Novorossisk administration bans International Black Sea Day march

The city bosses prohibited all the events applied for by activists to mark the International Black Sea Day, and did it with violation of the procedure prescribed by the legislation of the Russian Federation for official answers. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Vadim Karastelyov, an expert of the Novorossisk Committee for Human Rights (NCHR).

The expert said that on October 15 he brought to the City Mayoralty 2 applications on holding actions on October 31 and hoped to get an answer on Monday, October 19.

However, the answer came to him only today in the afternoon - a ban of the actions.

Mr Karastelyov said about his intention to file a complaint in the near future to the prosecutor's office on non-observance by the city authorities of the fundamental right of citizens to the freedom of assembly.

"They gave an answer reproaching me that I had applied too early and gave figures on when I should have applied under the law. But they contradict themselves, as their answer breaks the law," he has added.

"Firstly, the answers are dated October 20, but I was told to come and take them only on October 21; that is, some bureaucratic game is played, but still they broke the three-day term for the answer (the deadline was October 19). Secondly, they counted that from October 16 to October 31 the number of days was 16. I have doubts of the result; therefore, tomorrow I'll file a complaint to the prosecutor's office," the expert said.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent could not receive any comments from the officials of the administration of Novorossisk.