The Moscow City government has cautioned Russian political activists against staging an unsanctioned rally on May 31 in downtown Moscow.
"If attempts of unsanctioned public events take place, measures will be taken against the organizers and participants in line with the law of the Russian Federation," Moscow authorities said in a statement on Friday.
The government said the rally at Triumfalnaya Square, requested by human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva and nationalist Eduard Limonov, was denied because another event will be held at that place.
Moscow authorities said they had proposed the event organizers to meet and discuss other options of holding the rally. They were "surprised" when Alexeyeva refused to arrive at the meeting, the statement said.
"At the last moment Alexeyeva refused to meet with the representatives of the Moscow City government and Eduard Limonov announced her decision [not to attend] in public," the officials said.
Mass media later reported that the organizers planned to hold an unsanctioned rally at Triumfalnaya Square.
The Russian daily Vedomosti reported the Prosecutor General's Office has included the "irreconcilable opposition" National Bolshevik Party led by Limonov and human rights activists in a list of possible cohorts of Islamic terrorists.
Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin said terrorists try to use mass media to influence public opinion "to expand imaginary fighters of human rights, opposition party members, separatists, and gangs."
MOSCOW, May 21 (RIA Novosti)
