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St. Petersburg opposition plans rally in Navalny’s support

A rally featuring up to 5,000 people will take place on the day when the court will announce the sentence to the opposition blogger
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

ST. PETERSBURG, July 8 (Itar-Tass) - St. Petersburg’s opposition plans to organise a rally against a sentence to Alexei Navalny, which is due to be presented on July 18 in Kirov.

The opposition filed a week earlier an application for a rally, which may feature up to five thousand participants. The event is due to take place in Konushennaya Square, a member of the opposition’s Coordinating Council Andrei Pivovarov told Itar-Tass on Monday.

The day for announcement of the sentence to the opposing blogger was voiced on Friday, July 5.

“We were short of time to file the application, thus we shall change the contents of July 18 rally, for which the Vesna /Spring/ movement applied last Thursday. The topic will remain unchanged, thus we are not violating the law, but we shall be speaking about Navalny’s sentence,” Pivovarov said.

The rally’s organisers are movements Vesna, Civil Initiative and Youth RPR-PARNAS. However, other oppositionist may also join the event. The rally will begin at 19:00 Moscow time. The city authorities are expected to give their decision on the event within the current week.

In the morning on July 18, the Leninsky Court in Kirov will present the sentence to Navalny and his supposed ally - former Director of the Vyatks Wood Company Petr Ofitserov, who are accused of embezzlement of the Kirovles Company’s money.