"Memorial" asks Luzhkov to coordinate the route of march in memory of Markelov and Baburova

The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" demands from Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov to coordinate the route of the action planned on February 8 in memory of assassinated Stanislav Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova and other recent victims of politically motivated terror in Moscow.

The open letter of human rights defenders to Moscow Mayor Luzhkov runs: "It has become known that the Government of Moscow refused to coordinate (under the notification submitted by Liudmila Alekseeva and Lev Ponomaryov) a march along the Nikitskiy and Tverskoy Boulevards, 'having allowed' only a rally in the Novopushkinskiy Mini-Park."

The statement of the HRC "Memorial" further notes that "any bureaucratic pretexts" for non-coordination and hindering the memory and protest action in the centre of Moscow "are only strengthening doubts" on the attitude of the authorities of Russian capital to the murder of Markelov and Baburova.

"We find unacceptable any formal references of certain city agencies to rather indistinct provisions of the adopted by them 'Regulations on Mass Actions in Moscow', moreover that these provisions are applied with a surprising selectivity," human rights activist have noted.