Watchdog

MOSCOW -- The chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group said today she will stop organizing Strategy 31 demonstrations in support of Article 31 of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

Lyudmila Alekseyeva said that instead of the popular protests that were held during the months that have 31 days, she and other activists and rights defenders will organize "cultural mass gatherings" to defend the constitution and fair elections.

Alekseyeva, 83, said the first such gathering is planned for May 17.

Alekseyeva had been a main organizer of the Strategy 31 protests, most of which were not approved by city officials and led to the detention of activists.

The Strategy 31 campaign was launched in 2009 by Eduard Limonov, a leader of the Other Russia movement. Other opposition groups and rights activists joined the campaign later.

Limonov and Alekseyeva split in October after Alekseyeva agreed to the Moscow authorities' request to limit the number of demonstrators at the protests to 1,000. Limonov accused her of collaborating with government officials and began organizing separate rallies.

Read more in Russian here

VITSEBSK, Belarus -- A jailed Belarusian activist resumed his hunger strike today after being released from a health clinic in the eastern city of Vitsebsk, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.

Syarhey Kavalenka told RFE/RL that he was released earlier today from the hospital and immediately taken by police to the detention center where he is serving a 15-day jail term.

Kavalenka said today his hunger strike is in protest at his arrest and the arrests of dozens of other Belarusian activists. "My protest is against the internal occupation of my homeland, meaning it is against the police leadership, the detention centers, and the KGB," he told RFE/RL.

Kavalenka, 36, a member of the Belarusian Conservative Christian Party-Belarusian Popular Front, had to suspend his hunger strike on April 5 after he was hospitalized for low blood pressure a day earlier. He had served only three days of his sentence.

He originally went on hunger strike to protest his arrests on March 25 and again on April 1.

Kavalenka was arrested the first time in Vitsebsk while holding the banned opposition national white-red-white flag to mark the 93rd anniversary of the country's independence from Russia. He was sentenced to seven days in jail for "verbally insulting the police."

When Kavalenka was released on April 1, he was rearrested immediately after leaving the jail and sentenced to 15 days in prison for violating his three-year "limited freedom" sentence.

In January 2010, Kavalenka was sentenced to three years of "limited freedom" for "the illegal display of the banned Belarusian national flag" in a public place.

Read more in Belarusian here