Days of tense negotiations between opposition leaders and Moscow City Hall about a rally that would follow the March 4 presidential elections ended with a compromise that suited both parties, activists said.
The rally will take place on Monday on the downtown Pushkin Square and the neighboring Tverskaya Street that leads directly to the Kremlin, leftist leader and event co-organizer Sergei Udaltsov informed on his Twitter account.
“The papers were just signed,” fellow organizer Ilya Klishin of the For Fair Elections movement said, also on Twitter.
Deputy Mayor Alexander Gorbenko, in charge of negotiations with the protesters, confirmed the reports on Thursday. He said between 10,000 and 30,000 will be allowed to attend at 7 p.m. on March 5 on Tverskaya Street, which will be closed for car traffic if need be.
The venue was initially booked by the Communist Party but it agreed to merge its event into a larger grassroots rally, which is to follow presidential elections on Sunday, Udaltsov told Kommersant newspaper, he added that the negotiations were “tiresome.”
City Hall earlier denied all downtown venues requested by protesters and the alternative sites it proposed were shot down by the organizers, who said the venues were not accessible enough.
Tensions mounted after protesters threatened to rally at one of the preferred venues without a permit, which could result in clashes with police and mass arrests. More than 5,000 said on Facebook that they are ready to join an unsanctioned protest.
A similar standoff took place before an opposition rally on February 4, when the City Hall also refused the opposition all preferred venues but caved to pressure after a Facebook drive for an unsanctioned rally attracted thousands of supporters.
The mood for protests was at a record high this winter after the ruling United Russia carried the parliamentary vote in December amid fraud allegations. Three grassroots rallies attracted tens of thousands of protesters each.
Opposition activists insist the authorities are preparing for vote rigging on Sunday to ensure the victory of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is hoping to return to the Kremlin after two presidential terms in 2000-2008. Putin and his supporters deny the accusations, insisting he wants a fair vote to confirm his legitimacy.
