Freedom of assembly in the Russian Federation is granted by Art. 31 of the Constitution adopted in 1993:
Citizens of the Russian Federation shall have the right to gather peacefully, without weapons, and to hold meetings, rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets.[1]
Between 1991 and 2004, demonstrations in the Russia were regulated by a decree first issued by the Supreme Soviet in 1988 and reaffirmed, with minor modifications, by presidential decrees in 1992 and 1993. In 2004 these were replaced by the Federal Law of the Russian Federation No.54-FZ "On Meetings, Rallies, Demonstrations, Marches and Pickets" (current version signed by the President of Russia on June 19, 2004, and came into force on July 4, 2004)[2]. If the assembly in public is expected to involve more than one participant, its organisers are obliged to notify executive or local self-government authorities of the upcoming event few days in advance in writing. However, legislation does not foresee an authorisation procedure, hence the authorities have no right to prohibit an assembly or change its place unless it threatens the security of participants or is planned to take place near hazardous facilities, important railways, viaducts, pipelines, high voltage electric power lines, prisons, courts, presidential residences or in the border control zone. The right to gather can also be restricted in close proximity of cultural and historical monuments.
The regional and local authorities can issue secondary regulations, but limitations and prohibitions on public events can only be introduced by Federal Laws.
Organisers will be subjected to administrative responsibility for violating a procedure according to Art. 20 of the Administrative Offences Code[3].
The government generally respected this right in practice. However, the authorities at times limit freedom of assembly and ban, displace or disperse demonstrations.[4].
In May 2005 Moscow police, after breaking up a demonstration in front of city hall, detained 10 congregants and supporters of the Emmanuel Pentecostal Church. Members and supporters of the church continued to demonstrate, alleging discrimination by authorities who had refused the church permission to construct a church and renovate buildings in Moscow and another district. In June 2005 several of these demonstrators were arrested during a demonstration. City authorities contended that the demonstrations were illegal and that they had advised the demonstrators to hold their protests at an alternate site. Protestors said that the demonstration was legal and that they had never received such instructions from city authorities. Several protestors were charged with holding an illegal demonstration and sentenced to five‑day jail terms. A Moscow district court ruled in November 2005, that local authorities had violated the legal procedure for regulating public events in its handling of the Church's repeated demonstrations. The same court ruled in October 2005 that 13 police officers had wrongfully detained Emmanuel members following a demonstration a week earlier. The church pastor confirmed that police interference ended following these court decisions.
In May 2006 gay rights activists were denied their applications to hold a gay pride parade in Moscow by Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov. On May 27, several dozen Russian lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender protestors, accompanied by Russian and foreign supporters, including members of the European and German parliaments, sought to hold two successive protest rallies after a court upheld Mayor Yuriy Luzkhov's ban on a march they planned for that day to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Russia. According to Human Rights Watch, at both events hundreds of antigay protesters, including skinheads and nationalists attacked the participants, beating and kicking many, while throwing projectiles and chanting homophobic slogans. Police intervened belatedly, failing to protect demonstrators, thus aggravating the violence.[5]
In the days before the Other Russia political opposition conference in Moscow in July 2006, according to Human Rights Watch, authorities tried to bar conference attendees from leaving their home cities violently.[6]
During the 32nd G8 summit in St. Petersburg in July 2006, human rights activists claimed 577 alleged incidents of illegal action by law enforcement officials against protestors, including 94 cases of police taking person to police stations without explanation; 267 cases (three involving children) of temporary detention on trumped‑up charges such as "minor hooliganism," "verbal abuse," and "resistance to law enforcement officials"; and 216 cases of persons prevented from traveling by bus or train to St. Petersburg for a "counter summit" organized by Russian NGOs.
After organizing a picket in Moscow on September 3, 2006, in commemoration of the victims of Beslan school hostage crisis, human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov was arrested and detained for three days, arbitrary and illegally, according to human rights organizations, as he had submitted the required notification prior to the event, but chosen not to observe the subsequent recommendation that it take place elsewhere or on a different date.
On October 16, 2006, police in Nazran violently broke up a rally in memory of Anna Politkovskaya, killed on October 7, and detained activists.
Authorities banned most of the Marches of the Discontented, which 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 in Samara and on May 19 in Chelyabinsk, or proposed to change their place. As protesters defied the bans, riot police (OMON) beaten or detained scores of opposition activists during the demonstrations, detaining or taking off trains and buses some expected participants in advance (see Dissenters March).
On December 17, 2006, Moscow city authorities prohibited approximately 300 members of the political party Yabloko and their supporters from marching in memory of killed journalists. Yabloko was allowed to meet, however, but was refused a permit to march.
On May 27, 2007, a gay rights demonstration banned by Yury Luzhkov as "satanic" was held in Moscow again and for the second year running degenerated into violent clashes with anti-gay extremists. For the second time police failed to protect gay rights activists. Italian MP Marco Cappato was kicked by an anti-gay activist and then detained when he demanded police protection. British gay rights veteran Peter Tatchell and Russian gay leader Nikolay Alexeyev were detained as well.[7][8]