According to Ekho Moskvy radio, May Day events in Moscow that had been sanctioned by the city government included five demonstrations, three processions, and eleven rallies. One of the processions was organized by the opposition movement Solidarity, which counted members from a variety of other opposition groups and public organizations among its 500 participants. Prominent figures in the procession included United Civil front leader Garry Kasparov, former Deputy Prime Minister and Solidarity cofounder Boris Nemtsov, and former police Major Aleksei Dymovsky. Participants carried posters, political insignia, and a gigantic Russian flag spanning several meters in length while chanting “Russia without Putin,” “Moscow without Luzhkov,” “Putin is Brezhnev, Putin is Stalin,” “We need the Other Russia,” and “Putin must go,” among other slogans.

Although a smoke bomb was set off at one point during the procession, the police did not move to detain anyone. Protesters believe that a provocateur set off the bomb. Despite that, the procession successfully made its way to Moscow’s riverside Bolotnaya Square, where the event ended with a cultural festival. Police detained several people on the square without explanation, including Andrei Moiseyev, co-leader of Solidarity’s Moscow branch and one of the event’s organizers. Moiseyev was escorted away by police together with a reproduction of a painting by artist Dmitri Vrubel, entitled “The Kiss of Putin and Brezhnev” that he was holding. Also detained were artist activist Pyotr Verzilov, his wife, several musicians, and event co-organizer Sergei Davidis. Police gave no explanations for any of the detentions.

Elsewhere in Moscow, at least five thousand people turned out for a demonstration held by the Communist party. In addition to the Communists themselves, members of the Left Front, the National Bolsheviks, the anti-fascist group Antifa, and anarchist organizations also joined the protest.

The liberal opposition group Yabloko also held a demonstration in Moscow, with approximately 1200 participants. Chief among speakers at the event was Yabloko leader Sergei Mitrokhin, who warned against allowing Prime Minister Putin to return to the presidency in 2012. “We need a new president who won’t rob the people of their rights and freedoms – who will fight not against the opposition, but against corruption,” he said to the crowd.

Another protest dubbed the Day of Anger was held in Moscow by the opposition group Left Front. A wide variety of oppositions, human rights advocates, environmental activists and social justice advocates came together to express their collective grief with Moscow’s ruling elite – in particular, Mayor Yury Luzhkov and Governor Boris Gromov.

Controversy had surrounded plans for the Day of Anger all last week. Left Front leader and event organizer Sergei Udaltsov had said on Wednesday that the city had sanctioned the event, but the mayor’s office denied this the next day. It remained unclear up to the end whether the rally had really been officially sanctioned or not – a vital factor, since participating in an unsanctioned rally in Russia is punishable by law, and many unsanctioned rallies end with participants being beaten and/or arrested by the police. In any case, the rally went on, but Udaltsov was detained at the end. The official reason cited by police was that more people had taken part than Udaltsov had indicated on the application for sanction. According to Left Front press secretary Anastasia Udaltsova, the unofficial version for Udaltsov’s detention, as told by several police officers, was that “representatives of the Moscow government would like to have a chat with him.”

In the city of Kaliningrad, approximately three thousand demonstrators took part in a rally of various opposition groups. According to Kasparov.ru, what began as a traditional May Day demonstration evolved into an anti-government rally. Participants brought signs to the event reading “Peace, work, May – no work, no housing,” and held up tangerines, which have become a symbol of public protest in the city in recent months. Following that, however, protesters began chants demanding for the federal government to resign.

In St. Petersburg, a procession planned by democratic opposition groups was banned by city authorities. Olga Kurnosova, executive director of the pro-democracy group United Civil Front, said that the reason involved the slogan that the protesters had planning to use, which called for St. Petersburg Governor and Putin favorite Valentina Matviyenko to resign. Supposedly, the slogan did not correspond with the slogan written on the application to hold the rally that was filed with the city. Therefore, the procession was banned altogether. Despite that, about seven hundred oppositionists held a stationary demonstration where the procession was supposed to take off from.

A photo gallery of the various events in Moscow is available here at Grani.ru.

Dmitri Soloviev, a blogger and activist of the Oborona opposition movement, was notified on Monday of the December 31 decision. According to the document sent to the blogger, two groups of investigators found no evidence that any crime had actually been committed.

Soloviev had been charged in August 2008 with inciting hatred against police and federal security agents with a series of posts on LiveJournal.

Investigators had initially claimed that the five posts “instigated social strife” due to their content regarding the police.

The posts, under Soloviev’s username dimon77, included phrases accusing federal security agents of killing Russian children and assertions that the police would not succeed in breaking up the Oborona movement.

Advocates for the blogger maintained that the majority of the posts included material previously published elsewhere on the internet, and, furthermore, represented legitimate criticisms of specific actions of law enforcement officers.

As part of the investigation, Soloviev’s computer and notebook had both been confiscated, preventing him from completing his graduate dissertation.

Oborona leader Oleg Kozlovsky said that the decision to drop the case was “unprecedented in recent Russian history.” He added, however, that the case was very much an exception, as Soloviev’s case was only one of many similar, high-profile lawsuits against Russian bloggers.

In November, blogger Oleg Kozyrev launched a trade union for bloggers, citing the need for an organization to protect the rights and freedoms of the authors of online content.

Numerous Russian bloggers have been arrested and jailed under charges of extremism, inciting hatred, or instigating social discord. Most recently, 22-year old Ivan Peregorodiev was arrested in the southern city of Saratov in December and charged with disseminating false information related to an act of terrorism after he discussed rumors on his blog that victims of swine flu actually had pneumonic plague.

One demonstration at Prechistinskiye Gates took the form of a funeral memorial, with participants lighting candles and laying flowers at the base of a copy of the nation’s governing document.

The demonstration was jointly organized by the United Civil Front, Oborona, and the movement We. Together with a number of other activists, the group held placards enumerated the articles of the constitution that they believe no longer function. Another placard declared “In Russia, human rights are observed on three counts – the right to be silent, the right to endure, and the right to die.”

Roman Dobrokhotov, leader of the movement We, explained the reasoning behind the form of the protest. “Today we want to commemorate the constitution of the Russian Federation; since its birth we have observed the asymmetries of government authorities, and those have lead to its sudden death,” he said.

Dobrokhotov went on to say that the constitution has been subjected to “political incest” since 2000, the beginning of Putin’s first term as president.

Boris Nemtsov, a former Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the opposition Solidarity movement, said that authorities aim “to trample and annihilate the constitution and to strip citizens of all rights.” He added that censorship and alienation from the electoral process was harming the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens.

“Unfortunately, the majority of citizens feel that they have no power to contend with this. But there are nevertheless people in this country who are prepared to fight for freedom,” Nemtsov said.

Towards the end of the demonstration, participants laid a funeral wreath at the foot of the constitution while the national hymn played in the background. It concluded with a moment of silence, and the proceeding arrest of Dobrokhotov by law enforcement agents.

Solidarity activists held another demonstration outside the doors of the presidential administrative building in central Moscow. Approximately fifty people took part in the unsanctioned protest, holding placards with letters that together spelled out “Observe the constitution!”

A few minutes after the start of the demonstration, a number of men in plain clothes, believed to be officers from the Federal Guard Service, ran out of the building and began to aggressively detain the protestors.

While most of the activists managed to escape, six were detained, and the men confiscated a number of cameras and videos.

According to a survey released on Thursday, respect among Russians for the constitution has doubled over the past seven years. The number of Russians who feel that the constitution is unimportant and not respected fell to 21 percent from 40 percent in 2002, and those who feel that it should be amended only in extremely rare circumstances rose from to 47 percent from 35 percent in 2000.

The constitution of the Russian Federation was adopted through a popular referendum on December 12, 1993. The most recent amendment to the document was incorporated approximately a year ago by President Dmitri Medvedev, lengthening the presidential term from four years to six.

Activists from the Smena (Change) and Oborona (Defense) movements met with members of Garry Kasparov’s United Civil Front, the National Bolshevik Party and the Free Radicals movement. According to Moscow city authorities, some 250 militsiya officers were on hand during the protest. Organizers showed a reel of video and photos from protest actions that took place in 2008.

Vsevolod Chernozub, an activist from the Free Radicals movement, told the assembled group that 2008 really started with the March presidential election. “The opposition tried to make the elections competitive, but neither [Vladimir] Bukovsky, nor [Garry] Kasparov, nor [Mikhail] Kasyanov were allowed to participate in the elections,” he said. “Then, those who didn’t agree chose to protest by not participating in the farce.”

The screen then showed members of the opposition protesting by ruining their ballots.

“After the election,” Chernozub went on, “the dissenters took to the streets in a protest march, where many participants were arrested and beaten.” The screen then showed images of riot police attacking demonstrators during the March 2008 March of Dissent.

“The next episode which distinguished the year was Vladimir Putin’s appointment to the post of Prime-Minister,” the activist continued. “Putin, by leaving [the post of president], didn’t go anywhere.” Dmitri Medvedev’s election as president came with many words and promises, but little change, the speaker said.

Chernozub went on to list other events from the year which he said exemplified present-day Russia: the case of former Yukos attorney Svetlana Bakhmina, who was kept in lockup after giving birth in prison; the case of Vasily Aleksanyan, a deathly-ill former Yukos vice-president who was finally allowed out on bail for 50 million rubles, a figure he and his family could not afford; the “accidental” killing of Ingush opposition leader Magomed Yevloyev in police custody; the severe beating of Mikhail Beketov, editor-in-chief of the Khimkinskaya Pravda newspaper.

Videos and images from the December 14th March of Dissent in Moscow, and from car-enthusiast protests in Russia’s far east were then shown on the screen. OMON riot police could be seen assaulting demonstrators on the screen.

Participants changed slogans including “We need another Russia!” and “Down with the chekist regime!”

Organizers also announced that a new March of Dissent would take place on January 31st 2009, but did not provide full details on the protest.

The activists were on their way to an opposition protest in Moscow called a “March of Dissent.” City officials had refused to sanction the event, and had brought in an army of riot police in anticipation of the March. As result, organizers cancelled the demonstration at the last minute for fear of the safety of participants. But many participants were already on their way, and were arrested as they approached the scene, or tried to stage smaller demonstrations.

Of the 60 or so demonstrators who were arrested in Moscow, some 20 were doled out administrative arrests ranging form 3 to 13 days.

Oleg Kozlovsky was one of those arrested, and was quickly sentenced to 13 days of lockup by Moscow’s Basmanny Court. He was charged with failure to obey militsiya officers as he walked toward the planned gathering spot. The activist himself said the arrest was an attempt to keep him from taking part in the National Assembly, an alternate parliament organized by the opposition. The Assembly’s first session is scheduled for May 17th and 18th.

Kozlovsky has been a frequent target of arrest and harassment by authorities. In December 2007, he was stopped outside his home and subsequently conscripted into the army. The opposition leader had completed a reserve training course during his studies at the Moscow State University, and was exempt from further military service. Still, he was transferred to a military unit and enlisted. He was only demobilized on March 4th, after a long campaign by relatives and human rights activists to prove his exemption from service.

Kozlovsky is currently being held in temporary detention in Moscow. He has appealed his arrest, and will go before new court on May 12th.

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For up-to-date information on Oleg Kozlovsky, visit his English-language Blog (ENG)

OMON Special Forces have violently dispersed a sanctioned opposition protest in Moscow, the Sobkor®ru news agency reports. Around 40 people had gathered in Arbat square, coming together to speak out against violations in the December 2nd State Duma elections. The demonstrators also brought signs to show support for Oleg Kozlovsky, a leader of the Oborona youth movement.

On December 20th, Kozlovsky was apprehended near his house by a district militsiya officer, and taken to the local military enlistment office. Young men in Russia are required to serve as conscripts in the Russian army, although exemptions are made for University students, and students may train to become reserve officers instead. Kozlovsky had completed training courses at Moscow State University, and was certified into the officer corps.

The enlistment office claimed to have lost Kozlovsky’s documents, and proceeded to question him. Subsequently, he was illegally enlisted into the army as a common soldier. Kozlovsky was also subjected to a medical examining board, which ignored a medical condition that excludes him from service. He has since been sent to a military base to start his service.

Roman Dobrokhotov, another youth leader who attended the protest, said:

“Oleg Kozlovsky is my friend, and we have organized political actions together many a time. It is apparent to me, that if a person with medical issues, who is studying at University and holds the rank of reserve officer suddenly finds himself at a military enlistment office – that is a political order from above.”

The peaceful demonstration lasted only half an hour. Swinging night sticks, officers charged the demonstrators, hauling some 20 people off onto waiting mini-buses. Their crime is described as changing the subject of the picket from what it was registered as. As yet it remains uncertain whether any of the protestors were seriously injured.

The Other Russia coalition has denounced the arrests, and has said that Kozlovsky’s detention was politically motivated. “We take note that the Oleg Kozlovsky’s forcible dispatch to the army represents yet another method in the campaign against political activists. It stands side by side with murders, beatings, forced psychiatric hospitalization, threats, arrests, shake-downs, and other,” the coalition’s press-release stated.