The proposal was made late Monday to Strategy 31 co-organizer and prominent rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva. Speaking to Ekho Moskvy radio, Alexeyeva said she “was just at the mayor’s office,” where officials said they were willing to “widen the part” of Triumfalnaya Square that they had proposed last week for the oppositionists to rally. The expansion, said officials, would “block traffic,” but if no more than 800 people took part in the rally, it would not be broken up by police as in each past Strategy 31 rally. “They say that about 800 people plus the press will fit there,” said the rights activist. She did not rule out, however, that more people might try to participate.

“It’s very important that people who definitely want to be at the rally come on time, because when the space fills up, it could be difficult to get there,” noted Alexeyeva. She also expressed hope that the other two Strategy 31 organizers, Other Russia party leader Eduard Limonov and Left Front representative Konstantin Kosyakin, would agree with her to accept the proposal, so that the Russian opposition could finally hold a rally in defense of the constitutional right to free assembly without being broken up by police.

The mayor’s office originally agreed to sanction the rally only if no more than 200 people showed up, but then reneged on their offer when rally organizers insisted on letting 1500 people protest.

A source in the mayor’s office told the Interfax news agency that the city was not willing to take down a construction barrier and remove equipment currently taking up the majority of space in the square, as oppositionists requested last week that they do in order to allow the usual 1500 or so protesters to take part in the event.

After talks on Monday night, however, the three Strategy 31 organizers were unable to reach a consensus on whether or not to accept the city’s proposal. According to Ekho Moskvy, Limonov and Kosyakin now plan to write a another letter to the mayor’s office asking for 1500 people to be allowed to come out to the rally. Alexeyeva said she would not be signing the letter.

Limonov had earlier expressed both surprise at the proposal and skepticism in general. “For my part, I can also say that we were told that there was only space for 200 people; where all of a sudden, in the course of a day, did space for another 600 come from?” he said.

Organizers of the Strategy 31 campaign received permission for the first time ever on Wednesday to legally hold one of their rallies on Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square on October 31, 2010. However, the authorities stipulated that no more than 200 people would be allowed to participate. On Thursday, organizers said that they would ask the mayor’s office once again to allow at least 1500 people to rally on the square.

The request did not go over well with city officials. “The government of Moscow takes note that it has received a letter from rally organizers that cannot be judged as anything other than a provocation,” said a press release from the mayor’s office on Friday.

The statement goes on to say that the oppositionists’ letter “contains a written rejection of all variants proposed [by the mayor’s office] and a demand to allow a rally to be held on Triumfalnaya Square numbering 1500 people.”

Therefore, the application has been turned down altogether.

Oppositionists plan to rally on the square regardless.

“We’re coming to the rally,” said Eduard Limonov, leader of the Other Russia party and one of the rally’s organizers. “The constitution guarantees us this right.”

Renowned rights advocate Lyudmila Alexeyeva and opposition leaders Eduard Limonov and Konstantin Kosyakin, whose Strategy 31 rallies are held on the 31st of every month in defense of the freedom of assembly guaranteed by the 31st article of the constitution, said in a letter to the Prosecutor that their efforts to avoid conflict while maintaining their constitutional rights during their March 31 rally went unheeded by the city administration. Specifically, the organizers stressed that they had sent the mayor a letter on February 24 asking him to recommend that other events planned for the same time and location be moved to avoid any overlap.

Even though the mayor’s office knew that the Strategy 31 protest was going to be held despite a lack of official sanction, they chose not to inform the organizers that their traditional place of protest, on their traditional date, and at their traditional time was going to be occupied by their ideological opponents, said the activists. As it turned out, approximately three thousand pro-Kremlin youth activists held a dance party rally against terrorism alongside the Strategy 31 protesters that day. While no violent clashes between the two groups broke out, the oppositionists were very concerned at the heightened tension that the mayor’s office allowed to result.

“It gives the impression that the mayor’s office intentionally provoked a clash between our followers – peaceful citizens who came to defend their right to the freedom of assembly, and youth organizations known for their nasty reputation,” says the letter. On that basis, the organizers asked the Prosecutor General to investigate the activities of the mayor’s office.

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov has had expressed conflicting thoughts about the Strategy 31 rallies.

Alexeyeva, Limonov, and Kosyakin have also appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in connection with the fact that the Moscow city authorities have refused to sanction a single one of the Strategy 31 rallies since their inception last May. Furthermore, each of the rallies has resulted in scores of protesters being beaten and detained by police. International rights organizations, the Council of Europe, and United States government have criticized the Russian authorities for failing to observe the right to free assembly and using excessive force against the Strategy 31 participants.