Moscow police say they'll arrest anyone on Tverskaya St. shouting slogans or marching with political banners

Police in Moscow won’t try to prevent people from walking down Tverskaya Street on Monday, so long as they’re not carrying signs or shouting slogans, according to a statement by Vladimir Chernikov, the head of the city’s regional security and anti-corruption department.

“If someone comes with a political banner or shouts out slogans, there’s a 100 percent chance that he’ll be dealing with the police. If citizens walk down the street peacefully and show a sense of solidarity with the majority of the people who have come to celebrate Russia Day, then everything will be calm and fine. If they display any special attitudes, the police might notice them,” Chernikov told the radio station Ekho Moskvy, adding, “Please behave responsibly and properly, and the authorities will have no issue with you.”

Hours before a planned anti-corruption protest in Moscow on June 12, Alexey Navalny called on demonstrators to come to an unsanctioned march through Tverskaya Street (in the very center of the city), instead of Sakharov Prospekt, where he had a permit to stage a rally.

Navalny said the last-minute change of venue was necessary because the government allegedly pressured local companies into refusing to rent stage equipment to his team of organizers.