nsnbc : Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that any attempts to hold “unauthorized rallies” in Moscow on April 29 will bring about a legal response of the authorities. The statement was made after several NGOs linked to Open Russia were banned three days before scheduled demonstrations on Saturday.
On Thursday Peskov said “We know that indeed there are some persons who again call to take illegal steps when Moscow showed readiness to provide a possibility to gather in a legal way and hold some events”. Peskov warned that any illegal steps will “certainly lead to a response by the authorities – an absolutely legal reaction of authorities in the framework of the law”.
The NGO Open Society had scheduled an about 10,000-strong rally on Saturday across Slavyanskaya Square, Staraya Square and Ilyinka Street, in the city of Moscow. The protesters also wanted to hand over a number of petitions to the administration of President Vladimir Putin.
Official sources and State funded media focus on the claim that city authorities (allegedly) offered an alternative venue for the procession, also located in Moscow. Official sources and State sponsored media also present a statement by organizer Maria Baronova quoting her as saying that she had written on her Facebook place that the event could not be held anywhere; As if she misrepresented the Mayor’s office.
So why can’t the rallies be held anywhere?
Peskov forgot to mention and/or State media like the TASS news agency forgot to report that the NGO was banned on Wednesday, three days before the scheduled demonstrations – and about one year before the 2018 presidential elections.
Russian officials formally blacklisted three separate organizations; the Britain-registered “Open Russia” organization, the social movement “Open Russia,” as well as the U.S.-based Institute of Modern Russia. Open Russia was founded by self-exiled former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose son heads IMR in New York.
In a public statement, the Prosecutor General explained “Their activities are aimed at inciting protests and destabilizing (the) domestic political situation, presenting a threat to the constitutional foundations of the Russian Federation and the security of the state.” The decision makes it a criminal offense in Russia to work for Open Russia or IMR.
In May 2015 Russia implemented its highly controversial law against “undesirable organizations”, a sweeping law that enables the Kremlin to ban inconveniently organized dissidents as “undesirable”. Organizations listed as such are banned in Russia and anyone who works for such organizations in Russia faces fines and possible incarceration.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the Yukos oil company fell out of grace and ended up behind bars after Putin came to power and cleaned up among oligarchs who had held the weak and notoriously drunk president Boris Yeltsin in power while usurping the country’s assets. Khodorkovsky earlier stressed that he has no plans to directly participate in politics and run as candidate.
Khodorkovsky, who is hobnobbing with the likes of multi-billionaire and Open Society Foundations founder George Soros previously announced that he envisions a role for himself in Russian politics without getting directly involved in party politics and candidacies. That said, Russia’s increasingly rigorous, pseudo-totalitarian measures against those who don’t pull the party-line of oligarchs around Putin and Medvedev suggest for some that Russia is an oligarchy indeed and one that becomes increasingly oppressive and “the evil Putin once professed to deplore”.
CH/L – nsnbc 28.04.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/04/28/open-russia-banned-three-days-before-demonstrations-putin-spokesman-warns-against-illegal-protests-2/
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