A senior Kremlin official has said that opposition protests in central Moscow are likely to get the go-ahead when the city's new mayor takes office.
Protestors have been attempting to hold unsanctioned March of Dissent rallies on Triumfalnaya Square on the last day of each month with 31 days in honor of Article 31 of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly. The rallies, which usually attract less than 300 people, invariably end in mass arrests.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in August that protestors at such demonstrations should get “whacked with a baton.”
The authorities recently fenced the area off ahead of work to build an underground car park at the site. The opposition has said the construction project is a sham designed to put a halt to the demonstrations.
“We are absolutely calm as regards such events,” Kremlin deputy chief of staff Vladislav Surkov said in an interview with the Vzglyad newspaper. “For a democratic state this is an absolutely normal thing.”
“If 200 people want to gather every 31st of the month on Triumfalnaya Square in Moscow, with its multi-million population, then let them gather. I am sure the new mayor of the capital will make the right decision. And this decision will be in the spirit of the president’s policies,” he went on.
Former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov was recently dismissed by President Dmitry Medvedev over a “loss of trust.” Medvedev nominated Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin for mayor. Reports suggest he will be approved by the city parliament on Thursday.
“It’s too early to shout ‘victory,’ but it looks as if the authorities are tied and will give us Triumfalnaya,” leading opposition figure Eduard Limonov wrote on his Live Journal blog on Sunday.
He also said the Kremlin had taken opportunity of the departure of Luzhkov to “blame everything” on the former mayor.
MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti)
