More than 1,000 people took part in Tuesday's rally in Moscow in homage to journalist Anastasia Baburova and human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov on the first anniversary of their murder.
Young anti-fascist activists, representatives of human rights NGOs and above all ordinary citizens made up the unusually large crowd that defied freezing temperatures and marched with photos of Baburova and Markelov and other murdered journalists and activists such as Anna Politkovskaya and Natalia Estemirova.
The mayor of Moscow had finally given permission for rallies at the departure point and finishing point but not for a march between the two. As a result, the police intervened to disperse the demonstrators during the march and to confiscate photos and posters.
A large number of police also intervened at the finishing point, on Boulevard Chistoprudny, interrupting the reading of an appeal by the organising committee and grabbing the megaphone, leading to clashes and further arrests. The police said around 20 arrests were made but witnesses said more than 50 demonstrators were arrested. All were released within three hours without being charged.
One of the organisers, Lev Ponomarev, the head of the NGO “For Human Rights,” nonetheless received notification of an “administrative violation” for exceeding the permitted number of demonstrators.
Parallel acts of solidarity also took placed in St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Samara, Omsk and Petrozavodsk and in cities abroad, including Paris.
