According to the newspaper, a corresponding order has already been written up and posted online for public discussion and signed by Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev and the head of the Federal Migration Service.

Sources in the Ministry (MVD) said that the formal reason for the measure is the departure of the migration service from the MVD. Unofficially, however, they said it was intended as a way to deal with undesirable foreigners, such as political activists and religious radicals.

As an example of what the MVD is apparently concerned about, Izvestia noted an incident this past March during the Russian presidential election when women from the Ukrainian organization Femen stripped naked at the polling station where Vladimir Putin had cast his vote. The group was subsequently banned from the country.

The MVD black list would also include powerful foreign criminals, such as mafia bosses.

The Izvestia report stated that the foreign minister would personally decide the fate of each “undesirable” foreigner.

Human rights advocates fear that the measure could become a repressive instrument for the MVD to use for political purposes.

In February 2011, British journalist Luke Harding was stopped at passport control and denied entry to Russia with no explanation.

The Guardian, where Harding worked, believes that the decision to keep the journalist out of the country was made at the highest level of government in connection with the Guardian’s publication of documents from WikiLeaks that characterize the Russian government as a mafia state and suggesting the possible involvement of President Vladimir Putin in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

Last Friday, Charukhin admitted in court that he had falsified a police report that was used as evidence to convict Yashin to five days in jail following a December 31 rally in Moscow. Then, according to Kasparov.ru, Moscow City Police Spokesman Viktor Biryukov announced on Tuesday that Charukhin was being fired for making contradictory statements in court that raised doubt among his colleagues, and for avoiding his superiors. In response, Yashin’s opposition movement, Solidarity, offered Charukhin legal counsel to defend his labor rights. That same day, Anton Tsvetkov, a member of the Public Council on the Moscow City Police and representative of the foundation Officers of Russia, said it was possible that Yashin could have been paid off to change his testimony. It was unclear who he meant would have done the paying off. He did, however, accuse oppositionists in general of only holding unsanctioned rallies only to create photo opportunities.

Now, Kasparov.ru is reporting that Charukhin has changed his testimony yet again. On Wednesday, a video clip of Charukhin being interviewed by an unknown woman was posted on the website of Moscow’s police headquarters at Petrovka 38. The interviewer poses a series of (mostly leading) questions in which the officer claims he only recanted in the first place because of pressure from Yashin and his lawyer.

In the video, Charukhin says he was very worried prior to Friday’s court session. Once in court, he says, Yashin began to ask him whether or not he believed in God, showed him quotes from the Bible “not to bear false witness,” and showed him the part of the Russian Criminal Code that punishes false testimony. Charukhin says Yashin and his lawyer both asked him questions, none of which he understood and saw as “sneaky tricks.” In result, he became distressed, ceased to understand the essence of the questions, and, as the interviewer puts it, began to say “whatever came into my head.”

Charukhin says he “did not say what I was thinking” in court.

After court, the officer went on, he began getting phone calls from the BBC and Citi-FM radio asking him to read a statement they had written for him on the air. This statement would claim he actually didn’t work at all on December 31, was not on Triumfalnaya Square that night and did not participate in Yashin’s detention at all. Charukhin says he refused the requests.

In addition to the video, the Petrovka 38 website also posted a scan of a new report signed by Charukhin, in which he states the same claims as in the video. Anticipating the obvious, the police added a statement saying that Charukhin filed this new report, which is dated February 8, 2011, before it was announced that he was being fired – thus removing the possibility that the new statement was written under pressure.

To make things even more complicated, Moscow Police Chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev told Ekho Moskvy on February 9 that Charukhin hadn’t been fired at all: “I didn’t fire him.” Kolokoltsev said he was looking further into the matter.

Regardless of Charukhin’s testimony, it remains apparent that the charge that Yashin was convicted of – pushing police officers away from fellow oppositionist Boris Nemtsov – was impossible, given video evidence reviewed in court on Friday indicating that Yashin was arrested before Nemtsov was.

The trial resumes on February 10. On his blog, Yashin says he has proof of Charukhin’s claim that a superior officer had dictated his falsified police report. He intends to present this proof in court.

Late on Monday, a copy of the letter between Moscow’s prosecutor general and Moscow Chief of Police Vladimir Kolokoltsev was posted on the blog of Left Front Press Secretary Anastasia Uldatsova, wife of organization leader Sergei Udaltsov. In the letter, dated September 21, 2010, Semin claims that the police have not been taking “sufficient preventative measures directed at stopping” rallies in the Strategy 31 and Day of Anger campaigns, which are almost never sanctioned by city authorities.

The letter was written specifically in reference to rallies held on July 31 (Strategy 31) and August 12 (Day of Anger). The organizers of these events were Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Eduard Limonov, Konstantin Kosyakin, and Sergei Udaltsov. “Not one of the notifications [about the rallies] was sanctioned by the Moscow government,” reads the letter. “At the same time, statements by organizers of the unsanctioned rallies of their intent to hold these public events were circulated over the internet and through the Interfax news agency, regardless of the decisions taken by government agencies. The distributed information also contained calls for citizens to take part in them.”

In Semin’s opinion, this constitutes “a violation of the order of organizing and holding large-scale events,” article 20.2 of Russia’s federal administrative violations code.

When organizers announce to the press that they plan to hold an unsanctioned event, the police should take it as “information indicating the existence of a case of an administrative violation” and, accordingly, as a basis to press charges, says the prosecutor.

Following the July 31 event, police filed charges only against Kosyakin, who was detained at the rally, the prosecutor notes.

“Not one protocol, including before the beginning of the event, was filed against the rest of the organizers,” says Semin.

The letter demands that Kolokoltsev rectify the situation, including by punishing police officers guilty of not bringing administrative charges against oppositionists “preventatively.”

Gazeta.ru was unable to verify the authenticity of the letter: representatives of the Moscow Prosecutor General were unavailable for comment on Monday, and the head of the press service for the Moscow City Police, Viktor Biryukov, declined to discuss the document, saying he “hadn’t seen it.”

Expert Nikolai Zboroshenko of the Moscow Helsinki Group says that the position stated in the letter “is not based on law.” He told Gazeta.ru that Russia and other countries (Turkey in particular) have repeatedly lost cases in the European Court of Human Rights to ban large rallies.

“The ECHR has repeatedly indicated that people cannot be held liable for one incidence of participating in a rally,” Zboroshenko said. “And the police in general do not have the right to prevent rallies from being held.”

One of the organizers of Strategy 31, National Bolshevik leader Eduard Limonov, called his fellow oppositionists to calm. “I wouldn’t pay much attention to these people (Semin and Kolokoltsev),” he told Gazeta.ru. “They would, of course, like for citizens to sit in bomb shelters when the police come out into the streets, but that’s not going to happen. Nobody is ever going to pass that law. It’s just two old reactionist careerists writing letters to each other.”

According to Solidarity political council member Denis Bilunov, the letter was reminiscent of crackdowns on opposition protesters in the run-up to Russia’s 2008 presidential elections. “This is a sure sign of the approach of the pre-election year,” he wrote on his blog. “In 2007, as I recall, people were detained in the Moscow metro for ‘the intent to take part in an unsanctioned rally’. Afterwards, all of this nonsense somehow seemed to have calmed down a bit, but, as we see, it all still lies ahead.”

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):

Tuesday’s rally marked the eleventh iteration of the opposition’s Strategy 31 campaign. About 2000 people came out to Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square to take part in the event, making it the largest rally in the campaign’s history.

As with the previous ten rallies, Moscow city authorities turned down an application by Strategy 31 organizers to obtain legal sanction to hold the event. Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov defended this permission-based system in a session of the city government earlier in the day, saying that the city’s decision to allow or disallow any given rally is not due to any “particular love” for certain rally organizers, but to considerations for public safety.

“Before every event in the capital, we take all necessary organizational measures to assure total safety for the people,” said the mayor, noting that anyone who wishes to hold a demonstration can file an application with the city and receive a decision within ten days.

The system will remain as it is, he went on, “and in the future we will continue to carry out this work in accordance with the law.”

“We will now allow chaos in Moscow,” Luzhkov stressed.

Luzhkov’s statements appear to contradict the Russian federal law that governs rallies, marches and demonstrations, which requires only a notification – not an application for permission – to be filed with the city in order to hold such an event.

Tuesday’s rally was scheduled to begin at 6:00 pm, and by that time Triumfalnaya Square had already been completely cordoned off by OMON riot police and internal military forces. According to a Kasparov.ru correspondent, the police left no free space for ralliers to gather. About 50 police buses bordered the perimeter of the square, and police blocked all pedestrians from entering. Part of the sidewalk between the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and Triumfalnaya Square, where Strategy 31 ralliers have previously gathered when the square itself was blocked off, was also cordoned off.

Strategy 31 organizers issued a statement of concern on Tuesday morning regarding an interview with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that had been published the day before. In the interview, the prime minister charged that the real goal of Strategy 31 participants “is to get bludgeoned upside the head,” and that ralliers routinely provoke police into acting violently. In their response, rally organizers rejected the accusation and stated that any “possible incidents” of violence at the rally would be Putin’s personal responsibility.

At the same time, Moscow City Police Chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev did promise to train his officers to detain activists using less painful methods. There was no apparent option to simply not detain any ralliers at all – Deputy Police Chief Vyacheslav Kozlov said that the unsanctioned rally would be duly broken up.

A three-person delegation from the European Parliament, headed by Human Rights Committee Chairwoman Heidi Hautala, was present at the rally at the invitation of Strategy 31 organizers. Deputy Chief Kozlov said ahead of time that the delegates would not be excluded from possible detention.

According to a count by Kasparov.ru correspondents, approximately 2000 ralliers gathered on Triumfalnaya Square despite the heavy police presence and the fact that the square itself is almost entirely barricaded off for construction. Nevertheless, participants managed to rally for nearly two and a half hours, chanting opposition slogans that called for Putin to step down and for the 31st article of the Russian constitution, which guarantees free assembly, to be observed.

Moscow city police and Federal Security Service (FSB) agents reportedly created a jam in the crowd while attempting to push the ralliers away from the square, but did not manage to break up the protest.

Kasparov.ru estimates that approximately 100 people were detained during the course of the rally, including leading opposition activists Boris Nemtsov, Ilya Yashin, Sergei Udaltsov, and Roman Dobrokhotov. Two of the three Strategy 31 organizers, Eduard Limonov and Konstantin Kosyakin, were also detained. The third organizer, Moscow Helsinki Group head and former Soviet dissident Lyudmila Alexeyeva, was present at the rally but was not detained.

Official figures from the Moscow City Police cite 70 detainees, and put the number of people present at the rally at 400 people, including 300 journalists.

Eyewitnesses noted that police did not refrain from acting violently while detaining rally participants. Several activists were seen with bloody faces after having been beaten by law enforcement agents. The first participant to be detained was an activist holding a poster picturing Russia’s symbolic two-headed eagle – one head being that of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and the other of Vladimir Putin.

As of 10:00 pm, several of the most high-profile detainees had been released, including Nemtsov and Limonov. Nemtsov was told that he had supposedly blocked pedestrian movement during the rally and had been detained on that basis. They and several other activists were charged with “violating the established procedure for arranging or conducting a meeting, rally, demonstration, procession, or picket,” an administrative violation punishable by a small fine. As of Tuesday night, approximately 80 detainees remained in various Moscow police stations.

Strategy 31 rallies were also held on Tuesday in various cities throughout Russia, with several solidarity events also taking place in Europe. Approximately 80 out of 700 ralliers were detained in an event in St. Petersburg, and rallies were held with varying levels of success or suppression in Omsk, Yaroslav, Sochi, Voronezh, Makhachkala, and numerous other Russian cities. One event in London included the participation of refugee Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky and the widow of murdered ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko, Marina Litvinenko.

At least 60 protestors were detained by police on New Year’s Eve night in Moscow for participating in a rally promoting the freedom of assembly, Kasparov.ru reports.

Approximately 400 people attended the rally, which was organized by leaders of the Other Russia opposition coalition.

Eyewitnesses claim that police acted with particular brutality when arresting journalists and photographers.

Among those detained was 82-year old Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a former Soviet dissident who now heads the influential rights organization Moscow Helsinki Group.

Ilya Yashin, a rights leader and member of the Solidarity movement, claims he was detained immediately upon appearing at the rally and denied the reason for his arrest.

Members of the pro-Kremlin youth organization Young Russia attempted to provoke protestors early in the evening by scattering flyers printed with the phrase “Bad Santa will not pass!” while a young man dressed in a Santa Claus costume offered flights “home” to America and large sums of money.

All those detained at the protest were released the same evening at approximately 10 pm. Moscow Chief of Police Vladimir Kolokoltsev had allegedly ordered all the protestors to be released by 9:30 that night.

The actions of the Moscow police drew widespread scorn from the United States, the European Union, and domestic and international human rights groups.

In a press release from United States National Security Council Spokesman Mike Hammer late on December 31, the White House expressed its dismay at the attempts of authorities to prevent citizens from peacefully protesting: “In particular, the United States notes with concern the detention of protestors, including prominent human rights defender Lyudmila Alexeyeva, and reports of their mistreatment by authorities while in custody.”

The release went on to mark the importance of freedom of speech and assembly, adding that “The United States stands with those dedicated to promoting these human rights.”

European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek expressed similar dismay concerning the detention of Alexeyeva.

“I am deeply astounded, that this highly regarded 82-year old woman spent New Year’s Eve night under arrest,” he stated.

Buzek noted that Alexeyeva had been among recipients in 2009 of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for her work in human rights. He added that she had been asked at a press conference following the ceremony whether she was afraid to return to Russia.

“The actions of the police in Moscow gave a very disconcerting answer,” Buzek concluded: “Human rights activists in Russia still cannot freely hold demonstrations.”

The New Year’s Eve rally was part of a series of demonstrations held by the Other Russia coalition on Moscow’s central Triumfalnaya Square on every month with a 31st day, in reference to the 31st article of the Russian Constitution guaranteeing freedom of assembly. The previous four protests in October, August, July, and May ended when police began detaining numerous activists.

Photographs from New Year’s Eve Rally

Photographs sourced from LiveJournal users Yashin, Drugoi and Zyalt, and Grani.ru.