Several pro-Kremlin youths try to disrupt the Solidarnost demonstration and are subsequently taken away by police forces. Posted by "WMParovoz". 

Anna Karetnikova is an anti-war movement activist.

I'm not keen to see this as a ‘thawing' caused by a change of tact from Putin and Medvedev, or the relationship between [Moscow mayor] Luzhkov and Putin, as public opinion would have it. Rather, I see it as a result of two factors.

The first is an unprecedented amount of pressure - countless meetings, consultations, round tables, firm demands - from human rights activists on the government and the CIAD in connection with the prohibition of a demonstration in memoriam of Markelov and Baburina.

The second is that not just National Bolsheviks, but even young liberals have started to use ‘peaceful guerrilla' tactics: as meetings are constantly prohibited they've stopped applying for approval and instead make sudden demonstrations in unexpected places - which allow the demonstrators to escape arrest.

Because of these two things the authorities probably realised that total prohibition just aggravated the situation. As I understand it, the first people to understand that were the CIAD."

Roman Dobrokhotov is one of the leaders of "My" (We) opposition movement.

The reason why the authorities' attitude has changed is that they're trying to alleviate tensions in times of economic crisis. Two weeks ago the chief police department (CIAD) invited us and human rights activists to a discussion because we'd protested the CIAD encouraging universities to dismiss students that took part in opposition marches. They promised to start an internal investigation within their office, find the culprit and make an apology. We haven't received the apology yet, but we can see other signs of change. For instance, we decided to organise a meeting on St. Valentine's day and, for the first time in years, they didn't prohibit the event but just replied that they received our notification according to law.

However, I don't think we should be misguided by this softened tone. We were still prohibited from protesting by the city hall because it could allegedly cause harm to a monument there, while the city hall itself organises public events near there all the time.

Don't forget that a contrary move - to tighten the screws - also exists. At the end of January I was detained for five days for going to Russian White House with empty white posters and our mouths sealed with tape. We were accused of swearing! These are Byelorussian police methods that haven't been used in Russia since the Soviet times."

Photos by Anton Belickiy.