Moscow City Hall has approved the Russian March, a nationalist rally held every year, in the Lyublino district on the city's outskirts on Nov. 4, the RIA Novosti state-run news agency reported Monday.
It remained unclear whose initiative had been approved, because earlier in the day news reports said a similar application submitted by Dmitry Dyomushkin, a notorious nationalist activist, had been declined by the city authorities.
“It has been approved for another group of people. They applied for a march and a stand-up meeting [and] it was suggested that they hold a march from noon to 1 p.m. in accordance with the route they applied for, and hold … a meeting of up to 5,000 people,” Vasily Oleinik, first deputy head of City Hall's department of regional security, was cited by RIA as saying.
Earlier on Monday Dyomushkin told the Interfax news agency that the department had turned down his application to hold the Russian March on Nov. 4, a public holiday known as National Unity Day.
“The department of regional security rejected [my application] without giving any reason,” he was cited by Interfax as saying.
Dyomushkin added that there was hope that applications submitted by other nationalist activists would get approval.
A criminal case was launched against Dyomushkin in June after anti-Islam slogans were spotted during the 2013 Russian March. He is suspected of publicly calling on people to break the law, Kommersant reported.
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