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March of Millions offered Sakharov Avenue as its venue

The organizers initially planned to march along Tverskaya Street to Borovitskaya Square

MOSCOW, June 5 (Itar-Tass) —— The Moscow government has offered the opposition to hold the March of Millions of June 12 on Sakharov Avenue, an action organizer told Itar-Tass.

“The Moscow city administration held negotiations with the march organizers tonight. We were offered to hold the action on Sakharov Avenue. We took a timeout until Wednesday noon,” he said.

The organizers initially planned to march along Tverskaya Street to Borovitskaya Square, but the city administration denied permit to that route. The opposition, including Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov, blogger Alexei Navalny, People’s Freedom Party Cochairman Boris Nemtsov, Nadezhda Mityushkina and Sergei Davidis, rejected the city authorities’ offer to hold the march from Frunzenskaya Embankment to the Andreyevsky Bridge. They insisted on a place within the Garden Ring.

The city administration also refused to permit the League of Voters rally in the park in front of the Academician Sakharov Museum. Instead, the organizers were offered to hold their action on Sakharov Avenue. The League declined the offer and insisted on holding the rally within the Garden Ring. League member Sergei Parkhomenko told Itar-Tass they were not offered other routes as of Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, Udaltsov told Itar-Tass that the March of Millions organizers had been offered a number of alternative routes.

For instance, they were offered to march down Yakimanka Street and to rally near the Udarnik Movie Theater or they could march from Krasnaya Presnya and hold a rally near the House of Government.

“We are prepared to consider the venue on Sakharov Avenue offered by the city administration on the condition we can have the march. We may also agree to a rally without a march, but, in that case, the rally must take place on a central square of Moscow, such as Lubyanskaya or Manezh Squares,” he said.

“No one has given any ultimatums, and it is still possible to reach consent. The law says that the final agreement on the place of the action must be reached on June 8,” Udaltsov said.