Moscow, Russia

Links

 * Link: legaliz.info - in Russian.
 * Link: hvoya.blogspot.com - in English.
 * GMM-MMM event history: legaliz.info/9/news/154 - English.
 * Yahoo Group email list and archive.
 * Online translation from Russian to other languages: online-translator.com
 * Link:
 * Link:

Videos
425px May 5, 2007 video of Global Marijuana March 2007 aftermath in Moscow.
 * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWjzjtSGEew



City info

 * Google Maps: Moscow
 * Wikipedia: Moscow
 * Wikitravel.org: Moscow
 * WeBeHigh.com - home page lists all cities.
 * City page: Moscow

2009
Please support Serzh Konstantinov, Russia. Global Marijuana March organizer:
 * http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/cannabisaction/message/1496
 * http://pluralis.ru/politicians/1/5/poll - number 4.

2008
Serge Konstantinov ussserge(at)gmail.com +7926-229-98-30 Dmitry Goldyz rastovd(at)gmail.com +7905-575-63-31 Maria Smirnova +7926-248-69-38 http://www.legaliz.info Cannabis Walk near the fountain "Druzhba Narodov" (Friendship of Nations)..


 * Flyers, banners: http://gallery.marihemp.com/2008gmmflyers
 * Report, photo: http://hvoya.blogspot.com/2008/05/worldwide-marijuana-march-in-moscow.html
 * Report: http://pr.cannazine.co.uk/content/view/271/27/
 * Report: DRCNet. Feature: Global Marijuana Day Demonstrations Meet Repression in Handful of Cities.
 * Preview in Russian: http://www.legaliz.info/9/news/152
 * Preview in English: http://legaliz.info/9/news/154 - with history of past GMM-MMM events.


 * We invite all not indifferent people to the "Friendship of Nations" to the All-Russia Exhibition Centre on May, 3rd, at 15:00. Thematic clothes, excellent mood and musical instruments are welcome. Please, go without direct political propaganda.


 * The fountain "Friendship of The Nations" has been erected in 1954. In the center of a circle consisting of 16 female figures, that are personifying Republics of USSR – a sheaf made of inflorescences of sunflower, ears of wheat and hemp leaves. In 1961 USSR ratifies the prohibition Convention of the UN "On Narcotic Drugs" . According to it, Cannabis is a dangerous drug, which should be destroyed everywhere. Domestic hemp cultivating has fallen into decay, and it can’t recover from this impact till now. We insist on necessity to return former value to the fountain, and we demand to eliminate prohibitive restrictions on hemp cultivation – the leader of Soviet agriculture. For this purpose we gather by the fountain on May, 3rd. Without politics.


 * Organizing committee of the Cannabis Legalize League


 * Report: http://www.globalmarijuanamarch.org/2008.php#Europe


 * http://www.globalmarijuanamarch.org/report.php?id=161


 * Report from Moscow


 * Worldwide Marijuana March in Moscow: the continuation


 * After the repressions at Moscow GMM - 2007 we gave up the idea to organize a march and decided to limit ourselves to Cannabis Walk as it was in 2006. Two years ago our action was a great fortune. No cannabis activists were arrested, the police was quiete friendly and all the walkers passed the time chatting, singing, playing mouth harps and drums. So this year we hoped to organize something similar.


 * We published an official statement on the CLL site, so that both authorities and activists could learn that no marches would be held in Moscow in 2008. We offered our supporters to come to the fountain "Friendship of Nations" at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre. There should be no banners or other means of political propaganda: only thematic clothes, excellent mood and musical instruments.


 * As soon as the statement was published we met the aggressive reaction of the Federal Service of Drug Control (Russian DEA analog). In the interview to one of the most famous Russian news agencies the head of informational department of the FSDC Alexander Mikhailov commented our action in the following expressions:


 * "Legalization of cannabis as a drug is out of the question. This theme mustn't be discussed at all. Such actions are the grossest breach of the peace and hooliganism. This is a spring exacerbation on which the bodies of internal affairs and psychiatrists should react".


 * When we came to the "Friendship of Nations" on May, 3rd, at 3 P.M. we found out that the fountain was blocked by forces of OMON and metal fences. Members of OMON and non-uniformed people caught out of the crowd everybody who seemed suspicious to them no matter if it was a Rastafarian, a punk, an emo or just a long-haired guy. In a few minutes 8 persons were arrested without any reasons. Some of them knew nothing about the action and came to the All-Russia Exhibition Centre just to have fun on the holiday. All the journalists who managed to fix the arrests were forced to erase their videos and photos under blackmailing by arrest or spoiling the camera.


 * 40 minutes later I was sitting in a company of 8 or 10 people in 200 metres from the fountain. We did nothing and spent our time chatting and waiting for the other activists, so that we could go to a more peaceful place. We just wanted to change our dislocation when a band of OMON came near us and asked us to stay at our places. As I remembered clearly the last year march and as it was still possible to get out, I tried to run away. I was lucky to reach the exit from the All-Russia Exhibition Centre when a backheel of a non-uniformed person stopped me. Two seconds of free-fall - and I was lying on the ground. As I wasn't able to stand up myself the members of OMON began to beat me. I don't remember the moment I got to the military bus. The left side of my body was injured but the men in the bus denied me in any medical assistance. I could receive some help only in the police department.


 * The treatment in the police department was much better than last year. Only one guy of about 15 of our arrested supporters was subjected to pressure from the policemen. It took us two hours to understand the reason of our imprisoning. It sounded very funny and absolutely illegal. The matter was that the Federal Service of Drug Control just wanted to speak to us about the harm of drugs and any actions devoted to their legalization. So after 3 hours in the police department all of us were released from custody without any claims, fees or protocols and could continue the Cannabis Walk.


 * As a result of this amiable speech with the representatives of law I now have a fracture of a clavicle and several less painful but much more effective injuries - a good illustration of their methods of leading discussion as well as a good occasion for further legal struggle.

2007

 * Flyers, banners, many links: http://gallery.marihemp.com/moscow2007mmm-graphics
 * Images: http://gallery.marihemp.com/moscow2007mmm
 * Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWjzjtSGEew
 * Report: http://hvoya.blogspot.com/2007/05/global-marijuana-march-in-moscow-total.html
 * Report, photos: http://cannazine.co.uk/cannabis-news/europe/from-russia-with-love..but-no-peace.html

2006

 * Images: http://legaliz.info/?action=15&album=8 - Russian captions.
 * Images with English captions: http://gallery.marihemp.com/moscow2006mmm/1_1page1.htm - Page 1 has been repaired after the Marihemp database software removal. Translations are from Maria Smirnova (hvoya.blogspot.com)


 * Media: http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11505912
 * Banner: http://gallery.marihemp.com/2006flyers/GMM_070506_468x60.gif
 * Flyers: http://gallery.marihemp.com/2006flyers/7_May_Leaflets_A5a.gif
 * http://gallery.marihemp.com/2006flyers/7_May_Leaflets_A5b.jpg
 * http://gallery.marihemp.com/2006flyers/7_May_Stickers_A6.gif

There were no arrests in 2006 at the Moscow Global Marijuana March.

The disorders announced beforehand by nationalists in the Internet did not take place at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre. The cannabis walk, which was organized by Cannabis Legalize League instead of the march prohibited by the Moscow authorities, went off calmly. There were no incidents first of all because of the work of Moscow police which has well prepared to them. At 5 pm about 200 people gathered at the fountain "Friendship of peoples" behind the lens of numerous cameras and under protection of police and OMON. Many of them were dressed in colorful clothes with symbolics of the prohibited plant. Cannabis walkers were communicating, singing, playing the drums, some of them were publicly smoking cannabis. A group of several dozen of young men, led by the deputy of the State Duma from LDPR party Nikolay Kurjanovich, could only throw up their hands and scan several times: "Drug users! Get out of Russia!" and "The Christ has revived! " The improvised political debates on the policy in the sphere of drugs, which took place between the deputy Kurjanovich and the secretary of "Russian Radicals" movement Nikolay Khramov near the same fountain behind the cameras, aroused a special interest of press, cannabis walkers and their opponents.

The translation of the above paragraph is from Maria Smirnova. The info is from the photo page:
 * http://www.legaliz.info/?action=15&album=8

2004
GMM-MMM:
 * Many photos: http://gallery.marihemp.com/moscow2004mmm

For more info, reports, media, discussion, etc. in Russian and English:
 * http://www.4may.by.ru
 * http://www.7may.da.ru
 * http://user.it-orbita.ru/~4may
 * http://www.legaliz.info
 * http://www.legaliz.info/march2004.htm
 * http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/05/04/hemp.shtml
 * http://grani.ru/Society/Health/m.69123.html
 * http://www.drugpolicy.ru/?page=news/2004-06may-konoplya
 * http://www.drugpolicy.ru/?page=news/2004-04may-konoplya
 * http://grani.ru/Events/m.69130.html
 * http://www.cannabisculture.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=849446&fpart=all

More photos for Moscow MMM 2004:
 * http://www.drugpolicy.ru/?page=news/2004-13may-konoplya_photo
 * http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/04/17/cannabismarch.shtml

Million Marijuana March 2004 city list worldwide with links:
 * http://www.geocities.com/tents444/mmm2004.htm

2003
GMM-MMM:
 * Report: 2003 Million Marijuana March. High Times article. By Peter Gorman. May 08, 2003. Reports from around the world.


 * From Moscow, the Moscow team wrote to say that their MMM was held on Sunday, May 4 as a Smoke-In for Human Rights. At noon, about 20 activists gathered on Pushkin Square in the center of the Russian capital, where they smoked up while posting stickers and distributing a petition to legalize marijuana and the MOZG harm-reduction magazine. Members of the reggae band Jah Division were in attendance, and passersby joined the festivities as well to listen to what was being said.


 * “At one point, Dima, an activist, was passing out literature and asked to leave his spot, an underpass, by a policeman. He refused and the policeman was joined by others until there were eight cops to the one activist. ‘Then we explained to them that legalization meant state production and supply of drugs, therefore controlling the drug trade. They understood it the way cops would we able to open their own shops and sell drugs, which actually cheered them up. But they still thought it unrealistic, so they asked us to leave the underpass, and promised that next year they would smoke with us.’”