Can't walk

More than one and a half thousand people gathered on December 12 on Pushkin Square in Moscow for a rally organized by the newly created Committee of Five Demands. The first of these demands is the resignation of the government led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Next comes the dissolution of both chambers of the Federal Assembly, the holding of early free and competitive elections, a radical renewal of the personnel of the police and intelligence services, and finally - the development of the country and ensuring budget transparency.

Speakers at the rally were members of the bureau of the federal political council of Solidarity Boris Nemtsov, Garry Kasparov and Ilya Yashin, the leader of the Republican Party Vladimir Ryzhkov, the leader of the Left Front Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the Moscow branch of the United Front, Lolita Tsaria, and the publicist Andrei Piontkovsky. Naturally, in addition to the vertical of thieves, corruption in Transneft, murders in Kushchevskaya, the death of Sergei Magnitsky, the meeting also discussed the atrocities on Manezhnaya Square on December 11. Udaltsov noted that these events “showed that the authorities are not capable of solving problems,” Yashin added to his words that “this is the result of corruption and impunity, which permeates the government and the law enforcement system.” And Kasparov, pointing to the buses with riot police lined up around the square, noted that “it’s one thing to surround peaceful rallies or beat them for non-violent protest, and another thing to stop the riots at Manezhnaya.” On this day, the opposition shouted to the riot police: “Where were you yesterday?”

At the end of the rally on Pushkinskaya, those gathered wanted to walk along Tverskaya to the city hall to take part in the Day of Wrath. However, the riot police did not allow them to do this (remember that the so-called fans and nationalists, who shouted “Russia for the Russians!” and, according to some sources, broke windows, were allowed to march along Leningradsky Prospekt on December 7). Several people were detained, including Udaltsov. Apparently, the Moscow authorities came up with an interesting game “Detain Udaltsov”: on December 11, he was also detained along with his comrade on the Left Front in Maly Kozikhinsky Lane, where they opposed the construction of a hotel by Nikita Mikhalkov’s studio. Udaltsov claimed that on December 12 they did not intend to hold a rally on Tverskaya, but only wanted to convey their demands to the mayor’s office. Together with him this time, the chairman of the Moscow branch of the Federation of Car Owners of Russia, Sergei Kanaev, was detained - they also like to detain him. About 100 people moved to the Tverskaya police station, where Udaltsov was taken.