Moscow restricts rallies, opposition cries foul

Moscow, Apr 5: Moscow's city council passed a law to restrict rallies in the Russian capital, a step that opponents of President Vladimir Putin describe as an attempt to mute dissent ahead of elections.

Opposition groups want to stage protests in major cities ahead of a parliamentary election this December and a vote next year to choose Putin's successor.

The new law bans demonstrations near Moscow's historic monuments, gatherings of more than two people per sq metre (sq yard) and indoor rallies that have more people than seats.

''This law makes it easier for bureaucrats to block public protests,'' Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of the liberal Yabloko party faction in the city council, told Reuters yesterday.

''We had long resisted the adoption of this law and, at our insistence, other yet more absurd clauses were removed from the draft law,'' he said. ''If the new law thwarts our rallies, we will seek to overturn it through court action.'' The business daily Vedomosti said political analysts were predicting vehement opposition to the law. With mass media largely state-controlled, street protests provide one of the few effective outlets for alternative political views.

''By banning street protests, the authorities are pushing people to the barricades,'' the paper said.

''The Kremlin persistently demonstrates that you either have to quit politics or play by its rules, turning political activity into a bureaucratic ritual,'' Vedomosti quoted sociologist Alexander Tarasov as saying.

A Moscow court yesterday upheld a ruling by the mayor's office that banned an opposition rally last year. The mayor's office said the gathering would have caused disruption to motorists and pedestrians.

Opposition movement Other Russia, which unites vocal Putin critics ranging from liberals to neo-Bolsheviks, plans marches in Moscow on April 14 and in St Petersburg the following day.

Previous marches have been violently disbanded by riot police. Other Russia said on Tuesday that it would still hold the April 14 rally even though the city council had banned it.

Reuters