Young Front Faces Red Light :: Charter'97 :: News

Prior to the mass rally, scheduled by the Young Front for Feb.14 Saint Valentine’s Day, the Minsk authorities once and for all denied the organizers the right to hold the action. BelaPAN reports that February 13 will see negotiations between the YF leader Pavel Severinets and head of the department for mass events of the Minsk city hall Petr Vorobiev. The organizers were told that the city authorities aren’t going to review the previously imposed ban on the action.

A negative response to the application, in which YF activists pleaded for a permission to hold festive march from the Yakub Kolas square to the Opera Theatre, was received back on February 10. However, during the ensuing talks with the city police, there emerged an alternative route – from Yakub Kolas square to the Academy of sciences. But the authorities didn’t sanction it either. Despite the absence of the official permission the YF states that the Feb.14 action will all the same take place.