Interfax: Moscow authorities believe their rejection of Navalny’s requested anti-corruption rally final

MOSCOW. March 18 (Interfax) – The Moscow authorities do not plan on reconsidering their refusal to approve the anti-corruption march scheduled by opposition activist Alexei Navalny and his supporters in Moscow for March 26, Vladimir Chernikov, the head of the regional security and anti-corruption department for Moscow, said.

“This decision is final,” Chernikov said, replying to a relevant question from Interfax.

Navalny posted the Moscow mayor’s office’s response on the internet earlier on Saturday. The mayor’s office said that the procession on the route from the Tverskaya Zastava Square to Okhotny Ryad Street with the ensuing anti-corruption rally will violate the public order and the rights of the Moscow residents not participating in the event.

The Anti-Corruption Foundation head Navalny said earlier this week that he had filed to the Moscow mayor’s office an application to hold a procession and a rally against corruption in downtown Moscow on Sunday, March 26. According to the application, the procession was supposed to be held in the period from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on the route from the Tverskaya Zastava Square through the roadway of the streets of 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya, Tverskaya and Okhotny Ryad, and the rally was planned to be held following the conclusion of the procession “at the address: Okthotny Ryad Street, right in front of the house No. 2.” The number of participants in the event claimed in the application was 15,000 people.

In addition, as of March 18, the supporters of Navalny filed similar applications in 79 Russian cities, and the local authorities in many of them have already refused to approve them, the opposition activist said.

[featured image is file photo from different occasion]