The Moscow City Hall has refused to allow a mass rally against xenophobia to be held on Manezhnaya Square on January 26.
“All those who conduct rallies in Moscow understand that there are no conditions for conducting mass events on Manezhnaya Square. Nothing has been held there for a long time, and everyone is perfectly aware of this,” Alexey Mayorov, head of the Regional Security Department at Moscow City Hall, told Interfax.
The organizers will have their notification studied and be given a formal reply, he said. Moscow City Hall has received an application for holding a rally against Islamophobia and Caucasus-phobia, the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper said on its website on Monday. “One million have been announced to participate. The rally date is January 26,” the statement said.
“We do not have any sponsors. We have declared an open campaign to raise funds for the rally,” one of the organizers, Abakar Abakarov, was quoted as saying by the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper’s website.