Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said city authorities will not under any circumstances allow long-term streets protests of the kind held in Kiev during Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution after the March 4 presidential elections, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.
Demonstrators set up a tent city on Kiev's Maidan Square amid month-long protests attended by hundreds of thousands of people to protest a falsified presidential election in 2004.
"Nobody is against rallies or demonstrations, as long as it doesn't disrupt the lives of citizens," Sobyanin said in an interview with the daily.
"We provide a platform for anyone who wishes to express their opinion. But it is certain that Maidan won't happen. We will not allow any tents to be pitched in the city," the mayor said.
Activists from the Rosagit project attempted to distribute tents on Pushkin Square on Wednesday, but group co-founder Vadim Korovin and several others were arrested by police almost immediately after the scheduled start of the event before they distributed the tents. Korovin was later released.
Demonstrators set up a tent city on Kiev's Maidan Square amid month-long protests attended by hundreds of thousands of people to protest a falsified presidential election in 2004.
"Nobody is against rallies or demonstrations, as long as it doesn't disrupt the lives of citizens," Sobyanin said in an interview with the daily.
"We provide a platform for anyone who wishes to express their opinion. But it is certain that Maidan won't happen. We will not allow any tents to be pitched in the city," the mayor said.
Activists from the Rosagit project attempted to distribute tents on Pushkin Square on Wednesday, but group co-founder Vadim Korovin and several others were arrested by police almost immediately after the scheduled start of the event before they distributed the tents. Korovin was later released.