Udaltsov, Cheburashka and several other people were detained in Moscow on May Day
The Communist rally in Moscow on May Day consisted of two parts.
In the morning, supporters of leftist ideas gathered on Manezhnaya Square, laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the monument to Karl Marx on Teatralnaya. After this, the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov made a pathetic but meaningless speech not so much for supporters as for journalists.
Then the crowd moved to Pushkin Square, where a rally “in the form of a meeting” was held by State Duma deputy Valery Rashkin, who had previously been convicted of having connections with criminal blogger Alexei Navalny.
Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov was detained at Manezhnaya. After a prison term in the Bolotnaya case, he is under surveillance and has no right to participate in public events. However, the activist still visits them, but confines himself to interviews away from the action. This time the number was unsuccessful.
A few hours later, Udaltsov returned to Pushkinskaya and continued to communicate with journalists, but at the same time managed to drive away people with flags and posters so as not to attract the attention of the police.
At this time, Rashkin’s assistants, together with the police, persuaded young people from the Revolutionary Workers’ Party to fold their banners and slogans. Only the symbols of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation were allowed – and not all of them. The police prohibited the unfurling of the large “Keep Left” banner, which Rashkin called his property. Law enforcement officers tried to confiscate Rashkin’s “property” when it was already rolled up, but deputy Denis Parfenov fought off the visual propaganda.
In his speech, Rashkin urged supporters not to vote for United Russia. This time he did not mention his liberal friends, but did not restrain himself from using Navalny’s cliché of “swindlers and thieves.”
When Parfenov took the floor, a man dressed as Cheburashka and holding a plush toy in the shape of this fairy-tale character made his way to the podium. No one understood what he wanted, the police immediately detained the troublemaker, the communists did not interfere with this.
About 20 minutes later, several more people were detained. They resisted. At that time, “Varshavyanka” was being sung on the podium.
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