The Kaliningrad mayor's office has again refused to approve a rally against the liquidation of a flea market in the city center, reports Novy Kaliningrad.
The head of the administration explained the decision by the fact that "holding this public event could create a threat of harm to the cultural heritage site "Wrangel Tower"." The event with an expected number of participants of up to 400 people was planned to be held on August 4. Officials recommended moving it from the city center to another location.
The Kaliningrad administration plans to move the market further from the center. Traders and other city residents are against it. They had already planned to hold a rally on June 29. However, the mayor's office then proposed choosing another date and submitting a new notification "after the sanitary and epidemiological situation improves," citing COVID and other acute respiratory viral infections.
On July 23, Kaliningrad residents collected more than 500 signatures under an appeal to the acting governor of the region, Alexey Besprozvannykh. "We propose to preserve the flea market in the same place and in the same format, as a long-established tourist and cultural-historical site, which is extremely popular with city residents, as well as with numerous grateful tourists ," the appeal says.