Moscow Sanctions ‘Day of Wrath’ for the First Time

Moscow city authorities have agreed to sanction the opposition’s Day of Wrath protest for the first time ever. As Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports:

An opposition group in Moscow says it has been given the green light to hold an antigovernment protest in the Russian capital next week, RFE/RL’s Russian Service reports.

The Left Front opposition movement said the February 12 “Day of Wrath” protest would air a range of demands under the slogan “Time for a change at the top.”

The demands include a halt in tariff rises, direct elections for regional governors, and the preservation of the threatened Khimki Forest near Moscow.

Authorities refused permission for all previous Day of Wrath protests in 2010, and police routinely stepped in to arrest demonstrators.

Sergei Udaltsov, a Left Front leader and one of the campaign’s organizers, told RFE/RL that authorities banned the protesters from marching to the presidential administration building in Moscow.