With a new mayor and a rift between rally organizers, nobody knew what to expect from Moscow’s Strategy 31 rally. When the three organizers – Moscow Helsinki Group head Lyudmila Alexeyeva, National Bolshevik leader Eduard Limonov, and Left Front representative Konstantin Kosyakin – were told by the mayor’s office that they would be allowed to hold a rally for no more than 200 people on Triumfalnaya Square, it was both the first time ever that such permission had been granted and the first time that the trio had become so split on how to respond. Alexeyeva came to an agreement with the mayor’s office to allow a rally for 800, while Limonov and Kosyakin chose to split off and hold a separate rally – on the same square, at the same time, and still under the banner of Strategy 31 – unsanctioned and thus more liable to a police crackdown, but for as many people as wanted to come.

According to Gazeta.ru, Moscow city police were given an order ahead of the rally to avoid detaining participants and to behave in an appropriate fashion. To ensure this, Police Chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev and the new deputy mayor in charge of work with city law enforcement, Vladimir Shukshin, were present at the rally to observe. Presidential rights advisor Mikhail Fedotov and federal Human Rights Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin also came as observers.  And it showed. Metal detectors were set up at the entrance to the sanctioned part of the rally, and police stopped traffic to allow activists arriving from the metro to cross the street. OMON riot police, who are most often noted in the media for their particularly brutal treatment of opposition protesters, were heard yelling into a microphone: “Go to Alexeyeva, she’s waiting for you.” About 1000 showed up for the sanctioned event.

Protesters who chose to join with Limonov and Kosyakin were forced to squish onto the terrace outside the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, which borders Triumfalnaya Square. At the height of the rally, the crowd was estimated at between 1500-2000 people. Police made several detentions when activists from the unsanctioned rally attempted to saw open the barrier that is currently blocking off the majority of Triumfalnaya Square for construction. Another two were detained for setting off smoke bombs.

A half hour after the rally began, police formed a human chain and began to push the unsanctioned crowd towards Alexeyeva’s event, knocking over the metal detectors in the process. According to Ekho Moskvy radio, Limonov himself was hoisted by his arms and legs over that part of the square. Once inside, ralliers were not allowed back out.

While this was going on, Lyudmila Alexeyeva and singer Katya Gordon were giving speeches to their crowd, with Gordon shaming the police for jamming Limonov’s ralliers together and Alexeyeva hailing the sanctioned event as “our shared achievement.” “I want to thank you for coming to Triumfalnaya Square on every 31st date for the course of a year and a half,” said the elderly rights activist. “We must force the government to treat our rights with respect.”

A number of notable civic organizations had representatives at Alexeyeva’s rally, including Lev Ponomarev of For Human Rights, Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov, Solidarity members Boris Nemtsov, Ilya Yashin, Sergei Davidis, and Oleg Kozlovsky, Khimki Forest defense activist Yevgeniya Chirkova, and representatives from the Memorial human rights center. Nemtsov decried the conflict between the Strategy 31 organizers, saying that “we mustn’t give the Kremlin such a gift as a schism.” He then proposed that ralliers gather once again on December 31 and end their rally by marching on the Kremlin.

After an hour, the sanctioned rally was over, and both organizers and police began asking people to leave. However, a group of between 300-800 people broke off and began marching south down the Garden Ring towards the Russian White House, blocking traffic and apparently taking Nemtsov’s words as a call to immediate action. Police broke up the crowd amidst cries of “it’s our city!” and “revolution!”

At that point, most of the marchers scattered, but about 30 reformed and continued to march on the White House. Mobile Twitter messages from those present gave some insight into the group’s mentality. “Part of the group has set off for the White House, IMHO in vain: you really need to know when to stop,” tweeted Solidarity member Oleg Kozlovsky.

According to reporter Ilya Azar, “Nobody knows where the White House is. Kozlovsky is asking people not to go and nobody is listening to him.” Eventually, OMON riot police caught up with the marchers, and half ran away. Gazeta.ru reported that seven were detained right outside of the White House entrance, including activist Marina Litvinovich, Kasparov.ru correspondent Pavel Nikulin, and Polit.ru journalist Maria Klimova.

The total 38 detainees were released on Monday morning from holding cells in Moscow, according to Other Russia representative Aleksandr Averin.

Two separate rallies in defense of free assembly were also held in St. Petersburg on Sunday. About 1000 people gathered at Gostiny Dvor, were police immediately began making detentions. Another 300 people rallied at Dvortsovaya Square. Police began detaining those activists after they unfurled a 30-meter-long Russian flag.

Other Strategy 31 events were held in the Russian cities of Vladivostok, Kurgan, Penza, Murmansk, Tver, Ekaterinburg, Samara, Astrakhan, Sochi, Ryazan, Krasnodarsk, and others, largely without incident.

For the second time in a row, about 50 protesters also held a solidarity rally outside of the Russian embassy in London. Participants included exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky, former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, and Marina Litvinenko, the widow of murdered ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko.

Video from RIA Novosti on the Moscow protest (in Russian):

Russian police detained as many as 170 protesters on Monday evening in Moscow, as more than 1000 opposition activists gathered for the ninth iteration of the Strategy 31 rallies, a series of protests in defense of the constitutional right to the freedom of assembly. Activists and observers present at the rally say that the violence used by the police against protesters was even more brutal than it has been in previous Strategy 31 events, resulting in dozens of injuries and at least two hospitalizations.

Despite repeated appeals by opposition organizers, the Moscow city government refused to sanction the May 31 rally – an ongoing trend that has been criticized by human rights groups and governmental bodies in Russia, Europe, and the United States. Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square, which the organizers have made their traditional meeting place, had been occupied since earlier in the day by a group of pro-Kremlin youth organizations holding a rally in support of blood drives. Additionally, the entrance to the square from the adjacent metro station had been cordoned off by police.

Such was the scene when Strategy 31 protesters began to arrive for the 6:00 pm rally. According to the Kasparov.ru news site, a young man wearing a shirt indicating that he was involved with the blood drive rally grabbed a poster reading “down with the illegal government” out of the hands of one of the protesters. At that point, the crowd began loudly chanting, and police then began to make detentions.

Eyewitnesses noted that particularly harsh measures were used against participants of the rally. Police dragged protesters, including young women, along the ground and shoved them into buses waiting nearby. They also broke journalists’ cameras and fired pepper spray into the crowd, regardless of the fact that pregnant women and children were present.

Police went about the detentions and general brutality despite the presence of observers from the European Parliament, Russian Human Rights Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, reappointed by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in 2009, and Moscow Human Rights Ombudsman Aleksandr Muzykantsky. The police, in fact, attempted to detain Lukin before realizing who he was.

Editor-in-Chief of the New Times magazine, Yevgeniya Albats, was also detained, but was quickly released after she began reporting live from the scene, presumably by cell phone or through other reporters present.

Two of the three Strategy 31 organizers, former Soviet dissident Lyudmila Alexeyeva and writer Eduard Limonov (both of whom have been detained at previous rallies), were surrounded a ring of personal guards and reporters during Monday’s event. The police, however, violently detained the guards for no apparent reason. At the same time, people in the same blood drive rally shirts as the previously mentioned young man attempted to provoke fights with those surrounding the organizers.

Kasparov.ru reports that police detained at least 140 people in all, while Interfax reports the figure as closer to 170. Among those detained were Solidarity bureau member Ilya Yashin, Oborona coordinator Oleg Kozlovsky, Forum.msk news site Editor-in-Chief Anatoly Baranov, Sergei Aksenov of the Other Russia coalition, and Konstantin Kosyakin, the third Strategy 31 organizer. Numerous other journalists were also arrested. Reporting from one of the police buses, Solidarity member Nadezhda Mityushkin said that activists were being severely beaten, Kozlovsky in particular.

The detainees were split up and taken to several different police stations, where the situation for many began to deteriorate. Writing on their microblogs, a number of the detained activists said that OMON riot police held them in hot buses for more than an hour and refused to give them water. An ambulance was eventually called for one Solidarity member who became sick after being kept in one for “several hours.”

The most scandalous case appears to be that of Solidarity activist and Gazeta.ru journalist Aleksandr Artemev, who was hospitalized after police allegedly crushed his shoulder to pieces. The incident allegedly occurred when police ordered detainees off of one of the police buses, before following to violently shoved them back in.

Kasparov.ru reports that doctors have diagnosed Artemev with a comminuted shoulder fracture; as a result, he will have to spend ten days in the hospital.

Artemev noted that he came to the Strategy 31 rally as a civil activist, not as a journalist, and that he did not present his journalist credentials to police upon being detained.

The activist also said that he plans to file suit against the police, and that he has several witnesses as well as video footage of the incident.

Mikhail Mikhailov, editor-in-chief of Gazeta.ru, told Kasparov.ru that the incident was “monstrous.”

“The horror of it is that the police officers used violence against a person who possesses a passport as a citizen of the Russian Federation, and at that did it openly, fearing nothing,” said Mikhailov.

Colonel Aleksandr Khavkin, head of the Zamoskvoreche police station where Artemev was injured, denied that his officers were at fault.

Editor-in-Chief Svetlana Mironyuk of RIA Novosti, who also heads the Public Council of the Moscow City Police, told Gazeta.ru that what happened to Artemev was “outrageous” and promised that the council would invite him to give his side of the story.

Solidarity Executive Director Denis Bilunov said that once inside one of the police stations, the detained activists were held for five hours before being interrogated by men presumed to be Federal Security Service (FSB) officials.

Kasparov.ru reported Tuesday morning that most of the detainees were held by police overnight, and that by this afternoon some had still not been released. The majority are being charged with participating in an unsanctioned event (punishable by up to a 1000 ruble/$32 fine) and resisting a police officer (up to 15 days in detention).

Opposition activists also held a Strategy 31 rally in St. Petersburg. Police detained between 50 and 100 of the 500 gathered on Gostiny Dvor after the crowd began to shout “We need a different Russia” and “Russia will be free.”

Elsewhere in the city, 1500 oppositionists gathered for a “March of Dissent,” also dedicated to defending the constitutional right to free assembly. According to United Civil Front’s St. Petersburg branch leader Olga Kurnosova, OMON riot police initially attempted to block the march before backing down in the face of the insistent protesters.

Yury Shevchuk, leader of the rock band DDT and outspoken Kremlin critic, had asked Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday whether or not the march would be allowed. The prime minister then responded that it would be allowed if participants acted legally and did not, for example, hold the march near a hospital. The media followed to take his words as an official sanction of the march, although Putin’s press secretary refuted this the next day.

Additionally, in an interview with Gazeta.ru published on Sunday, Shevchuk said that he had received a call from the Russian White House before the meeting and was asked not to pose any “harsh questions of a political character” to the prime minister, because “the prime minister is very tired and you don’t need to irritate and upset him.”

Solidarity bureau member and former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov took part in the March of Dissent in St. Petersburg, and commented on the situation in Moscow on his blog:

The situation in Moscow is markedly worse. More than 100 people have been detained, including our colleagues Ilya Yashin and Oleg Kozlovsky. Yashin was holding a Russian flag, Kozlovsky was holding nothing in general. They were held in a scorching hot bus, and are now waiting in the stations. This is a question of the dialogue between Shevchuk and Putin the other day. There are no hospitals on Triumfalnaya Square or Gostiny Dvor, nobody besides the OMON officers themselves blocked traffic. Nobody held banners or used megaphones. Nevertheless, there are more than 100 detainees. A classic example of hypocrisy and lies. Say one thing, think another, do something else.

Of course, having met with Putin, Shevchuk held his March of Dissent spectacularly. And decent people are grateful to him for that. But with Putin, like always – spite, an attempt to deride a distinguished rock musician, and a pathological fear of his own people.

In addition to the events in Moscow and St. Petersburg, several other Strategy 31 rallies were held on Monday all across Russia, including in the cities of Tomsk, Voronezh, Vladivostok, Omsk, and Krasnoyarsk.

A video of the proceedings in Moscow can be seen by clicking here (note: the music that comes on halfway through was from the blood drive rally organizers).

Correction – June 9, 2010:  This story originally reported that the event held by pro-Kremlin youth groups was a blood drive. It was, in fact, a rally in support of the idea of a blood drive; no blood was donated at the event. The article has been corrected to reflect as much.

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.

Planners from the Other Russia coalition opted not to obtain permission from city officials, describing past instances where authorities responded by banning the meetings and using force against participants.  On Wednesday, police leadership warned that they would stop any public protest “not cruelly, but harshly.”

In Moscow, where a reported 4,000 police were put on duty, around 200 protestors marched down Prospekt Mira (Avenue of Peace), blocking traffic and chanting “Freedom for political prisoners!” , “We need another Russia!” , and “Russian without Putin!”  Preliminary reports said that 15 people, including journalists from the Kommersant newspaper and the Associated Press, were briefly detained by police.

Protestors in other cities, from Orel to Yekaterinburg to Magnitogorsk, expressed their own grievances, from inflating food costs to discontent with how recent regional elections were handled.

In the week leading up to the Day of Dissent, opposition activists reported abuses and intimidation on the part of police.  A handful of young members from the banned National Bolshevik party were arrested Tuesday and sentenced to two months arrest on charges of “hooliganism.”  Oleg Kozlovsky, the leader of the Oborona (Defense) movement, was similarly arrested on the campus of Moscow State University Wednesday with three other activists.  The group was distributing leaflets and informing students about the Day of Dissent using a megaphone.  Oborona later released a press-release saying Kozlovsky had run away from the police station, although the other activists remained behind bars pending a court date on charges of petty hooliganism.

The first Day of Dissent took place on January 31st, 2009.  Before that, opposition groups had staged larger demonstrations known as Marches of Dissent.  Organizers said they decided to decentralize the protests in an effort to keep police from shutting them down.

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)

“In a situation where acting political institutions in the country have been practically eliminated, a platform is needed where our country’s agenda can be discussed,” he continued. Around 500 to 600 members are expected to take part in the National Assembly, and a list will be finalized at the start of April, after various opposition conferences in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Eduard Limonov, the chairman of The Other Russia’s executive committee, added that the National Assembly was an attempt to create an agency where the problems of the country could be discussed and solved. “If we aren’t stopped by jails and bullets, then everything we do will succeed,” he said.

“After the presidential elections, the credibility of the State Duma fell to zero,” said Oleg Kozlovsky, a coordinator of the “Oborona” (Defense) youth movement. “The National Assembly will fill the space that the State Duma should be filling.” He noted the importance that “all forces that stand for the strengthening of Russia’s society and for democratic institutions of power, affirm this in practice and take part in the work of the Assembly.”

Kasparov added that mass demonstrations known as “Marches of Dissent,” were being scheduled for Moscow and St. Petersburg at the time of Dmitri Medvedev’s inauguration in the first week of May. A formal letter has been sent to Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, relating that other massive gatherings, such as those during the St. Patrick’s day celebration, have gone smoothly. “This means that the authorities are capable of maintaining the peace without repression,” Kasparov said. Previous demonstrations have been violently shut down by law enforcement.

The Moscow March of Dissent will take place on May 4th at 12:00 along the Novy Arbat, the same location as the St. Patrick’s day parade. A route for the St. Petersburg protest has yet to be negotiated.

On Tuesday, Shadrin’s mother received a call from the local prosecutor’s office, and was instructed to appear as a witness for a hearing involving a criminal case initiated against her son. The lead prosecutor told her that the case was being mounted after Shadrin refused to accept an enlistment notice on several occasions.

Shadrin recounted a different story, explaining that he had not been visited by any officers from the military enlistment office, and could not have refused a summons. In his opinion, the staff of the Leninsky district enlistment office were using threats to coerce people into serving as witnesses and signing off that others had renounced their enlistment notices.

Furthermore, Shadrin explained that he was not fit for military service for health reasons, as he suffers from scoliosis. Corresponding documents were recently forwarded to the enlistment office.

Denis Shadrin has been targeted by his Kirov prosecutors before. In 2007, a different criminal case charged the activist with “forcible assertion of right”. Consequently, a misdemeanor charge was launched. On February 1st, 2008, the case was suspended for lack of evidence by a magistrate of the Kirovsky oblast judicial district.

Shadrin’s prosecution adds to joins a growing number of instances where opposition activists are illegally threatened or conscripted into military service. February 20th marked two months since Oleg Kozlovsky, a leader in the vocally anti-Putin Oborona (Defense) youth movement was taken by plain-clothes officers outside of his home and sent to serve in the army. Kozlovsky, 23, was first moved to a district enlistment office, then to an army assembly point, and finally shipped to military base number 11291 in the Moscow oblast. Two days later, he was moved again, this time to an air base in the Ryazan oblast. After his case was put before military prosecutors, he was able to file a request for a required medical examination. He was then taken to a garrison clinic, where he was deemed “fit with restrictions” for military service.

Oleg Kozlovsky had completed training courses for the Russian reserves as a student in Moscow State University, and was legally exempt from serving. Nonetheless, he was enlisted as a common soldier and must now serve for one year. Other members of Oborona, as well as notable politicians and human rights activists believe that Kozlovsky was conscripted in retaliation for his opposition activities.