The order, No. 121 of March 13, 2020, "On measures to counter the spread of COVID-19," will cease to apply from October 1, according to the city administration's website. The decision was based on an instruction from the chief state sanitary doctor for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, Fontanka reported, citing the Smolny administration.

The document specifically provided for a ban on rallies, pickets and demonstrations, as well as mandatory approval for events with more than 300 participants. According to the outlet, city authorities used the pretext of COVID restrictions to refuse permission for mass actions and pickets for six years. Last year they declined to approve a rally against the construction of two new Gazprom towers and interrupted the Nekrokomikkon festival.

Meanwhile, Moscow's city hall refused permission for rallies against falsifications in the State Duma elections, citing coronavirus restrictions. Communist Party candidate Vera Mysina said she proposed holding an action in the Plyushchevo park in southeast Moscow and was turned down. According to her, the authorities cited Moscow mayor's decrees No. 12-UM and No. 68-UM, adopted in 2020-2022.

"This is an outright mockery of people and common sense. <…> This is meanness, cynicism and a trampling of the Constitution of the Russian Federation," Mysina wrote in her Telegram channel. A reply from the deputy prefect of the Southeastern Administrative District, cited by TV Rain, says that if the event were held, organizers and participants could be held liable.

Activist Vladimir Stepanov, who filed notice of a rally on October 4 on Theater Square, also reported a refusal by the authorities for the same reasons.

The World Health Organization declared the end of the COVID-19 pandemic on May 5, 2023. At the federal level, all Rospotrebnadzor restrictions introduced because of the pandemic were lifted on July 1, 2022. Regional regulations, however, are not annulled automatically - regional authorities terminate them independently.

Sources differ: no official statements on the reasons for Moscow authorities' refusal to allow rallies against election falsifications are provided. The reply from the Southeastern Administrative District prefecture, cited by TV Rain, refers to possible liability for organizers rather than the reasons for the refusal.