Authorities in Moscow disperse peaceful assembly and fail to protect participants from violence by counter-demonstrators The Russian authorities continue to use the restrictive national law governing street gatherings to arbitrarily deny the right to freedom of assembly to people in Russia and penalise peaceful demonstrators. At the same time, the authorities also fail to protect protesters against violent attacks by counter-demonstrators. On 7 August 2013, a group calling themselves Russian Pastafarian Church of Flying Spaghetti Monster sent a formal notification to the local authorities, as required by the Russian Law “On assembly, meetings, demonstrations, rallies and pickets”, that it intended to hold a “Pasta Procession” on Arbat, a popular pedestrian street in central Moscow. The organisers’ stated aim was to attract attention to the diversity of religious beliefs in the country and to express their support and solidarity with this newly found group. However, in an official notification of 9 August, the authorities refused the organisers a permission to proceed with their plans because, as it stated, there were no provisions in the Law for any such public rally as “Pasta Procession”. The authorities also argued that the event might block the pedestrian pathway and obstruct local residents’ access to their homes. At the same time they failed to suggest an alternative location or timing for the proposed event as the Law prescribes them. On 17 August 2013, several dozen members of the group met in a different central location in Moscow. They were wearing pirate costumes, tricorns and colanders as hats, and carrying pasta. According to an organiser of the event interviewed by Amnesty International, this was a peaceful non-political gathering. The participants carried no placards and made no public announcements, and did not act disorderly or engage in any behaviour or activity that was not peaceful, violated traffic rules or caused other disruption. These claims are corroborated by the video footage of the event which widely available on the internet.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 19:58:47 +0000