Translated material
The results of the week. Moscow - Kirov - Moscow ...
In the opposition
The results of the week. Moscow - Kirov - Moscow ...
April 19, 2013 Alexander Ryklin
The main event of the outgoing week is the first court hearing in the criminal case of theft of forest Alexei Navalny and his comrades. Rather, about the illegal assignment of profit from the sale of this forest-16 million rubles. The hearing went to the place of the atrocity-in Kirov, which for some reason has not yet been renamed Vyatka. Probably because Sergey Mironovich Kirov was partly St. Petersburg. (At least, he was shot in the back of the head in the city on the Neva.)
The value of the process sucked from the finger, absolutely obvious in the capital, in Kirov no longer looks so indisputable. This is not to say that local residents are very worried about the fate of Alexei Navalny or democratic changes, in principle. Several hours spent by the Court of the Leninsky District of the city of Kirov (where, in fact, the judicial reprisal against Alexei began) convinced me just the opposite - both Navalny himself, and the ideals of good and justice for which he fights, to the Kirov residents, to be honest, are deeply indifferent. Or these harsh northern people prefer not to flaunt their feelings ...
On March 17, on the first day of the consideration of the case, the local authorities allowed to hold two shares in the city. One is in support of Alexei Navalny. The other is against him. Both are in the immediate vicinity of the court. The main slogan of the first rally, of course, was - "one for all, and all for one." The second, as it is easy to guess - "the thief must sit in prison." Moreover, both rallies passed in the immediate vicinity of each other - on both sides not too wide, but very broken street. What allowed the participants to shout, quarrel, and even from time to time try to enter into physical contact. However, any such attempt was suppressed by a thick and funny police lieutenant, who each time resolutely prevented the sorties of individual extremists, preventing the latter to penetrate enemy territory with provocative symbols and the same intentions. So, for example, a man with a log that unexpectedly appeared in the camp of democrats, on which the Kirov Forest (a clear hint of something disgusting) was written, was shaved with shame in the territory of the minions of the regime, where he was met not very continuous and not at all violent applause. However, for the sake of fairness, we note that the supporters of Alexei Navalny were three times more than his opponents. I think, at the peak moment of the beginning of the court hearings - 250 people along with journalists. They chased the slogans very loudly and assertively, which was extremely surprised and even partially shocked by local passers -by, apparently not accustomed to such violent manifestations of civil activity.
It is important to note here that the few Kirov residents, which happened during these alarming hours in the area of the aforementioned court, with distrust and concern, looked at the exporters of the revolution, who came to support Navalny mainly from Moscow and their opponents, the same strangers, imported to demonstrate a state -owned position from the neighboring lower Novgorod. Together, it looked like a kind of large -scale imported attraction, however, did not gain the slightest success from the respected public. A local lawyer, very annoyed by the inability to penetrate the court’s building, which was reliably blocked by journalists on that day, explained the lack of interest among the residents of Kirov to the whole collision with Navalny as follows: “Firstly, we are not up to indignation and public demonstrations. Most, excuse me, have nothing to cover your ass ... Well, of course, there is a total distrust in people in people that comes from Moscow. Moreover, it doesn’t matter from which camp. You must try very much to overcome this usual "They are all rageless there with fat ...". “Do we need to overcome it?” I asked carefully, “if you sleep so sweetly, is it worth it to wake you up?” “Yeah! - unexpectedly my interlocutor raised, - that is, you will again impose your model!?? ” “Well,” I say, “why not to impose a sleeping person?” Want to decide for yourself - wake up! " The lawyer stuck something displeased to me in response and resumed negotiations with an impartial policeman who guarded the entrance to the court.
By the way, about the police. I have not met such a vegetarian attitude to opposition activists for many years. Neither you are numbness, Avtosakov or riot police with batons. Not a single detention on the day of the trial ... Even after the time allocated for the rally has expired, and the heated Moscow people continued to shout and chant the slogans! (On the eve of several supporters of Navalny, somewhat dumbfounded from the unprecedented freemen, were detained for a couple of hours for stirring leaflets on the building ... Local FSB.) The order in the court zone and both rallies supported only a couple of people. Boris Nemtsov is sure that this is the direct merit of Governor Nikita Belykh: “Nikita was able to convince everyone that it would be more correct to do without a power background. The fact that we are here in such unusually greenhouse conditions is undoubtedly his merit. ”
The quarter of the Navalny (and Boris Nemtsov and I managed to spend a couple of hours after the end of the hearing) looks ... as it were to formulate it correctly ... It is very convincing, or something, impressive ... It is clear that all the options are provided, calculated and discussed. That they are ready for any turn of events and are not afraid of anything at all. Lesha immediately began to talk about the immediate plans, about the importance of the campaign on May 6, Julia was joking, and both of them did not make the impressions of tense and preoccupied people suffering from the oppression of difficult problems that had fallen on them. And it was also noticeable that they are sincerely grateful to everyone who came to support them. That for them this support is really extremely important ...
And I think that today is solidarity with Navalny, with the prisoners of Bolotnaya, with everyone who is persecuted by the authorities for political reasons, is important not only to them. It is of great meaning for us all. So often sounding these days, the call “we will not give our own like that” must be filled with a very specific content. It is one thing if passionate loners shout it, and quite another, if there is a crowd of thousands in the center of Moscow. Yes, and Kirov, by the way, too ... We just need to understand the obvious thing - we can protect our whole world today only on the streets. Well, still in the squares ...