Moscow City Hall proposes three alternative venues for Jan. 28 opposition rally

MOSCOW. Jan 19 (Interfax) – Moscow authorities have proposed three alternative venues for a rally the Russian opposition plans to hold in the center of Moscow on January 28 – places in the city’s northeast, southeast and northwest, a Moscow City Hall spokesperson told Interfax.

“We have responded to this application by suggesting three options: a rally at Sokolniki Park, a procession on Lyublinskaya Street with a rally near the Soldiers of the Fatherland monument, and a procession on Marshal Biryuzov Street with a rally on Marshal Vasilevsky Street,” Moscow security department spokeswoman Yelena Romanova told Interfax.

The organizers will now have to consider the authorities’ reply and either choose one of the proposed options or put forth their own, she said.

“In other words, there should be a negotiating process, during which the applicants will choose a specific venue or withdraw their application,” she said.

Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, who has called for a countrywide protest on January 28, said that Moscow authorities proposed their own option after being notified by the opposition of its plans to hold a procession and a rally in the center of Moscow on January 28.

Lawyer at Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, Ivan Zhdanov, told Interfax earlier that an application for a procession along Tverskaya Street and a rally on Okhotny Ryad Street on January 28 had been submitted to the Moscow city hall.

[featured image is file photo from different occasion]