In Murmansk Hyde Park, rallies must be coordinated with the Committee on Culture and Art

Violetta Grudina, coordinator of Alexei Navalny's headquarters in Murmansk, told OVD-Info that as a result of a prosecutor's check, the city authorities remembered that Hyde Park in the public garden on Leningradskaya Street is a cultural heritage site, which means that the events that are held there must be coordinated with the Committee for culture and art of the region.

In the submission of the prosecutor's office (available to the editors) it is said that as a result of the audit it was found that the city administration "does not fully" comply with the requirements of regional and federal legislation when coordinating the holding of public events. This is due to the order of the Committee for Culture and Art of the region from 2011. According to the order, the Committee must give a “reasoned opinion on the possibility or impossibility of holding a public event” on the territory of cultural heritage sites. Such an object is the Hyde Park in the public garden on Leningradskaya Street.

According to Grudina, the first result of these actions was the refusal to hold an anti-corruption rally in the park on Leningradskaya Street on November 18. Motivating their refusal, the city authorities referred to the conclusion of the Committee on Culture and Art about the impossibility of holding such an event.

“All these actions, of course, are aimed at restricting the right to freedom of assembly. Thus, the authorities exclude the possibility of holding protest events, ”Grudina commented on the initiative of the authorities.

• Earlier in Samara, the place where the rally against corruption was held was excluded from the list of Hyde Parks, the authorities of Tomsk , after the rally on March 26, moved the Hyde Park from the center to the industrial zone, and in St. Petersburg , the Field of Mars was also excluded from the list of Hyde Parks. Also excluded from the list of Hyde Parks is the central square in Petrozavodsk .
• Hyde parks are areas where rallies of up to 100 people can be held and they do not need to be coordinated with the municipal administration.