Yesterday, I wrote that the January 28 protest has been approved in almost all cities (there are now more than 90 of them).
And we were all waiting to see what would happen in Moscow and St. Petersburg, knowing that the authorities there always drag things out and play games. It is obvious that the decisions are not made by the city halls at all, but by Putin personally, and he is panic-stricken by the thought of protests under his own windows.
What would happen in Moscow was especially interesting.
We filed an application for Tverskaya Street at 2 p.m. Twice. First a preliminary one a month in advance, and then another 15 days ahead. Everything was done legally. Tverskaya is regularly closed off for marches by United Russia, trade unions, and the Communists. So we have the same right to hold our event there.
But this time, the heroic council of deputies of Moscow’s Krasnoselsky District decided to back us up. They passed a resolution and filed an application for a march to Sakharov Avenue and a rally there.
And surely they cannot be refused:
That is precisely the territory of the Krasnoselsky District. How could you refuse district deputies the right to hold an event in their own district?
Not long ago, the mayor’s office itself was chasing after these very deputies with exactly this proposal—a rally on Sakharov Avenue—when the deputies had decided to hold a district celebration. So apparently this is a perfectly acceptable option for them.
First, the St. Petersburg administration announced that there were supposedly all sorts of especially dangerous works being carried out along the route of our march (so how are pedestrians walking there?!), and there are courts nearby as well, so it is forbidden.
Yesterday, Moscow City Hall basically told us that we are not good enough for the city center and that we can hold a rally only in Shchukino.
In other words, their usual mockery. I said right away: no, agreeing to that would itself be a violation of the law. And we obey the law, so we will hold our event in strict accordance with the Constitution and the application we submitted.
And just now, a reply has also come to the deputies from Krasnoselsky: they are not allowed either. They should get out of their own district and go to Shchukino, Maryino, or Sokolniki instead. Vladimir Vladimirovich does not like it when loud chants of “Putin is a thief” carry all the way to the Kremlin.
As you can see, we are the kindest and most law-abiding people in the world. We did ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING POSSIBLE within the law to get the application approved without problems.
And the law is entirely on our side. It is an ironic coincidence, but at the beginning of next week I will be speaking in Strasbourg at a hearing of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, defending my position in five separate cases specifically concerning detentions at mass protests. The ECHR has already ruled in our favor, but we also want to prove the political motivation behind the arrests.
In every case involving detentions at rallies that reached the ECHR, the court ruled that the detentions were unlawful. And the Russian government paid compensation. I have won every case that made it to a hearing.
So this is not about the law.
The whole point is that they simply do not regard us as human beings. People like us are never allowed anything, full stop.
If you are truly fighting for fair elections and a normal country—if you are genuinely against this monarchical system, not pretending but really against it—then to the authorities you are not a person, and you have no rights at all.
So be it. On January 28, in Moscow and St. Petersburg, those who consider themselves human beings will take to the streets in strict accordance with the original application.