22 June 2018, 14:51
Stavropol authorities refuse to sanction anti-pension reform rally
The administration of Stavropol offered Alexei Navalny's supporters to reschedule the intended July 1 rally against the reform of the pension system planned by Russian authorities to another date.
A draft law on the pension reform introduced by the government to the State Duma envisages rising the retirement age in Russia from 60 to 65 years for men, and from 55 to 63 years for women.
On June 18, Stavropol activists submitted a notice to the Stavropol administration about the intended July 1 rally near the monument to the Red Army soldier in the centre of the city. The notice indicated that the rally would involve up to 300 participants.
On June 21, activists received a response, in which officials state that the rally there at that time is impossible, since another action had been planned there, and offered to change the date of the applied event. The response is posted on the page "Team Navalny | Stavropol" in the social network "VKontakte".
As stated by activists, the response did not suit them. "The July 1 protest action will be large-scale and held in many cities of the country. They ask us to apply for another date, but there is no certainty that they'll sanction this other date; the administration's website has no events planned for July 1, but our application was denied under the pretext that the place had been already occupied", says the comment to the officials' answer.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 22, 2018 at 09:36 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
