a letter from Metropolitan Vladimir, who expressed dissatisfaction with the holding of the event during Lent, since it allegedly offends the feelings of believers."