Memory meeting in St Petersburg authorized

Officials in the St petersburg have given the go-ahead to a memorial meeting for murdered football fan Yegor Sviridov, The Moscow News reported.

According to RIA Novosti, the local branch of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration has been told it can assemble up to 1,500 people at the Yubileynaya Sports Complex on Saturday afternoon to mark 40 days since the Spartak fan was killed in a brawl in Moscow, reported.

But the planned vigil evokes memories of earlier memorials which turned violent – in Sviridov’s native Moscow and elsewhere in Russia.
The December 11 riots in central Moscow – which coincided with smaller disturbances in St. Petersburg – were also intended as a memorial to Sviridov.

And on Tuesday Moscow police closed down Manezhnaya Ploshchad in the city centre amid reports of renewed unrest organised by nationalist sympathisers.