but not for long: THE AUTHORITIES ARE TRYING TO BAN "POLITICAL DEBATES" statement The political debate between well-known political analyst Sergei MARKOV, a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, and Alexander BELOV, leader of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), which was scheduled to take place today (11/7/2006) at the "Club on Brestskaya," will not be held due to administrative interference by the authorities. After it was announced that the organizer of the Russian March would take part in the latest Political Debates organized by the "Democratic Alternative" movement, the "Club on Brestskaya" came under heavy administrative pressure. Yesterday, the police (militsiya, the former Russian police force) visited the club and warned of problems connected with holding the debate on November 7. Later, the club administration received notice that today—the day of the debate—the electricity would be completely shut off starting at 5:00 p.m. The "Democratic Alternative" movement views these actions by the authorities as a stupid and absurd attempt to censor not only the media, but also club gatherings of politically engaged young people. The topics of the debates, as well as their participants, are determined by us solely on the basis of monitoring the popularity of political issues discussed in Russian blogs—primarily on LiveJournal.com. If the authorities think their actions can force us to make changes to our work, they will fail. ** We advise those "figures" who decided to sabotage the Political Debates to counter the spread of one ideology or another not by banning our events, but by putting forward worthy opponents for the debates—people capable of arguing and persuading. ** We reserve the right to continue inviting any political figures to take part in our project, regardless of how acceptable or unacceptable they may be to Kremlin censors. There has been, and will be, only one criterion: audience interest. We call on the internet community to support us and express its attitude toward what has happened. Let us remind you that this was to have been the ninth debate. Previous Political Debates featured the following opponents: Viktor Shenderovich and Oleg Kashin, Boris Nemtsov and Dmitry Rogozin, Irina Khakamada and Alexei Chadayev, Anton Nosik and Nikolai Kuryanovich, Valeriya Novodvorskaya and Yegor Kholmogorov, Youth Yabloko and the commissars of Nashi, Maksim Kononenko and Nikita Belykh, among others. Coordinator of the "Political Debates" project Alexei NAVALNY Producer of the "Political Debates" project Sergei KAZAKOV