Protest Leaders Call for Unsanctioned Rally

By The Moscow Times

Dec. 12, 2012

Opposition leaders called on supporters Wednesday to attend an unsanctioned rally on Lubyanskaya Ploshchad at 3 p.m. Saturday after negotiations with City Hall over a planned protest march fell through.

The Mayor's Office repeatedly rejected opposition demands to sanction the March of Freedom ending on Lubyanskaya Ploshchad, a location associated with repression as the former site of the KGB's headquarters. Authorities offered several routes farther from the Kremlin instead.

Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov said on Twitter that city officials' proposal to sanction a march from Trubnaya Ploshchad to Kropotkinskaya Naberezhnaya didn't suit protest organizers and that "there is only one option left: Lubyanka at 3 p.m. Every man for himself."

Opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny echoed Udaltsov's comments on Twitter, saying authorities had provoked protest leaders by dragging their feet as long as possible. The Mayor's Office did not immediately comment on the likelihood of an unsanctioned rally taking place Saturday.

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