On July 19, a group of about 35 Moscow students gathered to demand that the Russian government take action on the climate crisis , which threatens to cause widespread societal collapse within their lifetimes . While the group's counterparts in the global Fridays for Future movement have held hundreds of mass marches in the past several months, the Moscow climate strikers have faced a government unwilling to grant them protest permits in populated areas. The July 19 strike represented a significant victory for the group: after repeated negotiations with local officials, the students received a permit for up to 50 people to picket together. However, the permit was only granted for a quiet square on the edge of central Moscow. The group’s coordinator, Arshak Makichyan, said the students plan to begin escalating their actions by turning down permits issued for locations with little pedestrian traffic.