Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that there are no plans to restrict the rights of protesters in Russia, but warned against violence and breaches of the law.
"I want to say that the state won't restrict those who want to voice their opinion of the government policies, even if it is critical and negative. But this must be done in the framework of the law," Putin said during his annual televised Q&A session.
Requests to sanction opposition rallies were invariably turned down by former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who was sacked by President Dmitry Medvedev in September.
New Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin gave a green light to the opposition rallies. However, some of the protesters objected to caps on attendance and continued to attempt to hold unsanctioned events in the Russian capital.
"It is now surprising for me that when the new Moscow mayor allows the holding of these events [rallies] they started increasing their demands and asked for extra marches, more participants and the removal of fences. They need conflict," he said.
Moscow recently saw its biggest public disturbances for almost a decade when nationalists and football hooligans clashed with police protesting the death of a football fan, who was killed in a brawl with migrants from Russia's North Caucasus region.
Over 1,300 people were arrested in Moscow alone and hundreds of weapons were seized.
"Considering the recent negative events in Moscow, everyone should act within the law," Putin said.
Earlier this month, President Medvedev signed off on a revised law on protest meetings barring people charged with minor administrative offences from organizing or attending rallies.
In November, Medvedev imposed a veto on amendments to a law that stipulated tougher sanctions for those violating public meeting regulations set by the government.
The adoption of the amendments by the Russian parliament triggered an angry reaction from the Russian opposition, which has claimed the new bill would further restrict the freedom of assembly in Russia.
Medvedev earlier said the amendments ran against the constitution, which guarantees the freedom of assembly.
MOSCOW, December 16 (RIA Novosti)
