Police on the march

Boris Baylinon, a participant in the security service of the past “Mirch of the World” talks about the action and inaction of the police at the Sunday demonstration.

On Sunday in Moscow, one of the largest opposition shares in recent years was held. In general, the “march of the world”, of course, was a success, but not without a number of unpleasant incidents, which could be avoided if the police acted differently.

A little about how the organization of the safety of large opposition performances is arranged, in the case when they are agreed. The organizers of the action delegate the authority to ensure order on the territory of the rally or march to the security service consisting of participants in opposition movements and civilian activists. The security service is in contact with the police and has the opportunity to ask the police to remove citizens provoking other participants in the event with their actions or slogans. Before the start of the action, the police coordinate with the organizers, by which it makes sense to cut off possible provocateurs.

By tradition, people before passing through the framework to the “boulevard” action gather on Pushkinskaya Square. It is there that the easiest way to wait for friends or meet his associates. So it was this time, with the only difference being that in addition to the supporters of the “Mirch of the World”, their political opponents gathered - supporters of New Russia, the number of about a hundred people. Among them, one could recognize the representatives of the Prochrevsky movement of NODs (national liberation movement), regularly depicting random passers-by, outraged by opposition pickets on Manezhnaya Square. Despite the fact that the police leadership was aware of the accumulation of the opponents of the Mirch Mira on the Pushkin Square and was additionally warned by the organizers of the action, several skirmishes could not be avoided, and the police who were directly located on the square practically did not try to separate the parties. Among other incidents, it is worth highlighting the attack by pepper gas of feminists , rising from the transition to the monument to Pushkin. The attacks were watched by the police who did not even try to catch the offender and refused to provide first aid to the affected girls. I note that the march security service has no authority outside the time and place of the action, but the police under the law is obliged to ensure order always and everywhere.

About forty minutes after the opening of the framework for passing to metal detectors located on the outside of the boulevard, a group of aggressively tuned supporters of Novorossia came up. The security service demanded not to let them through the framework, and the police initially completely contributed to the organizers. She put up the cordon in front of the framework and refused to miss even people not only with the banners of the “people's republics” (which the organizers asked for clashes about before the start of the shares), but even with St. George ribbons. However, after some time, the chain unexpectedly moved away, the police said that everyone could go on the march, and the “Republicans” went through the framework, where they were again blocked by the “astronauts”. As a result, the last opportunity to go through metal detectors on the outside of the Boulevard ring disappeared to participate in the march. According to the participants in the security service, shortly before the column passage, employees of the EC center approached the framework through the framework. Probably, it was according to their order that the column leaked through the framework, and later the procession route was almost completely completely passed.

And where was the police leadership at that time? Literally in a hundred meters, the framework on the inside of the ring, along with representatives of the city hall, were occupied by thorough filtration of banners and posters, independently without the request of the organizers and even contrary to their will, prohibiting certain slogans that, in their opinion, "did not correspond to the subject of the action." Neither the officials of the city hall nor the police have any legitimate powers to determine at their discretion whether the text of the banner or poster of the event declared theme corresponds. Law No. 54 (“On meetings, rallies, demonstrations, processions and pickets”) allows only to cut off extremist and inciting, however, this was not a question, and therefore the actions of the authorities on the “march of the world” can be regarded as real arbitrariness, on the fact of which the organizers plan to sue.

In the same place, on the inside of the Boulevard Ring near the framework, one of the participants in the security service was detained for a while to check the personality: the police promised that they would reach his car, parked nearby, check the passport, but instead they brought him to a car factory for a conversation with an FSB officer. The organizers failed to attract police leaders to the problem of blocked frames on the outside of the Boulevard Ring.

Soon after the start of the procession, the organizers on Trubnaya Square tried to draw the attention of the police to another group of supporters of Novorossia, who had built behind the fence, also with banners. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Borodin replied that this was a single picket, responsible for this site, to the demand to take measures to them. And all would be nothing - I believe that everyone has the right to freedom of assembly and expression of their own position - but the police did not respond to frank insults and threats to the march participants.

The story with a column of the Donbass branch of the Donbass branch from Ukraine ended with a separate march after the main action, which was essentially organized by the police, bringing the column in a cordon to Sakharov Avenue.

Feeling permissiveness, people with St. George ribbons and banners of the self -proclaimed republics attacked after the “march of the world” in underground transitions to its participants. The police could not or did not want to ensure order after the event, as well as before him.

It must be emphasized that both Borodin and his namesake Lieutenant Colonel Makhonin, responsible for holding the march as a whole, have repeatedly led the detentions on opposition actions and, of course, know very well that according to the notorious FZ-54 it is considered a single picket, and what is not. I am far from a fan of the FZ-54 and is sure that it contradicts the constitution, and therefore illegitimen. But if the government considers it possible to demand its observance, then it would be nice to apply it equally to all citizens, and not just to those who are opposing it. Such a policy of double standards and violations of preliminary agreements will sooner or later lead to unpredictable consequences. And if the police are incapable of ensuring order, then it is necessary to expand the powers of the organizers of the shares, because the liability of the law on them is already not entrusted with small.