Dissenters' March

Dissenters' March
Protesters at the meeting near Gostiny Dvor, Saint Petersburg, March 3, 2007
Native name Марш несогласных
DateDecember 16, 2006 – May 19, 2007 (2006-12-16 – 2007-05-19)
LocationMoscow, Saint Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Chelyabinsk
Organised byGarry Kasparov
Mikhail Kasyanov
Eduard Limonov
Filmed byAlyona Polunina (The Revolution That Wasn't)
ParticipantsCoalition The Other Russia
National Bolshevik Party
United Civil Front
Vanguard of Red Youth
Russian People's Democratic Union

The Dissenters' March[1] (Russian: Марш несогласных) was a series of Russian opposition protests that took place on December 16, 2006 in Moscow, on March 3, 2007 in Saint Petersburg, on March 24, 2007 in Nizhny Novgorod, on April 14, 2007 for the second time in Moscow, on April 15, 2007 again in Saint Petersburg, on May 18, 2007 in Samara,[2][3] and on May 19, 2007 in Chelyabinsk.[3] Some of them were featured in various media outlets.[4]

It was preceded by opposition rallies in Russian cities in December 2005 which involved fewer people.

Most of the protests were unsanctioned. Usually, the authorities of the cities where the march was expected to take place have proposed protesters to meet at some more peripheral place and forbade processions. However, according to Russian legislation (prior to the Russo-Ukrainian War), organizers of a march should merely inform the authorities of the upcoming event and do not need a sanction, while the authorities have no right to prohibit a march in the specific places where it has been planned by the opposition,[5] and demonstrators have usually defied the ban (apart from the rally in Saint Petersburg on April 15, 2007).

Since 2009, instead of dissenters marches, Russian opposition has held Strategy-31 rallies, though some of them have been accompanied by attempts of processions.

  1. ^ Also known as the March of the Discontented, March of Dissenters, March of Those Who Disagree
  2. ^ Myers, Steven (May 19, 2007). "Russia Detains Opposition Leaders Until They Miss a Protest". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved November 26, 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Kasparov Compares Putin Government To Belarus, Zimbabwe". Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty. Washington D.C. May 20, 2007. Retrieved November 26, 2023. (citing Reuters, AP)
  4. ^ "Russian police beat, detain protesters - Yahoo! News". Archived from the original on April 16, 2007. Retrieved January 14, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) by Douglas Birch, Associated Press.
  5. ^ Федеральный закон Российской Федерации от 19 июня 2004 г. N 54-ФЗ О собраниях, митингах, демонстрациях, шествиях и пикетированиях Archived December 11, 2015, at the Wayback Machine – full text of the law in Russian.