A big issue is the legality or illegality of these protests is itself being disputed.
These protests are in large part about Russian citizens reasserting their constitutional rights both to participate in elections (as currently all the opposition candidates to Moscow municipal elections have been denied access to elections, and many of them have been arrested) and to their right of unarmed protest and demonstration (Articles 32 and 31 respectively of Russian constitution).
In this regard, the claim of the protesters (disputed, of course, by Russian government) is that their actions are explicitly legal under Russian law, and instead the actions of the Russian government in forbidding this protest and arresting participants are illegal and violate the constitution. The argument is that these restrictions to assemble and protest don't have to be obeyed by anyone - citizens or Google - as they're unconstitutional and can't be valid law.
They tried to get permits, but ... for some unfortunate chain of events they never got the paperwork right. So now it's illegal, hence the tanks! The rule of law is perfect, only these protesters cannot seem to fill out a simple form. Maybe they need some re-education.
First, there are still some cases when permission for protest event is not required. It's a picketing performed by single person, for example. In this case police will pack protester in a matter of few minutes and deliver him to a police station for fake reason like "personality identification". So, legitimacy is not the thing.
Government doesn't appreciate protests, so it creates artificial barriers by means of law manipulation, and it'll always be winning in this field. All this paperwork required to approve meeting is like implicit reject, or a lever which allows to mitigate real impact of social event. Namely, it can be approved to conduct meeting on the edge of the city in time when it will be not relevant anymore.
Protests are social counterweight, which allows people to push back. The very idea that counterweight be dependent from other's side permission is just ridiculous.
These protests are in large part about Russian citizens reasserting their constitutional rights both to participate in elections (as currently all the opposition candidates to Moscow municipal elections have been denied access to elections, and many of them have been arrested) and to their right of unarmed protest and demonstration (Articles 32 and 31 respectively of Russian constitution).
In this regard, the claim of the protesters (disputed, of course, by Russian government) is that their actions are explicitly legal under Russian law, and instead the actions of the Russian government in forbidding this protest and arresting participants are illegal and violate the constitution. The argument is that these restrictions to assemble and protest don't have to be obeyed by anyone - citizens or Google - as they're unconstitutional and can't be valid law.