Siberian city authorities sanction Russian March

Organizers of the Russian March in Russia's Siberian city of Novosibirsk coordinated the event on National Unity Day, November 4, with the city administration, a spokesman of Novosibirsk’s City Hall said on Thursday. “We expect 500 or more people. We estimate that the march was attended by about 800 people last year,” the promoter, Rostislav Antonov, said. A Russian social organization, as well as regional offices of three political parties, A Just Russia, Right Cause and Patriots of Russia, will be involved in the march and subsequent rally, according to Antonov. "There are national tensions in addition to social ones now. We must speak [about it] and the Russian March is good grounds for it,” Antonov said. National Unity Day was introduced by the Kremlin in 2005 to replace the communist holiday of November 7 celebrating the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. November 4 was chosen as the date of the liberation of Russia from Polish invaders in 1612.