Update 04/01/11: Information added about protests at Dvortsovaya Square and in Ryazan.

Opposition rallies were held throughout Russia on Thursday as thousands of activists and human rights advocates continued to support the Strategy 31 campaign in defense of free assembly.

In Moscow, two separate rallies were held per recent tradition. Between 300 and 1000 people joined Strategy 31 co-leader Lyudmila Alexeyeva for a government-sanctioned rally at Pushkin Square, where the longtime rights advocate spoke alongside fellow advocate Lev Ponomarev, environmental activist Yevgeniya Chirikova, and others.

Moscow city police estimated the crowd at 150 ralliers and 150 journalists.

Only one person appears to have been arrested at the rally. Someone dressed as a pigeon was taken away after rally organizers told police it could be a possible act of provocation.

Further up the street at Triumfalnaya Square, Strategy 31 founder and Other Russia party leader Eduard Limonov attempted to hold his own, unsanctioned rally. According to Kasparov.ru, government officials turned down Limonov’s application to hold the rally on the basis that a pro-Kremlin youth group had already been given permission to hold a rally in support of blood drives, dubbed “Donor Day,” at the same place and time. However, the publication noted that no such activists were seen on Thursday at the square.

Police blocked off Triumfalnaya early in the day and did not allow ralliers to congregate on the square in general. “They’ve begun to kick everyone out. Standing here is prohibited!” photojournalist Ilya Varlamov wrote on Twitter from Triumfalnaya Square at 5:32 pm, half an hour before the rally was scheduled to begin.

Limonov was arrested immediately upon arrival. “They say I shouted a slogan: ‘respect the constitution of the Russian Federation,'” Limonov told reporters from a police station. “I don’t know since when that became a violation of the law.” Co-organizer Konstantin Kosyakin was also arrested.

Police periodically pushed ralliers out of the square and eventually towards the metro while arresting dozens of others. An estimated 36-50 people were arrested altogether.

Solidarity activist Dmitri Monakhov, who had apparently gone to buy a hotdog, was detained while on line at a Stardogs stand.

During the rally, several unknown young people managed to unfurl banners reading “Hooray! Nutcases, go! Strategy 32” on buildings high above the square but were subsequently arrested.

Around 7:00 pm, about 50 protesters began to march down Tverskaya Ulitsa towards the Kremlin, blocking traffic in the process. Police arrested several of the marchers, five of whom were reportedly beaten severely.

One beaten activist, Dmitri Putenikhin, is currently being held for 48 hours and has been issued a summons from a military enlistment office on the basis of his “prior offenses.” However, human rights advocate Andrei Babushkin told Kasparov.ru that the summons was counterfeit.

According to oppositionist Oleg Kozlovsky, activist Sergei Konstantinov was taken away from a police station in an ambulance due to wounds from police.

An activist detained in the Presnenskoe police station reported by Twitter that police were confiscating the cellphones of detainees.

Presidential human rights advisor Mikhail Fedotov told Interfax that he saw no problems with how police treated Strategy 31 participants. “Everything that I saw on Triumfalnaya Square was organized entirely civilly. They acted very carefully. I saw how several young people who decided to hop around on the scaffolding with a banner were taken down and brought to a bus by the hand. Precisely by the hand,” he said.

Many more people were arrested at two unsanctioned Strategy 31 rallies in St. Petersburg.

By various estimates, between 1000-2000 people began marching from Gostiny Dvor along Nevsky Prospekt at 6:00 pm, shouting “it’s our city, “Russia for the political prisoners,” “freedom,” and “Petersburg without Matviyenko,” referring to Governor Valentina Matviyenko.

The marchers initially walked along the sidewalk, but later spilled into the street. They were blocked by police after about 300-400 meters, at which point officers began arresting marchers. According to local Solidarity leader Olga Kurnosova, about 200 people were detained.

Just before 7:00 pm, opposition leader Boris Nemtsov announced to the crowd that the rally was over and attempted to leave on a trolleybus. However, police blocked the bus and dragged Nemtsov out, arresting both him and fellow oppositionist Ilya Yashin.

Earlier in the day, Nemtsov had presented his newly printed report “Putin. Corruption” at a press conference in St. Petersburg. The 40-page document is drawn from open source material and concludes that “corruption in Russia has ceased to be a problem and has become a system.”

Oleg Vorotnikhov of the art activist group Voina was arrested and severely beaten while in detention. Police have reportedly taken away his young son Kasper and are threatening to take away his parental rights altogether. Fellow Voina activists Leonid Gegen and Ira Putilova were also detained.

Other detainees included two journalists from Moscow, a journalist and cameraperson from Georgia’s Channel One, and a Swedish woman who does not understand Russian.

At least one person was taken away from a police station in an ambulance.

Approximately 200 people took part in a second unsanctioned Strategy 31 rally at Dvortsovaya Square, including members of the liberal Yabloko party and human rights advocates. Organizers say the rally was calm and encountered no police interference.

Other Strategy 31 rallies were held throughout Russia’s regions, including in Vladivostok, Saratov, Kurgan, Ulan-Ude, Penza, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, Kirov, Ryazan, and others.

At least 25 people were detained at an unsanctioned rally in Nizhny Novgorod. Activists were arrested immediately upon reaching the meeting place; several were beaten by police.

A rally in Rostov-on-Don was only successful after activists managed to obtain a court order forcing the local government to sanction it. All previous attempts to hold Strategy 31 events in the city had been blocked.

According to Kasparov.ru, authorities in Rostov-on-Don nevertheless attempted to hinder the rally by arresting its various organizers for “hooliganism.” Boris Batiy was sentenced to 3 days in jail and only released on the eve of the rally, Other Russia leader Grigory Elizarov was arrested for 7 days and will not be released until April 2, and local Left Front leader Vladislav Ryazantsev was forcibly placed in a psychiatric ward on March 30, despite having no history of psychological problems.

Approximately 100 people came out to the first-ever Strategy 31 rally in Volgograd. Police observed the event, filming and taking pictures from the sidelines. Participants spoke out against plans by the City Duma to get rid of direct mayoral elections.

Activists from Solidarity and other organizations held solitary pickets in Kirov since their application to hold a Strategy 31 rally was denied by the city government.

About 60 people came to a protest in Ryazan, where organizers spoke about censorship over the local media by Governor Oleg Kovalev that prevents them from informing the public about opposition demonstrations.

Mikhail Fedotov, secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists, was picked by the president on Tuesday to head the Presidential Civil Society Institution and Human Rights Council, as well as to be the president’s human rights advisor.

Fedotov has spoken out on numerous occasions in defense of freedom of the press and many other rights issues, but alo worked as federal press minister prior to his job in the Union of Journalists – a possible cause of concern for some rights activists. At the same time, Fedotov was also a member of opposition leader Garry Kasparov’s Free Choice 2008 committee, which issued a critical declaration of then-President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of crippling democratic freedoms and turning Russia into an autocratic state.

While most Russian human rights activists were positively surprised by Fedotov’s appointments, some took a more critical approach.

“Fedotov isn’t just a rights activist, he’s also a former bureaucrat of the first order, with all the attributes,” Kirill Kabanov of the National Anti-corruption Committee told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “I don’t understand whether his appointment is a promotion for the council or something else.”

Organizers of the Strategy 31 campaign in defense of free assembly immediately appealed to the new rights advisor to help solve the ongoing conflict between opposition activists and the Moscow city government over Triumfalnaya Square. Rallies held on the square have been routinely denied government sanction and brutally cracked down on by city law enforcement. On August 16, 2010, the authorities announced that the square would be closed until 2012 pending the construction of a massive underground parking garage, and issued a blanket ban on public events. Some opposition leaders have been attempting to get Triumfalnaya Square status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, thus preventing the construction, which they see as a ploy to prevent opposition protests.

In response, Fedotov promised to resolve the issue.

“I’ll try to do everything to ensure that this conflict disappears from the realm of public attention,” he told Interfax on Wednesday.

Fedotov said that conflicts do not exist to be stirred up, but to be settled. “How it’s going to be done, I’m not yet ready to say. I’m ready to use all possible means to get rid of this conflict. We need there to be less conflicts, not more,” he asserted.

However the issue is resolved, UNESCO is unlikely to play a role.

“As a former ambassador to UNESCO in Russia, I can say that the process of getting one site or another onto the UNESCO World Heritage List takes no less than five years,” Fedotov told Gazeta.ru. “Before getting onto that list, a site is first [put] onto a waiting list, and other procedures are carried out. We’re going to resolve the issue of Triumfalnaya Square much sooner.”

Update 4/6/10: The Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, turned down the State Duma’s bill during it’s Tuesday session. Mihkail Kapura, deputy chairman of the judicial committee, cited a lack of viability to implement such restrictions and the danger of bringing about the destruction of free speech.

A new law passed on Monday by the Russian State Duma will ban the media from reproducing any statements whatsoever issued by anyone deemed to be a terrorist, ITAR-TASS reports.

The bill was written by Robert Shlegel, a member of the leading United Russia party and former press secretary for the pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi. It will amend current legislation governing the media to include a ban on “the distribution of any material from persons wanted for or convicted of participating in terrorist activities.”

Shlegel said that the March 29 suicide bombings on the Moscow metro, which killed 40 people and injured more than 100, was the impetus for the bill. He said that he opposes giving a spotlight in the media to Doku Umarov, the Chechen rebel leader who has claimed responsibility for the attacks. He also criticized Google for allowing its YouTube video service to host a recording of Umarov’s post-March 29 statement.

“News about militants should consist only of reports about their destruction,” Shlegel concluded.

Amidst the heightened criticism at the Russian government’s failure to address terrorism originating in the country’s volatile North Caucasus region, some Kremlin supporters have accused the press of being terrorist collaborators. In particular, State Duma Speaker and United Russia member Boris Gryzlov singled out columnist Aleksandr Minkin of the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper as collaborating with the terrorists responsible for the March 29 attacks. Minkin has demanded an apology from Gryzlov and threatened to sue him for slander. Gryzlov has threatened a counter suit. Additionally, United Russia member Andrei Isayev has threatened that party members might sue Minkin for being a terrorist collaborator.

Director Oleg Panfilov of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations said that the new law will turn Russia into a country like North Korea and was another example of Shlegel’s “routine stupidity.” “It immediately raises the question,” he said, “Who do we label as terrorists? Those convicted by the court, or those that the bureaucrats consider to be terrorists?”

Secretary Mikhail Fedotov of the Russian Union of Journalists explained that nothing good could result from Russian society being deprived of information about the positions and confessions of alleged terrorists. “Society should know the face of its villains and understand what kind of evil it is being confronted with,” he stressed.

Even without the new law, the Russian media already faces complications with the authorities’ interpretation of current media legislation. Reports surfaced late Monday that the federal communications supervisory agency Roskomnadzor has accused the online edition of the Argumenty Nedeli newspaper of extremism for posting a video of Umarov’s statement. According to the agency, posting the video violates a law prohibiting the media from being used for extremist activity. The law, however, is criticized by oppositionists and human rights groups as being so vague as to allow the government to define extremism however they’d like, and has resulted in crackdowns on a wide variety of groups and individuals critical of the Kremlin.

Izvestia, one of Russia’s oldest and most prominent newspapers, has been issued a warning against printing “extremist” material, Kommersant reported on Tuesday.

The warning from the Moscow city prosecutor came after Izvestia published an article entitled “the New Russia and the New Turkey in the New World” by controversial State Duma Deputy Sergei Markov of the leading United Russia party.

According to the prosecutor, content in the article “approves of the activities of the leader of the prohibited religious association ‘Nurdzhular,'” a russification for followers of Islamic scholar Said Nursi.

The article had been timed to coincide with the visit of Turkish President Abdullah Gül to Moscow last February. While Markov does mention “Nurdzhular” leader Fethullah Gülen, the text does not name the association itself.

“Moderate trends of Islam are becoming more popular in Turkey,” Markov wrote. “Fethullah Gülen and his colleagues, who in principle do not deal with questions of politics, are developing the ideological basis of moderate Islam. This experience is useful for Russia, which is also searching for ways to unite Western institutions and national identity.”

The newspaper is now required to respond to the warning with a letter to the prosecutor, or alternatively it may file a complaint in court.

“In accordance with the law ‘Concerning the Media,’ prohibited organizations may not be mentioned in texts without a note that they are banned by decision of the court. But absolutely nothing prevents a publication from writing about the person who leads it,” said Mikhail Fedotov, secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia. “This would be equal to banning Hitler’s name, and therefore I see no violation of the law here.”

Russian human rights advocates have long called for existing legislation regulating extremism to be annulled, and for the Interior Ministry’s notorious Center for Extremism Prevention to be dissolved.

Opponents of the legislation allege that the extraordinarily vague formulation of the understanding of “extremism” in the Russian criminal code is appropriated by government authorities to persecute opposition activists and media.

In a recent example of such appropriation, law enforcement legal experts in the port city of Novorossiysk judged the slogan “They don’t give freedom, they take it” as extremist. On this basis, authorities attempted to close a regional branch of the human rights organization For Human Rights, which held a rally in April 2009 using the slogan.