March to the police

“Dissenters” were not allowed into the Central Election Commission

On Saturday, almost a week before the parliamentary elections, the “March of Dissent” finally took place in Moscow. The meeting of “dissenters” took place without incident, but attempts by its participants to go to the Central Election Commission without permission from the city authorities ended in the dispersal of the oppositionists. Almost all the organizers of the march were detained by the police, and the court sentenced the leader of the United Civil Front, Garry Kasparov, to five days of arrest. Marching along with the “dissenters” was Vremya Novostey correspondent Kirill MELNIKOV.

Participants in the “March of Dissent” feared that, like in the spring, it would be banned. However, the capital’s mayor’s office decided to prove that they do not use the policy of “double standards”, allowing some to march in the city, but not others: on November 4 , the “Russian March” of the nationalist-minded opposition took place in Moscow . Then human rights activists said that they hoped for consistency in the decisions of the capital’s officials: since a nationalist march was allowed in the city, the “March of Dissent” would also be allowed. Its organizers said that they want to hold a procession from Academician Sakharov Avenue to the Central Election Commission building in Bolshoi Cherkassky Lane. However, the city hall did not give permission for such a route.

Despite the fact that the rally was authorized, the capital authorities still erected “minor obstacles.” The crossings under the Garden Ring in the area of ​​Academician Sakharov Avenue were closed “for repairs.” The repairs consisted of the fact that the walls of the crossings were partially covered with a green mesh. To cross Garden Ring, we had to go to the only ground crossing, but even there everything was not so simple.

Under the traffic light there is a sign with a “countdown” of the time remaining until the green light turns on for pedestrians. Several dozen people had already crowded in front of the zebra crossing, clearly waiting for the permission signal for a long time. The board showed that it should have been lit long ago, but the cars continued to rush along the Garden Ring. There was even a traffic jam of cars, which because of this could not leave the neighboring lane. Their drivers apparently were unaware that an opposition rally was taking place nearby. Otherwise they would have taken detours. In the end, the crowd standing at the crossing simply walked through the red light, not paying attention to the whistles of the traffic cop who was on duty nearby.

They were allowed into the rally after a thorough search. Next to the metal detectors, journalists from one television company interviewed three pensioners. The grandmothers looked at the camera and spoke without hesitation about how they “were paid 500 rubles each to come and stand at the rally today.” Once again I encountered these elderly “opposition women” in the queue to enter. I asked them where they came from and who promised to pay them for taking part in the “March of Dissent.” The grandmothers began to say that their pensions were small, they wanted to eat, so they came. “Yes, some young people called us,” the pensioners answered extremely nervously. “Like you, or like this one,” they said and took turns looking first at me, and then at the leader of the Yabloko youth group, Ilya Yashin, who was standing next to me. True, they never specified what they were paid for: for a television interview or for participating in a rally.

About 2 thousand people gathered at it: members of the “United Civil Front” with their leader Garry Kasparov, the National Bolsheviks led by Eduard Limonov and for the first time the “Union of Right Forces” as a party, and not just its individual members, whom the party leadership allowed to participate in "Marches of Dissent" before.

Most of the people with SPS flags were elderly. In many regions of Russia, the offices of the right are stormed by exactly the same grandmothers who demand to be paid for supporting the party. “Yes, this is all nonsense and provocations. We vote only for the Union of Right Forces in all elections,” several pensioners told me. “Here was Zurabov, they didn’t pay us any money,” one of them explained. - Putin removed it, but the situation has not changed. So it’s Putin’s fault.”

The “anti-Putinites” had to speak out amid mystical howls coming from the construction site. Thus, apparently, the oppositionists were hinted that they were imbued with demonic ideas. Eduard Limonov, with a broken voice, called for “to unite and say “no” to these scoundrels” and said that the Duma elections in fact “will be without a choice.” Garry Kasparov spoke about the low standard of living. “Oil prices have increased tenfold during the years of Putin’s presidency, while the lives of ordinary citizens are only getting worse,” he said and explained that “the current regime is supported only by fear.” During Mr. Kasparov's speech from the roof of a building on the other side of the Garden Ring, several young people stretched out a banner and scattered leaflets against the “march of political prostitutes.”

The leader of Labor Russia, Viktor Anpilov, stood alone and smiling at the side of the protesters, who disappeared somewhere shortly before the end of the rally. But Boris Nemtsov continued his attack on the authorities. “Putin says that he saved the country from the oligarchs. It was we who fought the oligarchs, and he was friends with them! - said the former first deputy prime minister. And, recalling that our football team had qualified for the European Championship, he sang the chant: “Ole-ole-ole!” Russia, go ahead! Ole-ole-ole! Let's move forward without Putin."

After the rally ended, the organizers tried to turn it into a march: the crowd, chanting “we need a different Russia,” together with Limonov, Kasparov, and State Duma candidate from the Union of Right Forces Maria Gaidar, moved along Myasnitskaya Street. There they were met by a chain of strong men in civilian clothes and about a hundred riot policemen. They stopped the procession and tried to detain Garry Kasparov and Eduard Limonov, but their guards snatched their charges from the hands of the riot police.

When everyone turned around to go back, they came across another line of cordon: several hundred people, including journalists, ended up “in a box”, after which the police began a “clean-up”. The most radical “dissenters” began to be thrown down and dragged onto buses. Ilya Yashin climbed onto the car and began chanting, but the tenacious hands of people in civilian clothes and riot police in helmets pulled him out of there. The leader of the “For Human Rights” movement, Lev Ponomarev, was detained and also dragged into a paddy wagon. Several dozen riot police finally managed to put Garry Kasparov on the bus: he pulled back the curtain and began to greet his supporters.

Maria Gaidar and the deputy chairman of the Moscow branch of Yabloko, Alexei Navalny, were taken to the police not from Myasnitskaya Street, but from Bolshoy Cherkassky Lane, all approaches to which were blocked: the oppositionists demanded that the police let them into the Central Election Commission building. The police allowed the candidates for deputies through the cordon, after which, however, they put them on a police bus and took them to the police station.

As for the journalists, who even wore special orange bibs, then, of course, they were not beaten with batons, but they were pushed with all their heart.

There are no exact statistics on how many people were detained after the “March of Dissent.” But almost all of its organizers ended up in police custody, after which almost everyone was released, except for Mr. Kasparov, who appeared in court: he was accused of violating the order of organizing and holding rallies and disobeying the police. The Meshchansky court sentenced the leader of the United Front, who “got off” with a fine of 1,000 rubles at the last march, to five days of arrest.