Moscow protest site to be shut for construction

Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:46am EDT

* Kremlin critics say plans meant to prevent rallies

* Announcement precedes planned Aug 31 protest



By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Moscow authorities have said Triumph Square, a frequent site of opposition demonstrations, will be closed off within days for construction of a multi-level, 1,000-space underground parking garage.

Kremlin critics cried foul, saying the closure was meant, at least in part, to prevent them from demonstrating on the square on the 31st of each month -- a date symbolising the right to free assembly guaranteed in Article 31 of Russia's constitution.

"The authorities have a panicked fear of citizens gathering to demand that the government abide by the constitution," prominent human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva told Reuters.

Police have forcibly dispersed and detained protesters seeking to gather on Triumph Square in previous months, drawing criticism from the United States and Europe and deepening doubts about President Dmitry Medvedev's vows to protect civil rights.

Moscow officials have denied the closure had anything to do with protests. But the newspaper Kommersant suggested it was a convenient solution to a thorny problem for Russia's leaders.

"The opposition was testing the authorities' mettle, so to yield was impossible," Kommersant quoted an unidentified Kremlin administration source as saying.

Activists say they have the legal right to stage demonstrations without prior permission from the authorities, which is frequently denied on what they say are flimsy pretexts.

Among the reasons city authorities have given in the past for refusing permission for rallies on Triumph Square have been events scheduled to be held there at the same time, such as a stunt-biking show or a youth group gathering.

Activists usually defy the authorities by gathering despite the lack of permission, only to be dispersed by police or, in the case of prominent opposition figures, seized and shoved into buses before they even reach the square.

On July 31, Moscow police detained about 35 people who tried to protest on the square.

Russia's opposition is fragmented and hampered by public apathy, state control over major media outlets and the popularity of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who presided over a period of oil-fuelled growth during his 2000-2008 presidency.

But activists and analysts say the Kremlin, which has tightened its grip over politics and public life since Putin came to power, is highly sensitive about street protests.

"For them, stability is when people sit at home and do not gather publicly to express their opinions," said Alexeyeva, 82, who heads the Moscow Helsinki Group. Russia's leaders appear eager to avoid any protests ahead of parliamentary elections late next year and a 2012 presidential vote in which Putin has not ruled out a return to the Kremlin.

On Monday, Putin's ruling United Russia party said it was not nominating the unpopular governor of the Kaliningrad region, where a protest that drew 10,000 people last January was one of the largest in Russia in years, for a new term. The decision came ahead of opposition plans for a new protest in Kaliningrad on Saturday. (Editing by Alison Williams)

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