Russian Opposition To Delay Big Rallies Until Autumn, Form One Coordinating Body
Moscow, 13 June: The opposition has decided to take a pause and, probably, will not hold mass events in Moscow until autumn.
"There will probably be some pause," Sergey Davidis, Solidarity activist and an organizer of the March of Millions, told Interfax news agency today.
According to him, the opposition will hold rallies in summer, but they are unlikely to be large-scale events.
"This does not mean that we will do nothing. If any significant events occur, I do not rule out that major rallies are also possible. However, at present, the only clear initiative I have heard about is the initiative of (coordinator of the Left Front opposition movement) Sergey Udaltsov to carry out a large-scale rally on 7 October," Davidis said.
An initiative to hold a rally earlier is most likely to appear, I believe that something may happen in September," Davidis added.
The opposition plans to begin to implement one of the provisions of the manifesto approved at the rally on Prospekt Sakharova avenue on 12 June and set up a coordinating council to prepare protests, he said.
According to Davidis, the organizing committee on mass rallies is an initiative group with the changing makeup.
"No-one either elected or authorized the organizing committee. The committee was often criticized as it does not have any mandate. The manifesto contains an initiative to form single coordinating bodies of the protest movement on the basis of democratic procedures," Davidis said.
He added that this week the opposition would hold a meeting to define a mechanism to form the coordinating council. "A small group consisting of universally recognized leaders, (Aleksey) Navalnyy, Udaltsov and several more people, will work out certain rules of game. There are different versions: elections only in the internet, or in the internet and also off-line. There are several schemes, there are questions including technical ones, but they can be solved. This scheme will be drawn up within quite a short period of time, maybe a month. Voting will take another month," Davidis said. (Passage omitted)
