According to Solidarity member Sergei Davidis, the organizational committee of the March of Millions concluded that the march would go on as planned, regardless of the actions of security officials.

Since Ilya Yashin was scheduled to be one of leaders of the march but may now be unable to attend because of a subpoena, the committee named State Duma Deputy Dmitri Gudkov from A Just Russia as his replacement.

According to Interfax, Russia’s Investigative Committee issued subpoenas to march organizers Aleksei Navalny, Sergei Udaltsov, and Ksenia Sobchak in addition to Yashin, ordering them to appear on at 11 am on Tuesday to “undergo investigation” in regards to riots in Moscow during an mass opposition protest on May 6 that ended with about 650 arrests and 47 injured activists.

The subpoenas were issued after investigative units raided (or attempted to raid, as some residents weren’t home) 10 Moscow apartments, purportedly in connection with the riots. In addition to the aforementioned activists, the apartment of Voina art activist Pyotr Verzilov was also raided. A number of computers, iPads, cellphones, and other materials were confiscated from Navalny and Udaltsov, as was Navalny’s t-shirt that read “United Russia is the Party of Swindlers and Thieves” and an item from Udaltsov with the Left Front logo on it.

Police also took 1.5 million euros from Sobchak’s apartment, on the vague basis that “the source that the funds were acquired from has not been established.” Sobchak was not one of the organizers of the May 6 protests.

The office of the Foundation for the Fight Against Corruption, created by Navalny, was also raided, as was the apartment of the parents of his fiancé.

A trio of Duma deputies from A Just Russia compared the raids to Soviet tactics of repression. “We feel that this might provoke an irreversible rise in tension in society and close the path to the constructive evolution of the political system in Russia,” said the statement released by Gennady Gudkov, Dmitri Gudkov and Ilya Ponomarev.

Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov and three other activists were driving to a meeting on April 29 in the Russian city of Yaroslavl when police stopped their vehicle and demanded that it be checked for weapons and narcotics.

“On the way to Yaroslavl, where a meeting between civil activists and representatives of opposition movements to plan for [protests on] May 6 was planned for today, our car was stopped by traffic police,” Udaltsov wrote on his Twitter account. “We spent more than an hour at their post – supposedly to check the car for weapons and narcotics.”

“Our plans are ruined – we’re not going to be on time for the meeting,” he wrote later.

According to Udaltsov, the police eventually admitted that they found nothing in the car and even issued an apology to the activists.

“I believe that their aim was to disrupt the meeting. But we’re going to Yaroslavl anyway,” he said.

Russian opposition forces are planning to hold a massive march – dubbed the “March of Millions” – in Moscow on May 6, the day before Vladimir Putin is set to be reinaugurated as president. The march is planned to begin at 3 pm and go from Triumfalnaya Square down Tverskaya Street and end next to the Kremlin on Manezhnaya Square.

Organizers applied for a permit from Moscow City Hall on April 23, but city authorities rejected the application, saying that the march would disrupt preparations for the May 9 Victory Day parade. Instead, they proposed that it be held on the Frunzenskaya Naberezhnaya – outside of the center of the capital. Nevertheless, organizers continue to insist on holding the march in the original location.

Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and now co-leader of the People’s Freedom Party (Parnas), used Monday’s unprecedented meeting to read Medvedev a list of resolutions made at a series of massive anti-government protests that have swept through Moscow in the past few months. The resolutions call for various reforms to Russia’s political system.

The oppositionist also gave Medvedev a list of 37 political prisoners and asked for them to be pardoned, particularly noting Taisiya Osipova, Sergei Mokhnatkin, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.

Perhaps surprisingly, Medvedev indicated that he was at least somewhat aware of Osipova’s case.

“If anybody is pardoned, then I’ll consider the meeting with Medvedev not to have been in vain,” Nemtsov said afterwards.

Throughout the meeting, he along with Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov and Parnas co-leader Vladimir Ryzhkov stressed the importance of free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections.

The oppositionists also made it clear that they were not looking to foment revolution in Russia. In their estimation, Russia has already had more than its fair share of revolutions, but the current government itself is provoking a revolutionary mood within Russian society because of its insistence in remaining in power.

When Nemtsov asked Medvedev to introduce an amendment banning one person from holding presidential office in Russia more than two times, the president answered that he had previously considered this and still may before the end of his term.

Besides Nemtsov, Udaltsov, and Ryzhkov, the meeting was also attended by Konstantin Babkin of the Party of Action, Russian All-National Union representative Sergei Baburin, For Our Homeland co-leader Mikhail Lermontov, Green Party leader Anatoly Panfilov, National Women’s Party leader Galina Khavraeva, and several others prominent oppositionists.

One of the march organizers, Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov, said that a meeting was held with police on February 10 to discuss allegations that the February 4 march began a half hour before its scheduled time and that participants were walking along the sidewalk instead of the actual road, where they were given permission to march.

Udaltsov and other opposition leaders insist that the march started on time at 1:00 pm, since this is when people began walking down the road. That some people were walking down the sidewalk a half hour earlier they say is irrelevant, since the sidewalk was not fenced off and hence not an actual part of the march route.

Moreover, the fact that police failed to file charges within the two-day time frame allowed by law – there was no written notification until February 8 – leads the organizers to doubt the legitimacy of the charges.

Their court date is set for February 13. If convicted, the organizers face a fine up to 2000 rubles (~66 USD).

Because he was feeling ill, Udaltsov announced before the decision was read that he wouldn’t be able to appear at Saturday’s court session.

The court building itself was surrounded by approximately 20 journalists before the reading, and entrance was only granted to those with special permission.

Activists had gathered nearby and unfurled banners reading “Justice is higher to or equal to the law,” which were removed by police.

Udaltsov was arrested and sentenced to time in jail repeatedly during the month of December. His health suffered significantly because of a hunger strike held during that time. He and his supporters maintain that the charges filed against him were politically motivated.

Since city authorities refused to grant organizers a permit to hold the rally, police cordoned off Moscow’s Pushkin Square to prevent protesters from gathering. However, the approximately 1000 people who showed up in spite of the ban were allowed to enter the square after passing through a police inspection point.

After being denied their permit, rally organizers said they were reclassifying the rally as a public meeting with State Duma Deputy Ilya Ponomarev from the A Just Russia party, who is also a member of Udaltsov’s Left Front movement. Speaking to the crowd, Ponomarev addressed the issue of political prisoners in Russia.

“Today in Russia there are around several thousand political prisoners. These people are persecuted under administrative and criminal charges, although it’s obvious that the motives for the persecution are purely political,” Ponomarev said.

He added that while prisoners such as Udaltsov and Mikhail Khodorkovsky are widely known, the vast majority of persecuted individuals receive little or no publicity.

While organizers asked ralliers to leave politically-charged posters at home to keep police interference at a minimum, a number of activists came armed with banners and prominently displayed them to the press. The police, however, did nothing in response.

Rallies in support of Udaltsov, who has been on a dry hunger strike for nearly a month, are being held all across Russia.

On December 25, Moscow’s Tverskoy Regional Court sentenced Udaltsov to a third prison sentence of ten days, this time for disobeying police orders at a rally back in October. Earlier in the month he was convicted of “jaywalking.”

Sergei Udaltsov, one of the most quintessential and tireless figures of the Russian opposition, has been ill from a hunger strike in a Moscow jail for nearly a month. His supporters, who were denied a permit to rally in his support tomorrow, are adamant that the charges against him are fabricated and politically motivated. Concerned about his deteriorating condition, fellow opposition leader Garry Kasparov writes this address in his support.

Hold On, Sergei!
By Garry Kasparov
December 28, 2011
Kasparov.ru

In response to the demands of the rallies that took place on Sakharov Prospekt, the Russian government has decided not to mobilize the press services of the Kremlin or White House. Sergei Udaltsov’s ten-day jail sentence on more fabricated charges for administrative legal violations speaks to the fact that the government does not plan to give in to the first demand of both rallies – to free political prisoners. The dishonorable Judge Borovkova, aptly referred to by someone in the courtroom as “Your Evilness,” is using her ruling to try and to paint Sergei Udaltsov as a malicious hooligan who is constantly committing crimes.

In fact, in this situation the government is demonstrating the behavior of a street gang, accustomed to attack defenseless people in alleyways and then crawl away like a coward when someone strong, cool and collected shows up. In trying to hide its fear before the growing protest movement, the Putin camarilla is plotting a reprisal against the courageous oppositionist, languishing already for an entire month behind bars and now a de-facto hostage. The fight to free Sergei Udaltsov – which, considering the deteriorating condition of his health brought on by a lengthy dry hunger strike, is already becoming a fight for his life – is a test of the ability of Russian citizens to have their demands met while protesting authoritarian despotism.

The slogan “One for all and all for one,” familiar to us since childhood, is often heard on Sakharov Prospekt and should serve as a rule for action today.

I would also like to address Sergei Udaltsov.

You’ve shown everyone – friends and foes – your unbending will and courage, so now your main task is to preserve your health and life. Never before has Russia’s left movement needed a young, charismatic leader capable of replacing these self-important Communist Party elders, who have taken on the disgraceful role of the Kremlin’s political indentured servant. So start eating again, Sergei, and next year we’ll drink at the funeral of the Putin regime!

Udaltsov was detained when he and a group of protesters attempted to march toward the presidential administration building in Moscow at the end of a routine Day of Wrath protest last week, intending to deliver a list of grievances to government officials. While the rally was sanctioned by city authorities, the march was not; Udaltsov was arrested along with three others. He was convicted of disobeying police and declared a hunger strike in protest.

An ambulance was first called for Udaltsov on October 15, and a blood analysis showed that the activist’s blood sugar level was lower than normal. At the time, Udaltsov declined to be admitted to the hospital.

The next day, doctors claimed that a second test showed that Udaltsov “is not yet in such a critical condition” as to require hospitalization. However, doctors declined to admit him despite Udaltsov’s requests; apparently, he felt that his condition had worsened significantly.

When Udaltsov asked to file a complaint against the head doctor for denying him admittance to the hospital, police turned him down.

Finally, on the night of October 16th, the activist was admitted to the therapeudic wing of Moscow’s Hospital #12 with complaints of low blood sugar, heart pain and “noises in his head.”

Further updates on Udaltsov’s condition will be related through the Left Front’s press service and theOtherRussia.org.

The decision was announced at a press conference on Wednesday, which the oppositionists used to discuss cooperative tactics and strategies. “Under the current conditions, we feel that the December 4 parliamentary elections will be illegitimate,” says the declaration. “We call on citizens to boycott these shameful ‘elections’ in any rational way.”

“We call on all honest citizens to come out on December 4 to protests that will be held on the central squares of Russia’s cities and villages,” the declaration goes on.

Among the signees to the document were Solidarity co-leader Garry Kasparov, the organization’s political council organizer Denis Bilunov, Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov, Islamic Committee of Russia founder Geydar Dzhemal, and leading activists Yury Mukhin, Anatoly Baranov, and Aleksandr Krasnov.

Garry Kasparov said that Russians must ignore the elections and begin building a parallel political reality using contemporary technology, referring to Leonid Volkov’s internet project “Democracy 2.”

Aleksandr Krasnov proposed using December 4 not as an election day, but as the beginning of an act of civil disobedience that would end with the resignation of the ruling authorities. He insisted that the creation of a new political reality is only possible once the current one has been destroyed.

To express their discontent with the illegitimacy of the elections, Krasnov noted that voters can also de-register to strip themselves of voting rights or obtain, but not use, absentee ballots (which in Russia are available from polling stations) to symbolize that they will not be participating.

Anatoly Baranov argued that the only way to carry out the boycott is for every citizen to take their absentee ballot and bring it out to a protest.

A recent survey carried out by the Levada Center showed that more than half of Russians don’t believe that the upcoming elections will be free or fair. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they were certain that the December 4 proceedings will be no more than an imitation of an election and that the government determines who will hold seats in the State Duma.

The arrests began when the protesters unfurled posters saying “Freedom to Sergei Udaltsov,” the Left Front leader currently on hunger strike in jail, and pictures of political prisoner Taisiya Osipova. Oppositionists then linked arms and sat on the ground, crying “freedom to Taisiya Osipova” and “Russia without Putin.”

According to eyewitnesses, police acted very brutally toward the protesters. “They surrounded us in a ring and then began pulling us out one by one. They twisted our arms and dragged us along the ground,” said Polina Ivanova, an Other Russia member and one of those detained.

Others eyewitnesses reported that at least two oppositionists were severely beaten in police custody.

While arrests were being made, those present at the rally began clapping in protest. One activist from the Solidarity opposition movement was dragged out of the crowd and thrown into a police bus for his applause.

Left Front Press Secretary Anastasia Udaltsova was detained halfway to the building of the presidential administration, where she intended to hand in a list of demands of rally members.

About 200 people took part in the Day of Wrath protest, which is held monthly and meant to provide a place for Moscow residents to voice their discontent with city authorities on relevant economic, social and political issues.

Moscow city authorities had refused to sanction the August 12 protest on the grounds that there was not enough room on the nearby sidewalk for pedestrians to pass.

As an alternative, the city proposed that the protest be held on the Shevchenko Embankment, where officials have suggested moving all protests not allowed in the city center since 2007. The embankment is outside of central Moscow and would render any protests held there hardly visible to the public.

Day of Wrath organizers Sergei Udaltsov, Left Front co-leader Konstantin Kosyakin and human rights advocate Lev Ponomarev say that the refusal to sanction the rally on Teatralnaya Square was unlawful.

Unsanctioned protests in Russia are routinely cracked down upon, often in a brutal fashion, by police.

Additionally, two of the three protest organizers – Udaltsov and Kosyakin – are currently under administrative arrest following an unsanctioned Strategy 31 protest on August 31. Udaltsov was given a 15 day sentence; Kosyakin was given 5 days. They were charged with disobeying police orders.