The Moscow City Hall sent Memorial a refusal to hold the annual “Return of Names” event at the Solovetsky Stone due to coronavirus restrictions. The human rights society reported this on its Telegram channel.
In the application, Memorial indicated that approximately 900 people would come to the rally. The Moscow Department of Regional Security and Anti-Corruption responded on September 29 that “taking into account the current epidemiological situation, in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the city, <…> There is a ban on holding public events in Moscow.”
On the same day, a patriotic rally and concert dedicated to the anniversary of the annexation of Ukrainian territories was held on Red Square. State employees, students and paid extras were sent to attend. Pro-government artists performed at the event and read Z-poetry from the stage.
On September 28, Vladimir Putin signed a law according to which the day of “annexation” to Russia of the self-proclaimed DPR, LPR, as well as parts of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions of Ukraine will be celebrated as an official memorable date — “Reunification Day”. The president himself did not come to the rally-concert, and federal television channels completely ignored the show.
“International Memorial” has been holding the “Return of Names” campaign for 13 years on the eve of the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression — from 10 am to 10 pm people come to the Solovetsky Stone on Lubyanka Square and read into the microphone the names of those executed during the Soviet years repression. Last year the event was also not allowed to take place due to the coronavirus.
“Last year, the reading at the Solovetsky Stone was also not approved, but we still held the “Return of Names”: we filmed the readings, went live, left flowers and candles in different places of the city associated with memory about Soviet terror. How Covid works, according to the Moscow authorities, is no secret to anyone,” Memorial wrote.
The Supreme Court of Russia liquidated International Memorial in 2021. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the organization “created a false image of the USSR as a terrorist state.”