Festival of Disobedience

The capital's oppositionists are no longer afraid of riot police

The resignation of Yuri Luzhkov from the post of mayor of Moscow was an unexpected, but extremely pleasant gift for those representatives of the non-systemic opposition who, over the past few years, have called on the federal authorities to pay attention to abuses in the capital. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that some oppositionists decided yesterday to celebrate the “common victory of good over evil” in the usual way - by going to the traditional gathering place at the monument to Yuri Dolgoruky opposite the Moscow City Hall and organizing a demonstrative farewell to the object of their criticism. However, the action was very small - the euphoria among the oppositionists faded during the day: at the action, the “dissenters” admitted that Luzhkov’s resignation was only an interim victory and a rare coincidence of interests of street politicians and the federal authorities today. Achieving the main goal of all the citizens who took to the streets - the return of elected regional heads, the establishment of full-fledged self-government in Moscow, as well as summing up the results of Yuri Luzhkov's rule in a criminal manner - is unlikely in the near future.

Nevertheless, the oppositionists take advantage of the period of “anarchy” with apparent pleasure and temporary relaxations on the part of the Moscow courts, which, on the eve of the resignation of Yuri Luzhkov, are demonstrating uncharacteristic liberalism towards the political “margins”. Let us recall that at the end of last week the Moscow City Court declared illegal the refusal of the mayor's office to issue permission to hold the March "Day of Wrath" protest. Yesterday, the applicants of the majority of the "dissent" actions in Moscow - the leader of the "Left Front" Sergei Udaltsov, his comrade-in-arms Konstantin Kosyakin and the head of the Center for Human Rights Lev Ponomarev tried to build on their success. They applied to hold a new action on October 12. “The latest court decisions allow us to hope that the authorities will stop interfering with the right of citizens to protest, enshrined in the Constitution,” Comrade Udaltsov told Vremya Novostei. “We expect that with Luzhkov’s departure we will be allowed to hold our actions, because this will be beneficial to both the opposition and the authorities." According to the oppositionist, in connection with the latest events, the format of the “Day of Wrath” will not change and the action will continue to be dedicated to urban problems. The meeting of oppositionists will be held in the form of a people's meeting, the participants of which will try to sum up the results of Yuri Luzhkov's reign by voting. The results of the vote are easy to guess - the “dissenters” have repeatedly called on the federal authorities to investigate the results of the activities of the Moscow authorities and bring the mayor and his entourage to criminal liability.

Other “street” politicians, mainly from the Solidarity movement, approached the organization of yesterday’s action at the Moscow City Hall less formally - they not only did not submit any applications, but also organized their event through the microblogging service twitter.ru. And the prefix “micro” in relation to the opposition event came at just the right time. The farewell of Yuri Luzhkov turned out to be inadequate to the scale of the problems that the opposition really hopes will be resolved with the departure of the capital's mayor. By the beginning of the action, at 19.00, a group of about 40 journalists had gathered at the monument cordoned off with iron barriers. Rare islands of free-thinking were visible in it - oppositionists gave interviews, the number of whom, according to the Vremya Novostey correspondent's estimates, did not exceed 20 people. The “dissenters” tried to awaken interest in their action among the assembled journalists, oddly enough, with crackers - according to the idea, they were supposed to serve as a symbol of the fact that after his resignation, Yuri Luzhkov would need an increase in the prison rations.

The advantage of the police who did respond to the unauthorized picket was quite significant. Therefore, soon all the participants of the action with crackers ended up in a paddy wagon. There were about five of them, among whom, without having time to really say goodbye to Mr. Luzhkov, was the leader of the “We” movement and a member of “Solidarity” Roman Dobrokhotov.

But his colleague in Solidarity, Oleg Kozlovsky, who did not resort to theatrical effects, did not attract the attention of law enforcement officers. He quite successfully stood in front of the television cameras for about ten minutes, expressing the hope that “Muscovites will now heal normally.”

Vyacheslav KOZLOV