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The base of support for these protests is much broader than the usual liberally motivated protests and the supportive actions of A. Navalnas supporters combined. Most of those who took to the streets emphasized that they were more shocked and motivated not by the history of Navaln, who is not even considered an ideal leader (neither by Russia nor by the opposition), but by what Russia did to him: try of poisoning Novičiok with a poisoning of the nervous system and then, when he had not managed to recover so well and return to his homeland from Germany, he was imprisoned. In other words, people see it as a protest against state arbitrariness and, in the context of last year’s constitutional amendments that allowed Putin to remain as president for almost the rest of his life, as a usurpation of power, Alexander wrote. Baunov at a Carnegie Center. publication.
Saturday’s protests were also exceptional due to the notable lack of loud slogans and bold posters (compared to previous protests). The protesters looked very serious, even grim. Their slogans lacked attempts to appeal to the rule of law, democracy, and the Constitution. This means that this protest was not intended to reach the consciences of officials and encourage respect for the law, the fair counting of electoral votes, or allow anyone who wishes to stand for election. It was a march against those in power, fueled not by fraudulent elections or nonsense by local officials, but by an attempt to assassinate an opposition leader who declared war on the ruling regime and by failing to stop it.
Unlike the protests that followed the assassination of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in 2015, the action in Moscow on Saturday was not dominated by representatives of the liberal capital’s intelligentsia. B. Nemtsov, who once worked for Boris Yeltsin’s team, was quite close to the part of society that regarded the last decade of the 20th century as Russia’s golden age. A. Navaln is not as great a hero to these people as B. Nemtsov. Furthermore, most of those who took to the streets for Navaln would not have done so for Nemtsov, and Navaln criticizes the officials of the first decade of the 21st century and the oligarchs of the last decade of the 20th century more or less equally. .
So far, there is no sociological data that can give a clearer picture of Saturday’s protests, but predictions that the majority of young people will take to the streets have turned out to be false. Not only that, most of those who came to the action did not seem really participants in the typical pro-democracy protests in Moscow. They could be described as young inhabitants of the postindustrial proletariat. Most likely these are Russians working in the service or office sector, dissatisfied with their job, salary and future prospects.
The protests in Moscow this weekend were not as peaceful as previous actions: there were several clashes with the riot police. Photos of protesters destroying a car with beacons are proof of the unprecedented outrage of the protesters.
Even more people gathered in protest in St. Petersburg than in Moscow. The number of protesters may be directly related to the number of coronavirus infections: St. Petersburg authorities are much more difficult to control the spread of the disease than their Moscow counterparts, and the country’s second-largest city is usually ahead of the capital. .
As during the protests in Moscow in the summer of 2019, the local authorities tend to thicken the colors of the protesters’ aggression to justify their brutal response. In their version of events, the security services are not limited to protesting against the child, but are on the front lines, opposing a revolution backed by foreign enemies whose goal is to destroy Russia.
The West’s stance on the recent protests in Russia is much more active than in previous years, only exacerbating the public and private fears and anxieties of Russia’s ruling regime and some ordinary Russians. Western capitals have always voiced support for Russian protesters and condemned the actions of security councils, but Navaln, who stood up in a German clinic after a botched poisoning, became the second most famous voice heard. abroad after Vladimir Putin, and only western statements. Justify this new reality.
The administration of the new president of the United States, Joe Biden, says, for example, that it “will stand shoulder to shoulder with our human rights partners.” This means that Biden’s partner in Russia is not Putin but Navaln; and that it is Navaln who is an ally in the fight against Putin. This is the side that Washington is supporting in this civic situation, in a sense responding to Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
The protests on Saturday were undoubtedly directed against the ruling regime, against the elite, against corruption, but not necessarily liberal, pro-Western and also pro-democracy. The imperative of freedom, order and justice is no less obvious than liberal or democratic values. Not surprisingly, such protests intimidate not only the regime, but also successful public figures, even those who do not see themselves as Kremlin supporters.
Now the organizers of the protests will try to turn such actions into regular phenomena, at least until A. Navalnas is imprisoned. A similar situation is taking shape in Belarus when the opposition has grown so strong that it can take people to the streets every week, so it is quite real that protests become routine in Russian urban life.
These regular protests will become the leitmotif of any international contact with the Kremlin, and any aggression by the security services in the eyes of both foreigners and Russians will become routine. In response, the state will attempt to portray such actions as illegal, ignoring the idea that they are aggressive and have foreign backers. As we have seen in Minsk and Khabarovsk, protests can last for many months, without losing hope that the desired turning point will occur. So far, timing is on the mode side, but that won’t always be the case.
3,3 thousand were arrested. protesters
After demonstrations in several Russian cities on Saturday, in which participants expressed support for the arrested Kremlin critic Alexei Navaln, during which more than 3.3 thousand people were detained, according to an independent monitoring group OVD Info. Protesters, the The prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into possible acts of violence by law enforcement officers.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the country on Saturday after Navaln called protests against the government of President Vladimir Putin and police clashed with protesters in Moscow.
Putin’s most charismatic critic was arrested a week ago at the Moscow airport when he arrived from Germany, where he was treated for several months with Novičiok, a nerve paralyzing substance after poisoning. The opposition said the attack on his life was organized by the Kremlin.
OVD Info reported Sunday that police had arrested at least 3,324 protesters in dozens of cities to monitor opposition rallies. According to the group, 1,320 people were arrested in Moscow and 490 in St. Petersburg.
The number of arrests during opposition rallies was the highest in the history of modern Russia.
During the demonstrations in the capital and St. Petersburg, several protesters were injured.
In a statement issued Saturday night, the St. Petersburg prosecutor’s office said it was conducting an investigation into the violations, including violations by “law enforcement officers” and the use of force against a woman not revealed.
The report came after local media released a video showing a middle-aged woman falling to the ground after a riot by a riot police officer.
In the video, a woman named Margarita Judina asks three police officers in full riot control gear why they are arresting an unarmed young protester. Then one of the policemen hits her in the abdomen.
A spokesman for the Hospital of the Janelijid Research Institute in St. Petersburg said Judina was hospitalized on Saturday night due to a head injury.
“He is in serious condition,” a hospital spokeswoman told AFP on Sunday. “She is being treated in the intensive care unit.”
A spokesman for the Moscow Health Department said on Sunday that no victims of the unauthorized protests that took place in hospitals in the capital on Saturday were released.
“Unprecedented protests”
According to the OVD-Info website, which collects information on arrests during political protests in Russia, more than 2.5,000 people were detained during protests in the country’s cities. people, including more than 950, in Moscow.
Among those detained in Moscow were Navaln’s wife, Julia Navalnaya, who was later released, and the famous activist Liubov Sobol. Additionally, several of Navaln’s comrades were fined and arrested on the eve of the protest.
A. Arrest of Navaln and more than 2.5 thousand. the arrest of his supporters is “a worrying sign of even greater restrictions on civil society and fundamental freedoms,” he added.
Canada was also “deeply concerned” and called on Moscow to “release” the detainees immediately.
Leonid Volkov, head of the Navalno regional network, estimates that some 300,000 people have joined the “unprecedented” protests across the country. people, and called for protests to be held again next weekend.
AFP journalists estimated that some 20,000 people participated in the protests in Moscow. people, and in St. Petersburg – more than 10 thousand.
Western countries have strongly condemned Navaln’s arrest, and the US embassy in Moscow on Saturday accused Russian authorities of violating the right of protesters to protest peacefully.
Moscow retaliated by accusing US diplomats of announcing planned protest routes and disseminating information about the “Kremlin march.”
“American colleagues will have to provide explanations,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook.
“Tired of Putin”
Earlier on Saturday, thousands of people gathered in cities in the Far East, Siberia and the Urals, despite police warnings about the use of force and high pressure in some places.
In St. Petersburg, where the police detained nearly 300 protesters, Alexei Skvortsov, 20, told an AFP reporter that he no longer wanted to live in a “dictatorship.”
“People are tired of Putin,” he said.
An emergency court arrested Navalna on Monday for 30 days for alleged violation of the terms of a probation sentence in a criminal case that the politician said was illegal.
A court is scheduled to be held in early February to decide whether Navaln will have to serve a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
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