2010 Manezhnaya Square riot trials

The 2010 Manezhnaya Square riot trials resulted in verdicts against Igor Berezyuk, Kirill Unchuk and Ruslan Khubaev for violent clashes in Moscow. Each was a member of the Other Russia party, and found guilty on charges such as inciting hatred and organizing the December 11, 2010 Manezhnaya Square riots. Berezyuk was also charged with assaulting a police officer. Human rights groups have argued that the three are political prisoners, and that their imprisonment is chiefly the result of their involvement in the unregistered Russian opposition party, Other Russia.

Each prisoner was a member of the unregistered "Other Russia" party headed by writer Eduard Limonov. The small party is controversial in Russia, with Limonov having been labeled an extremist by Russian authorities. Other opposition party leaders have called the group a unique political coalition of "liberals, nationalists and socialists" united solely under Limonov's personality, rather than common ideology. The party's positions have been characterized as "anti-Kremlin" but not nationalist.

The party had been an active organizer and participant in a campaign called “Strategy 31," which organized a protest on the 31st of each month to express support for Article 31 of the Russian constitution, which guarantees right to peaceful assembly. Activists typically assemble on Moscow's Triumph Square.

The charges against the group relate to an incident on December 11, 2010, when football fans and local minorities clashed in a violent conflict that injured 32 people. Both groups, over 5,000 people, arrived at Manezhnaya square a week after football fan Yegor Sviridov was killed. That case inflamed nationalist sentiment after the party involved in his murder were identified as five Dagestanis, and that the Russian authorities had released four from custody. The Manezhnaya Square riots rose in the wake of that case, as protests from nationalist groups and counter-protesters clashed. Shortly thereafter, Russian authorities raided the offices of Other Russia, which human rights organizations have flagged as a biased measure, claiming it selectively prosecuted the leftist party while ignoring the responsibility of right-wing nationalist organizations.

Berezyuk, a citizen of Belarus and a member of the Other Russia party, was arrested in a series of raids on that party's office and party member's apartments in January 2011, the night before a planned opposition rally in Triumph Square, Moscow. 11 other party members were detained and released. The Russian state had called for restrictions on public demonstrations following the outbreak of violent clashes between nationalists and minority groups. He was sentenced to eight years in a prison camp. This was reduced by three months after an appeal in 2012.

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