Translated material
"That's it, let's take the Whites"
Those who disagreed with the election results marched in St. Petersburg and tried in Moscow
The day after the presidential elections, The Other Russia held several “Dissent Marches.” Protesting against their results, coalition activists, as always, burned fires and shouted slogans, and the police, as always, detained the oppositionists.Participants in the “March of Dissent” in Moscow, for which the capital’s authorities never issued permission, did not even have time to form a column: the police cordon began right at the exit from the metro. Therefore, the oppositionists had to choose between a direct road to the “grooves” with curtained windows, of which there were about a dozen on duty in the area of Turgenevskaya Square, and attempts to mingle with journalists from dozens of countries, of whom there were clearly more than the protesters themselves.
However, not everyone had a choice: human rights activist Lev Ponomarev and adviser to the leader of the United Civil Front Garry Kasparov Marina Litvinovich were dragged onto buses by riot police immediately, so that they did not even have time to tell the television cameras as usual about the “cruelty of the regime.”
The “March of Dissent” in Moscow was planned to begin at the monument to Griboyedov, where journalists gathered. But suddenly, screams and fireworks began to sparkle from Turgenevskaya Square, and dozens of reporters immediately ran there. The riot police rather carefully began to wrap up the chanting young people and carry them, holding their arms and legs, onto the buses. In this way, the police pinpointed the few radical oppositionists from the crowd of journalists.
SPS leader Nikita Belykh came to support them, and in the absence of the leaders of the “Other Russia” Eduard Limonov and Garry Kasparov, he became the main character of the banned march. He called the elections a performance “where the actors play as the director told them,” expressed support for “dissenters” and said that he was not going to enter into a coalition with presidential candidate and leader of the Democratic Party of Russia Andrei Bogdanov, who has repeatedly stated his desire to unite everything right-wing forces. “The real liberal forces cannot support the current government, but I have the feeling that Andrei Bogdanov is for it,” Mr. Belykh told a Vremya Novostei correspondent.
However, Nikita Belykh did not provide support to the oppositionists trying to march for long. A command was heard in the radio of a riot policeman standing nearby: “That’s it, let’s take the Whites.” The policeman, seeing me writing down what I heard in a notebook, was not embarrassed: “Write, write, we are not afraid of you.” And together with his comrades he rushed to attack the leader of the Union of Right Forces. Without resisting and with a smile, Nikita Belykh walked onto the bus. Meanwhile, the rest of the riot police had already thinned out Turgenevskaya Square from the Other Russia activists.
“Paziks” quickly drove away from the square, taking away those detained for “jumping” and “violating public peace.” Many, including Nikita Belykh and Lev Ponomarev, were released immediately after being brought to the police station.
In St. Petersburg, where the “March of Dissent” was allowed, the authorities behaved more friendly. They allowed the opposition, led by Eduard Limonov and Garry Kasparov, to march through the city and practically did not interfere with the procession. The leaders of The Other Russia took advantage of freedom of speech in the northern capital and gave their assessments of the past presidential elections. “Eight years ago, Yeltsin pulled out of some closet a third-rate official, Putin, who had been sitting on our necks for eight years. Now Putin has also taken Medvedev out of the closet, but we will not tolerate him. Russia is us!” - said Eduard Limonov.
After the rally ended, the “Another Song” music festival began. Apparently, the genre of “opposition song” has now begun to take shape, which may be headed by the famous rock musician, leader of the group “DDT” Yuri Shevchuk, who supported the “March of Dissent” yesterday.