Moscow Expects Clashes Between Protesters and Police

Police in Moscow have pledged to stop a protest march by opposition activists in Pushkin Square this weekend. Both the police and OMON (riot police) plan to be very aggressive in stopping any provocations that the demonstrators may attempt.

The coalition of opposition groups planning the event goes by the name The Other Russia. They predict that they will have a turnout of 5,000 protesters even though Moscow officials have declared the event to be illegal.

The former world chess champion Garry Kasparov has warned the participants that the police could react violently as they did in St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod. He is one of the organizers for the event.

The primary members of The Other Russia coalition are Kasparov’s United Civil Front; the unregistered National Bolshevik Party which is led by Eduard Limonov; Sergei Udaltsov’s Red Youth Vanguard; and the Popular Democratic Union, headed up by former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov.

The plan calls for the marchers to assemble at noon at Pushkin Square and walk along the Boulevard ring heading to Turgenev Square. City Hall only issued an authorization for a rally at Turgenev Square, not the march or the rally at Pushkin Square, citing the fact that another group had already been granted permission to hold a rally at Pushkin Square.

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