Political parties are getting calls from the Presidential Administration asking them to sign an appeal to Luzhkov demanding that the Russian March be banned. At the very least, they definitely asked us and the SPS people (Union of Right Forces). I don’t understand why they’re doing this. A provocation for the sake of provocation. In one office they’re working on nationalist provocations, and in the next one they’re staging provocations against nationalists. They’re going to push this too far. I’m proud that my party did not sign this filth. Yesterday an acquaintance of mine, a human rights activist, called. One of those organizing the "counter anti-fascist event." A good man. One of the few who is involved in real human rights work. With obvious relish, he told me that the Russian March definitely will not take place. And that the Moscow police headquarters had come up with an excellent method, which it had already discussed with the "public." A couple of days before the event, precinct officers will visit RM organizers and activists and warn them that the march has been banned. And on the morning of the march, those who still leave their homes will be detained outside their apartment buildings and taken away for "preventive conversations lasting 3–4 hours." When I protested that "this is exactly the kind of police lawlessness you always fought against," the human rights activist replied: we have to take emergency measures to prevent people from dying. What deaths? Which people? Unclear. As I understand it, it was with exactly these swinish little tactics that they rounded up people heading to "The Other Russia" and the "Social G8" (counter-events around the G8 summit). Back then there were letters, protests, appeals to the prosecutor’s office afterward. Now, for some reason, those who were rounded up during the G8 summit are ready to cry "sic 'em" against the same kind of civil society. I’ll be waiting to see whether any of the "unquestioned human rights authorities" this time will trot out their favorite quote about "when they came for the Jews, I kept silent, and when they came for me there was no one left to defend me." The organizing committee of the "counter anti-fascist event" has officially decided to ban the presence of Russian flags. You see, many members of the organizing committee are ashamed to stand under the Russian flag, because in their view it has discredited itself. I see two possible options for myself: taking part in the Russian March under the Russian flag and with the slogan "Glory to Russia! Yes to human rights! No to illegal immigration!" taking part in the Anti-Fascist rally under the Russian flag and with the slogan "Glory to Russia! Yes to human rights! No to illegal immigration!"