Watchdog

Russian President Vladimir Putin has tightened restrictions on street demonstrations for a six-week period starting in June, potentially undermining opposition leader Aleksei Navalny's plans for nationwide protests on June 12.

In a decree published by the Kremlin on May 10, Putin imposed additional limits on public gatherings during the upcoming FIFA Confederations Cup soccer tournament and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

It obliges organizers of demonstrations in cities hosting matches to coordinate their plans, including protest sites and routes of marches, with local law enforcement and security authorities.

The decree, whose stated purpose is to increase security, says that organizers will not be able to choose where to hold their rallies, but instead would be told by city authorities and security officials.

The FIFA Confederations Cup is scheduled to be held in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, and Kazan from June 17 to July 2 of this year, and the decree imposes the additional rules from June 1 to July 12.

After anticorruption protests that brought crowds into the streets in about 100 cities on March 26, Navalny is calling on Russians to protest again on June 12.

Navalny is seeking to get on the ballot for a March 2018 election in which Putin is widely expected to run for a new six-year term.

In 2018, the restrictions will be in place from May 25 to July 25, a period encompassing the World Cup.

With reporting by TASS

The trial of RFE/RL contributor Mykola Semena, a Crimean journalist who is fighting what he says is a politically motivated separatism charge on the Russian-controlled peninsula, has resumed in the Crimean capital, Simferopol.

At a court session on May 10, two witnesses gave testimony and the judge scheduled the next hearing for May 22. A Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) employee is expected to testify at that hearing.

Semena faces up to five years in prison if convicted by Russia, which has jailed several Crimeans who have opposed or criticized Moscow's 2014 seizure of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine.

Semena's trial has been adjourned three times for different reasons since it started on March 20.

The charge against the 66-year-old Semena stems from an article he wrote for RFE/RL's Krym.Realii (Crimea Realities) website in 2015.

The Kremlin-installed authorities in Crimea have charged that the article called for the violation of Russia's territorial integrity.

Semena says he is innocent. He says that Crimea's status was and remains in dispute and that he has the right to openly express his opinion.

The United States, the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and international media watchdogs have expressed concern about the prosecution of Semena.

Activists say his trial is part of a persistent Russian clampdown on independent media and dissent in Crimea since Moscow's takeover.

RFE/RL President Thomas Kent has described the case against Semena as "part of a concerted effort by Russian and Russian-backed authorities to obstruct RFE/RL's journalistic mission to provide an independent press to residents of Crimea."

After a Moscow-friendly Ukrainian president fled in the face of pro-European protests in February 2014, Russia seized control of Crimea after sending in troops and staging a referendum considered illegitimate by Kyiv, the United States, and a total of 100 UN member states.

The United States, the European Union, and other countries imposed sanctions on Russia over the takeover of Crimea and say they will not be lifted until it is returned to Kyiv's control.