Press Release, 5.03.2026

Photo by Moscow Yabloko

A letter to this effect was sent on 5 March. In the letter, Kirill Goncharov reminds the Moscow Mayor that Moscow is regarded as a modern and dynamically developing metropolis whose residents are noted for their high level of civic and political engagement. Nevertheless, “for the past four years Moscow has effectively operated under a ban on the exercise of citizens’ right to peaceful assembly,” the Moscow Yabloko leader notes. The formal basis for this ban is clause 2.6 of the most recent version of Mayoral Decree No. 68 of 8 June 2020, which prohibits all public events on account of the covid restrictions then in force in Moscow.

“At the same time, in response to my enquiry in June 2025, Yena Ignatova, Deputy Head of Rospotrebnadzor [the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare] in Moscow, acknowledged an improvement in the city’s epidemiological situation, while the relevant municipal resources have ceased altogether to track and publish infection statistics. The WHO declared the end of the pandemic as far back as spring 2023. It is evident that, as doctors and experts had predicted, the virus has passed into the category of seasonal respiratory illnesses and has lost its character as an emergency threat. Yet the decree remains in force and is applied selectively,” the letter runs.

Goncharov rightly points out that in Moscow any event organised by pro-government structures is permitted, whilst ordinary citizens and the opposition are refused permission for public actions on formal grounds.

Since 2022, Yabloko has been refused permission in Moscow four times to hold rallies, once to hold a march, and even to hold a series of single pickets.

In the last instance, Kirill Goncharov received a prosecutorial warning alleging that the mere act of submitting a notification constituted preparation for extremist activity — despite the manifestly peaceful nature of the declared event and full compliance with the requirements of the law.

“I consider these practices to be legally unfounded,” Goncharov states in the letter, citing the Constitution and in particular Article 31, which guarantees freedom of peaceful assembly, and Article 19, which enshrines the principle of equality before the law and the prohibition of discrimination. He also invokes the position of the Constitutional Court, which has repeatedly held that restrictions on constitutional rights must be proportionate, justified by actual circumstances, and may not be applied selectively depending on the identity or political views of the applicant.

Today, the Moscow Metro alone carries more than eight million passengers daily; shopping centres operate; large-scale municipal sporting and cultural events are held — meaning there is literally not a single sanitary restriction in Moscow that is still in force and comparable in scope to the ban on rallies.

Accordingly, in his address to Sergei Sobyanin, Kirill Goncharov demands that the Mayor:

• repeal Decree No. 68 of 8 June 2020 on anti-covid measures;
• acknowledge that the emergency measures have run their course;
• restore dialogue between the city authorities and its residents;
• comply with the provisions and principles of the Constitution of the Russian Federation;
• remove clause 2.6 banning public events in Moscow because of covid from Decree No. 68;
• ensure equal and genuine exercise of constitutional rights for all citizens in Moscow.

The invocation of an “epidemic” is a form of mockery of common sense that discredits the Moscow authorities, the Moscow Yabloko leader emphasises.