Immability

In the Lermontovsky Square in Moscow, a “meeting of citizens” was held - in this form, Ilya Yashin, the head of the Krasnoselsky district, decided to hold a long -planned event on December 24, after the police prevented the scene for the “Free Elections Day” on Sunday morning. As a result, several hundred citizens gathered in the square (according to some sources - up to 2 thousand people), many of whom came with flowers. The audience shouted the slogans "We are power here", "Putin thief" and "Sobyanin Down with", Ilya Yashin and public figure Julia Galyamin came directly from the crowd through the megaphone. Only one person was detained, he was almost immediately released. At about 16:15 Moscow time, the action ended.

Radio Liberty led direct video broadcast from the scene.

Ilya Yashin announced the "Day of Free Elections" back in mid -December. According to him, the "festive format" of the event meant that it can be carried out without any coordination by the Moscow authorities. However, after Alexei Navalny called on his supporters to take part in the action, the Moscow City Court decided to ban the "Day of Free Elections". Yashin called the decision "illegal and politically motivated."

Later, the opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov filed a parallel application for a rally on December 24 for honest elections on Academician Sakharov Avenue. He called this a "compromise" in a situation with the ban on the "Day of Free Elections." The authorities approved Gudkov’s application, but later the politician refused to hold a rally - at the request of Yashin, who called the “unacceptable” cancellation of the legal action in exchange for the agreed rally.

On December 22, Ilya Yashin himself already spoke about the transfer of the event to Sakharov Avenue, but later abandoned this idea. On the evening of December 23, barriers were installed around the Lermontovsky square. Early on Sunday morning, police prevented the installation of the scene and other preparatory work, and Yashin said that the “Day of Free Elections” “wasted”, and announced a change in the format of the action, announcing a meeting of citizens. The politician has legal right to hold such meetings as the head of the Council of Deputies of the municipality.

“Come with flowers - cloves, roses, sunflowers. Any flowers. And let there be a lot of us, let Putin and Sobyanin see that we exist, that we know our rights and are not going to abandon them in favor of impudent officials,” Ilya Yashin called his supporters.