Moscow rejects permit request for Friday protest outside Myanmar's Russian embassy

Moscow city officials have rejected a permit request for a protest outside the Myanmar embassy on Friday, September 8, demonstration organizers told the television station Dozhd.

The mayor's office reportedly refused to grant a permit for the protest because organizers failed to note the purpose of the demonstration, and because the area outside Myanmar's embassy lacks the space apparently needed to accommodate a public assembly as big as organizers hoped to rally.

The organizer identified by Dozhd is a man named Arslan Khasavov. A journalist by the same name frequently writes for the independent magazine The New Times.

On September 3 and 4, hundreds of Muslim protesters assembled without permits near Myanmar’s embassy in Moscow, following Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s criticism of the persecution of the Rohingya. The first rally dispersed without incident, but Moscow police detained roughly 20 protesters on September 4. In Grozny, officials say at least 1 million people attended a state-sponsored rally.

On September 5, the website URA.RU reported that Moscow activists had asked the city to approve another rally of up to 200 people near Myanmar's embassy.