They don't believe in conversations

In response to the verdict against Alexei Navalny and Pyotr Ofitserov in Moscow, people are flocking to Manezhnaya Square to express their support. No one coordinated the action, so on social networks people agreed to meet and come to discuss the verdict. Candidate for mayor of Moscow Sergei Mitrokhin and candidate for governor of the Moscow region Gennady Gudkov said that the format of the action was a meeting with voters. Several Moscow municipal deputies did the same.

Manezhnaya Square, however, is blocked. On the evening of July 17, construction work began here, and the area was fenced off. People began to gather before 18.00, although the official collection time is 19.00. At the beginning of six, the police began to detain people - those who, in the opinion of the police, were especially active. The majority behave calmly, mostly just silently clapping, as in Belarus at the protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, but from time to time the crowd begins to chant. Those who try to get a leaflet or poster are immediately detained. Municipal deputy Konstantin Jankauskas was detained when he raised a green umbrella. As Novaya Gazeta reports, many cars passing by honk their horns as a sign of support. The crowd from time to time comes out onto the roadway of Okhotny Ryad, but riot police push them back. “Cosmonauts” come to help, as about a hundred people come out onto the roadway. There are more and more people, they chant more and more loudly, and more and more so-called forces of law and order are moving against them. According to eyewitnesses, a large convoy of buses filled with police officers is moving towards the center (no, they are not detained, they are coming to detain). As Novaya reports, one of the buses was detained

they started rocking, someone kicked the riot policeman, he fell, and everyone ran out. However, the one who pushed the riot policeman was detained, dragged back onto the bus and began to be beaten.

The door to the Duma building is plastered with red stickers in support of Navalny.

According to ovdinfo.org, at 20.50, at least 58 people were detained.

For some time the situation was more or less benign: some sat on the cornices, some sat on the sidewalk, some played the saxophone, some began to read poetry. However, at about 11 p.m., as reported by Moskovsky Novosti, detentions resumed. Ten people were detained near the Duma. Riot police are pushing people back, but people gather in a chain and line up to meet the riot police. Nevertheless, riot police soon pushed people away from the Duma towards the metro. Those who did not go to the metro, but moved up Petrovka, were chased by the police.

According to ovdinfo.org, as of midnight, there were already 118 detainees. According to later reports, 169 were detained.

On Bolshaya Dmitrovka, several people staged a sit-in, some lay down on the asphalt. Those who lay down were immediately detained, and those sitting were threatened with criminal charges. According to ovdinfo.org, the police are also detaining journalists.

Meanwhile, people, remembering the “occupy” of May last year, went to the monument to the Heroes of Plevna, but they were not allowed to approach it. Detentions took place there too, but people still returned to the monument. People stayed overnight near Manezhnaya.

Previously acting The head of the capital’s Security Department, Alexey Mayorov, said on the Dozhd TV channel: “People can stand and interfere with the passage of others, if people have already arrived, there will definitely be some movement, conversations, calls. This will already be assessed, taking into account the fact that certain organizational work has been going on for more than one day in the media and in people’s correspondence. The organizational component is obvious. And whoever is masquerading under some names and signs, some hypothetical desires that “we’ll stand and leave” - I don’t believe in it.”

Gatherings in support of Navalny are also taking place in other cities. In St. Petersburg, several hundred people gathered on Malaya Sadovaya. 38 people were detained, ovdinfo.org reports. Eyewitnesses report that from the bus with the detainees, standing on Nevsky, heartbreaking female screams can be heard, the curtains are drawn. About 250 people came out in Novosibirsk.