The Voronezh city administration approved a rally in memory of the 1993 parliament shooting, but then changed its mind.

The Voronezh city administration has withdrawn its permission for a rally on 4 October in memory of the shooting of the parliament in 1993. The organisers announced this.

Activists from the “Organisation of Voronezh Marxists” received a call from the administration, telling them the event was “not approved, you need to collect your paperwork.” The day before, city officials had told them that permission had been granted, and even provided a date for collecting the documents about the rally’s guidelines. Now, officials claim that the notification of the rally was submitted too late. The “Organisation of Voronezh Marxists” stressed that they sent the documents on time: “In our view, this is a direct violation of the law and evidence of either legal incompetence or outright lying,” they said.

If the rally remains banned, the organisers have decided to hold a lecture instead. “For us, the form is not what matters—the content is. Not the venue, but the substance of what is said. Let them hide from our rally behind their unlawful refusals. We will simply change tactics: a public lecture, a political discussion club, or a gathering—these formats do not require their humiliating 'approval'. They will not bring us to our knees by withdrawing a piece of paper,” the activists wrote. “In a warm indoor setting, sheltered from the freezing wind and provocations, we will be able to analyse the crimes of the regime in 1993 even more thoroughly and in greater depth. We’ll show the unbroken chain that links the shooting of the parliament back then with today’s dictatorship of capital and total lack of rights,” they added.