Putin eases curb on Sochi demonstrations
Print Edition
President Vladimir Putin has eased restrictions on demonstrations in the Black Sea Winter Olympics venue of Sochi, his latest bid to burnish Russia’s image ahead of the Games.
Campaign groups, calling for everything from gay rights to political reform, had complained that a ban on rallies imposed as part of a security crackdown violated the constitution.
Putin amended his security decree on Friday to let groups hold marches and gatherings in areas and along routes approved the security services.
The decree allows demonstrations and marches at locations or along routes that must be agreed with officials in the Black Sea resort city along with the regional police and security forces. “Gatherings, rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets, which are not directly connected to the Olympic and Paralympic games, could be staged on January 7-March 21, 2014 ... only after agreeing with ... a local security body,” the Kremlin said yesterday.
It also allows officials to set limits on how many people can take part in protests during the Games, which run from February 7 to 23. IOC President Thomas Bach said in December that the Russian organizers had agreed to allow a “protest zone” at the games after discussions with the committee, saying he welcomed the move.
The restrictions were imposed in August amid security fears that were heightened this week when two suicide bomb attacks killed at least 34 people in the southern city of Volgograd.
No one claimed responsibility for the blasts, but they were a reminder of the continuing threat posed by militants who want to carve an Islamic state out of a swath of southern Russia that includes Sochi.
Putin ordered a further security clamp-down and started a personal inspection of the Olympic sites on Friday.
But there have also been signs he is trying to disarm Russia’s critics ahead of the Olympics, last month freeing several of the country’s best known prisoners, former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and two members of the female punk group Pussy Riot.
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