The tragedy at the Winter Cherry (Zimnaya Vishnya) Shopping Center, also known in mass media as the 2018 Kemerovo Fire, broke out on March 27, 2018, and took lives of 60 people. Two days after the tragedy, 1,000 – 4,000 people gathered on the central square for a spontaneous peaceful rally, which lasted for more than 8 hours. The event can be considered as a constitutional and legal lesson. This article describes the 2018 Kemerovo Fire as a case of spontaneous public protests with constitutional and legal consequences. Russian legislation provides no legal regulation for this type of public events: no public event is legal without prior notification. However, international standards provide for spontaneous rallies if they are peaceful and unarmed; the local authorities are then obliged to facilitate the rally and protect the protesters. The article introduces some measures that could improve the legislative control of peaceful protests in the Russian Federation.
freedom of peaceful assembly, spontaneous rallies, spontaneous assemblies, urgent assemblies, assembly democracy, prior notification, spontaneous protest, public assembly law, Winter Cherry (Zimnaya Vishnya), Kemerovo
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