New Russian Party: Solidarity

After more than two weeks of repeatedly failing to find a venue to hold a conference, new democratic movement Solidarity looks set to finally hold the event on Saturday.
The movement, which has some of the most vocal critics of the Kremlin among its members, had been turned down by a string of potential host venues, including the Pulkovskaya and Pribaltiiskaya hotels, which both claimed to be booked on the requested dates.
Olga Kurnosova, the local leader of Garry Kasparov’s United Civil Front, said the venue’s location is being kept secret to prevent the authorities from exerting pressure on the organization that has agreed to play host to the event.
Other venues had turned Solidarity down either after a direct order from the authorities or as a result of fear of official retaliation, Kurnosova said. In one case, Kurnosova’s agreement with the administrators at the Ministry of Atomic Energy’s Professional Advancement Institute lasted less than an hour.
Within minutes of Kurnosova leaving the building she received an apologetic phone call which informed her that the hosting of the conference had been forbidden by the institute’s rector.
“The authorities are clearly going to all lengths to prevent the conference from taking place,” Kurnosova said.
Garry Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov, Nikita Belykh and Ilya Yashin are among the leaders due to take part.
“I must stress that we are going to go ahead and hold the conference even if the current location suddenly becomes unavailable,” Kurnosova said. “If the worst comes to the worst, we can seat the panelists and organize the vote in a small venue and arrange an audio broadcast of the event outside through several loudspeakers.”
It is expected that the gathering will assemble at least 450 delegates to review a program of unification of liberal forces titled “300 Steps To Liberty.”
Democrats have said that unfair political competition, a climate of fear and intimidation created by the state with the use of police violence against civil protests, the political persecution of activists who challenge the government and widespread media censorship are obstacles preventing the creation of a unified opposition.