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Opposition plans two rallies in central Moscow Saturday, Sunday

The demonstrations, expected to gather up to 1,500 each, have been agreed with the Moscow authorities

MOSCOW, October 20 (Itar-Tass) —— The Opposition plans to hold two rallies in central Moscow, on Saturday and Sunday. The prosecutor’s office has already warned the organizers of the need to observe the law.

The demonstrations, expected to gather up to 1,500 each, have been agreed with the Moscow authorities.

“The leader of the Left Front, Sergei Udaltsov, has published a call in the Internet for joining the public activities in support of political prisoners,” the Moscow prosecutor’s office has told Itar-Tass. “The rallies due on October 20 and 21 may cause violations of public order. The organizers and participants may decide to ignore legal requirements.”

The prosecutor’s office of the Central Administrative District has sent warnings of the impermissibility of violations of the law to Pyotr Tsarkov, Yelena Lukyanova, Denis Bilunov, and Yevgeniya Tretyakova, as well as Sergei Udaltsov.

Earlier, Udaltsov said the protection of “political prisoners” will be one of the key themes of the oppositional rally in Moscow on October 20.

“We believe that prisoners should be a no less significant theme of the October 20 rally than the elections to the Opposition’s Coordinating Council,” Udaltsov said.

However, the rallies, as the organizers have stated in the application, will be in support of elections to the Opposition’s Coordinating Council, due on October 20-21.

“‘The purpose of the rally has been agreed on by the applicants, and we have had no notifications it has changed. At a meeting with them today only the technical details were discussed. Any change of the declared purpose, as well as other conditions of holding the rally will be considered as a violation of the federal law,” the chief of the Moscow city’s regional security department, Alexei Mayorov, warned earlier.

Earlier, the Moscow Mayor’s office agreed to two rallies by 1,500 participants in a public garden in Trubnaya Square on October 20 from 12:00 to 18:00 and on October 21 from 15:00 to 21:00.

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