The Coalition of Participants of the Orange Revolution (COPOR), a non-governmental organization, said on Aug. 31 it would surround the Russian embasy in Kyiv to show support for Russian civil activists, who traditionally gather on Victory Square in Moscow to defend their right to freedom of assembly.
COPOR leader Serhiy Melnychenko told the Kyiv Post he expects several dozen activists to turn up at the rally, which is scheduled to begin at 14:00.
"Freedom of assembly is under threat in Russia and Ukraine, and we are trying to draw attention to the deterioration of human rights in both countries."
– Serhiy Melnychenko, leader of the Coalition of Participants of the Orange Revolution
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was quoted on Aug. 30 as predicting that Russian police would keep breaking up opposition protests unless the dissidents obtain official permission to rally — permission they are routinely denied in central Moscow.
"You will be beaten upside the head with a truncheon. And that’s it," Putin declared in an article published on Aug. 30.
In what could be a related event, unknown men the same day hurled several molotov cocktails into the Russian embassy compound in Minsk. Belarusian civil rights activists, who traditionally gather on the 16th of each month to protest the disappearance of opposition leaders during the late 1990s, denied involvement.
Melnychenko said his group’s protest outside the Russian embassy in Kyiv would be peaceful. "We will bring some barbed wire and make the embassy compound look like what police have done to prevent activists from gathering in Moscow this evening," he said.
