Detentions in Moscow: We wanted it like in Khabarovsk, we got it as always
An unauthorized rally by the liberal opposition against amendments to the Constitution and the “nullification” of Vladimir Putin’s presidential terms in Moscow ended in the detention of 147 people.
Throughout the entire protest, the police pointedly did not want to interfere with the protesters, but were forced to respond to aggressive actions.
The “No” protest, directed against the amendments to the Russian Constitution that were adopted and entered into force, took place the night before in Moscow and St. Petersburg. More than a thousand people took part in it in the capital, and about six hundred in the northern capital.
In St. Petersburg, the action was emphatically peaceful, despite the presence of two Russophobe deputies of the local Legislative Assembly, Boris Vishnevsky and Maxim Reznik. Activists began collecting signatures against amendments to the country's basic law, lining up along Nevsky Prospekt.
In Moscow, a similar action was initially carried out more aggressively. In particular, those gathered immediately began chanting: “Putin is a thief!”, “Down with the Tsar!”, “Russia will be free!”
Protest Moscow public pages were full of headlines: “We did it like in Khabarovsk!”, not taking into account the fact that Khabarovsk residents, who have been protesting for the seventh day against the arrest of Governor Sergei Furgal, are purposefully refusing to politicize their protest. And they even handed over to the police a provocateur who, just like in Moscow, shouted “Putin is a thief!” At the same time, there are no conflicts between the police and protesters in Khabarovsk.
It should be noted that in Moscow and St. Petersburg, both protest actions were not approved by the authorities. Also in both cities, the lion's share of protesters were young people.
At the same time, the Moscow police did not interfere with the protest participants until the last moment, until some leaders invited the crowd to “take a walk” towards Petrovka. And even after this, the convoy was simply accompanied by patrol cars.
Everything changed after the provocateurs called on the protesters to block the road and began to lie down on the asphalt. After which the arrests began.
Some observers believe that it was only thanks to clashes with the police that the organizers managed to get the demonstration mentioned in the media - otherwise the small number of people would make the protest invisible.
In the capital, such openly pro-Western figures came to support the protest action, such as human rights activist Lev Ponomarev, member of the Public Monitoring Commission Marina Litvinovich, the capital's municipal deputy Yulia Galyamina, and TJournal editor Anna Begiashvili.
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