Battle for Moscow - Statement for strength

As the events develop around the elections in the Moscow City Duma, the upcoming action on Saturday 27 acquires the character of a key event. Power structures, which seemed to have finally replaced all kinds of beatings and public chambers in the regulation of “elections”, are preparing for this action as a decisive battle for Moscow.

According to several sources, B13: 30 July 30 will be temporarily closed to the exit of the Tverskaya, Chekhovskaya, Pushkinskaya, Okhotnitskoye, Revolution Square, Theatrical, Theatrical (final decision, based on the dynamics of passenger traffic) will be temporarily closed. In the subway, at these stations, reinforced outfits of law enforcement officials will be on duty from 11:00. The police will inform with the help of sound amplifying equipment that the action is unauthorized.

Apparently, the authorities made a bet on a forceful decision. But the final script is now written on both sides. And it will vary significantly if, for example, 10 thousand people have come to the action if 50 or 100 thousand are collected. In the first case, there will be hard acceleration with many subsequent administrative and criminal cases. In the second power scenario may be in question.

Now the main rate of power is at fear. First of all, unregistered candidates and protest leaders themselves are subjected to personal intimidation. In addition to the arrest of Navalny and people from his headquarters, in addition to night searches, the Moscow prosecutor's office sent warnings and began an investigation against 15 independent candidates. These are Anastasia Bryukhanova, Julia Galyamin, Kirill Goncharov, Dmitry Gudkov, Ivan Zhdanov, Maxim Kruglov, Dmitry Klochkov, Sergey Mitrokhin, Elena Rusakova, Lyubov Sobol, Alexander Solovyev, Sergey Tsukasov, Roman Yuneman, Konstantin Yankauskas, Ilya Yashin.

A lot of people can reach the Saturday action, since the authorities managed to do what the “Committee-2008” could not be done in a year and a half, namely: to unite the opposition. The statement on this subject Maxim Shevchenko is characteristic: “I believe that all left -wing forces should express solidarity with our comrades from the liberal opposition, who are arrested, pressed, not allowed to the election. Ideological disagreements do not matter, now we have one enemy - power. ” The end of the quote.

The clumsy and defiantly lawless actions of the authorities caused indignation even among those who always supported power. Here is a quote from the blog of Tina Kandelaki: “I read the news about the searches with the candidates of the Superior Duma, and I am not left by the feeling of disproportionality of the actions of our security forces ... Investigating the intervention in the electoral process, our law enforcement officers themselves become part of it, although the only right decision is to be over the fighting of politicians, ensuring law and public order.”

Despite all the seemingly unlimited resources of the authorities and the obvious weakness of protest, the outcome of the “Moscow confrontation” is not also predetermined because the monolith of power is covered with cracks of varying degrees of depth. In particular, the Moscow protest is actively used by those in the presidential administration and in power structures who are interested in weakening Sobyanin.

The Moscow newspaper, controlled by the city halls, complains that the AP “translates the arrows” into the capital's mayor: “The Nezigar Telegram channel, which many associate with the administration of the President of the Russian Federation, reported on July 16 that“ the team of Sergei Sobyanin could not solve a rather simple problem to form a high-quality and comfortable (for himself) new composition of the MGD. ”

In the protest movement, there is also no complete unity both in relation to the Saturday action and in general in relation to the participation of the opposition in the elections. Andrei Illarionov presented the most detailed and thorough criticism of such participation: “Attempts to participate in the opposition, real democrats, liberals, just decent, worthy, good people in this kind of“ election ”, the requirements of admitting their representatives to such“ elections ”are attempts to participate in general good, but slightly naive people in additional legitimization of the current regime ... The withdrawal of people to the streets (now) for purposes (now) for purposes (now) The provision of pressure on the regime with the aim of registering nonsense candidates is at least ineffective, unable to lead to the desired result, but, as a maximum, counterproductive, since it consumes limited opposition resources for meaningless shares. ” Andrei Nikolaevich considers the creation of alternative structures to the faithful tactic of protest and as an example gives the Free Russia forum, which holds his meetings in Vilnius twice a year.

With all due respect to the forum participants, it is difficult to agree that this kind of organizations can become the only tool for changing power in Russia. In addition, it is completely incomprehensible how to attract millions of Russians who do not like the Putin regime, to the creation of such foreign structures. As for such structures in Russia, then their organizers are risks no less, if not large than the organizers of street protests ...

The action scheduled for July 27 may become a turning point in the confrontation between the authorities and the opposition. And this is the case when a lot, if not everything, depends on how many people come. That is, the case when it all depends on each of us.

Photo: 1. Sergei iLnitsky/Era/TASS
2. 07/25/2019. Russia. Moscow. Unregistered candidate for the Moscow City Duma Dmitry Gudkov (in the center) after interrogation in the Investigative Committee as a witness in the case of obstruction of the work of election commissions. Maxim Grigoryev/TASS
3. 07/25/2019. Detention of Lyubov sable. Personal page L. Sobol on Twetter.