In Vladivostok, a rally against bills recently adopted by the State Duma was not approved

The Department of Internal Policy of the Primorsky Territory refused to coordinate a rally with a demand to investigate the poisoning of Alexei Navalny and against new bills before the quarantine measures were lifted. Marina Zheleznyakova, deputy chairman of the regional branch of Yabloko, reported this to OVD-Info.

The action was planned to be held on January 5 in front of the entrance to the regional Youth House with up to 100 participants. The response from the department, which OVD-Info has at its disposal, states that the spread of coronavirus infection is a “force majeure event” that poses a threat to the safety of participants in a public event.

It was proposed to postpone the action until the high alert regime is lifted. The department also warned the organizers that participants in the uncoordinated rally could be subject to administrative liability.

• At the end of November 2020, a deputy from the United Russia party, Dmitry Vyatkin, introduced several bills for consideration by the State Duma, which, on the contrary, would impose additional restrictions on freedom of assembly and create new difficulties and risks for the organizers, participants of the actions and journalists covering them. On December 23, State Duma deputies approved them in the third reading.
• Alexei Navalny became ill on the morning of August 20 on a plane flying from Tomsk to Moscow. He was dropped off in Omsk and taken to a local emergency hospital. Doctors at the German Charité clinic, where Navalny was sent two days later, found in his blood signs of a chemical warfare agent from the Novichok group in his body. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed these data. Navalny spent about two weeks in a coma. Russia has not yet opened a criminal case regarding his poisoning.