The Kostroma regional branch of the All-Russian civic organization Boyevoye Bratstvo [Combat Brotherhood] filed an application to the Kostroma city hall to hold a rally against terrorism on March 24, which was 10 days before the tragic events in St. Petersburg took place and two weeks before the actual date of the rally. This was reported by the media department head of the Kostroma City Hall Olga Kokoulina in response to the online magazine "7x7" inquiry.
The Kostroma administration disclosed the information about public events that took place on the regional centre streets in April 2017. The basis for the editorial request was a mass rally against terrorism on April 8 at Mir Square in Kostroma. The mass street action was declared a "public reaction" to the terrorist act in the St. Petersburg metro on April 3.
Under the law on rallies in order to conduct public events the organizers must file a note not earlier than 15 and not later than ten days before carrying it out.
"Notification about the above-mentioned event was received by the Kostroma City Hall on March 24, 2017. The number of participants in the rally, as indicated in the application, was 3,000 people, " the mayor's administration said.
The fact, how the combat veterans, when filing a note to the city hall, managed to foresee that a terrorist act would take place in St. Petersburg on April 3, was found difficult to explain by the Kostroma officials.
According to the city hall information, there were not 3,000, as it was stated in the note, but 4,5 thousand participants of the rally on Mir Square. As reported by the "7x7" journalist, there were organized groups of public sector employees, schoolchildren and students, as well as preschool children, brought to the rally, which lasted a total of about 30 minutes. The residents of Volgorechensk, the city located 40 kilometers away from the regional center, arrived as well.
The online journal "7x7" has reported that during the protest rallies the opposition representatives were repeatedly fined for violating the procedure of conducting mass public events, also for exceeding the declared number of participants. However, when the "antiterrorism" rally that was supported by the Kostroma regional administration, neither the authorities nor the security officials reported on any violations.