"Swamp" has become "triumphal"

The rally on Pushkinskaya Square was different in the atmosphere from previous rallies in Bolotnaya Square and on Sakharov Avenue. There were homemade posters, but it seemed not so important to express their individuality, people willingly shouted the same slogans with the whole crowd, but there were representatives of cursed movements, which was the previous night, rallying Putin on Manezhnaya Square, and now vudging the performances of the opposition. The faces of the rally are serious, smiles are less, calls rushed from the stage not for honest elections, but against Putin.

The square was completely numb by riot police, a helicopter circled over it, blinking red at dusk. People stood tight to each other. Despite the serious mood of the rally, goodwill has not gone anywhere: everyone was planted on the Square parapet in front of the Russia cinema. Others crowded on both sides of the square, filling the roadway. Mikhail Prokhorov spoke, who said that he would build Russia without fear, but with a sense of dignity, and create a new party. The leader of the “Left Front” Sergei Udaltsov said that “it would not leave here until Putin leaves. This is not a direct call for action, but I hope that you will follow my example. ”

Soon after this call, the opposition politician Alexei Navalny , whom the crowd asked to speak twice, the second - “on the BIS”. Navalny spoke of crooks, thieves and honest elections. “The authorities think that rallies will cease to be peaceful, people will leave - but we will not leave!” He said with conviction. After the end of the rally, to the surprise of many, its organizers called not to go to the Kremlin, but to stay in place and show civil disagreement with the results of the elections directly on Pushkinskaya. The most active participants in the shares of civil disobedience were Alexei Navalny, Ilya Yashin and Sergey Udaltsov. After the rally, they settled in a fountain on Pushkinskaya Square.

In the fountain

“The stupid question is why in the fountain,” Ilya Yashin laughs, “this is the center of the square.”
Indeed, after the call of Sergei Udaltsov, he himself and some other opposition leaders decided to wait for dawn in the fountain in the middle of the rally venue. The fountain sides reach the waist, at the bottom slippery, it is not so easy to penetrate, but it is also not easy to take activists out of it. They have no tents, no thermos, no food.
“It's not cold to us, it’s hot for us,” Alexei Navalny remarks, “we will stand here until he disperses,” he says, pointing his finger at one of the correspondent correspondence correspondents. Correspondents, meanwhile, enthusiastically remove people standing in the fountain, standing a little higher. The rally scene has completely turned into an informal press room: riot police do not pay attention, and photographing is convenient. Meanwhile, the opposition in the fountain begin a meeting with the State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev. That is how they determine the format of their action: an unlimited meeting with the deputy on the street, which is quite legal. Ponomarev comes up, sits down at the fountain and talks about honest elections.
“This is spontaneously, he simply responded to the request of voters to talk about the fate of Russia,” says Ilya Ponomarev to the correspondent.
At this time, about 1,500 people remained in the square, lifted after the rally. They chant “Russia without Putin” and “for honest elections”. Not far from the square, someone still managed to put up a tent. At this time, riot police are on the square: black helmets were flooded with the square and are dispersed along its perimeter.

Black helmets

The assault on the area of ​​riot police occurs in several stages. At first forty minutes, the police kept the demand to disperse into megaphones, after which riot police in Helpers began to close the ring near the fountain.
“Give Ponomarev Megafon, give him a megaphone,” shouts public figure Alena Popova.
A few hours later, the police will break her hand, but so far Ilya Ponomarev explains that he has a peaceful meeting with voters on Pushkinskaya Square. Oppositionists stand tight to each other, some have held hands. The first onslaught of OMON was betrayed and led only to the fact that the crowd was dissected into several parts: someone inside the fountain, someone-outside, someone completely went beyond the cordon. Now all the attention of people and journalists - to people in black helmets: they close the cordon and begin to squeeze people out of the square. Many participants in the rally were not ready for such a development of events and began to rush between riot police and exits from the square. The law enforcement officers did not stand on ceremony: in front of an elderly man of about 60, riot police rudely threw it to the side. The man fell in the back of his head on the curb and groaned, after which he did not rise for a long time. Journalists led him to an ambulance. At this time, riot police went to the second assault on the square: the arrests of activists in the fountain began, at the same time the fighters, closing the ranks, moved forward to force the opposition and journalists to retreat. The informal press center on the stage was liquidated in a matter of minutes by the forces of the same riot police.

It was convenient for further events to observe from a height of 2 floors from cafes 123. OMON all filled the area. One of the first to arrest Sergey Udaltsov, Ilya Yashin and Alexei Navalny. Each of the detainees to Avtosak was accompanied by a crowd of law enforcement officers in camouflage. The square was freed from the opposition in some quarter of an hour: the opposition were immersed in autozaki, and activists who were not interested in riot police were expelled to the roadway. In fairness, it is worth noting that the police blocked passionate Boulevard to avoid an accident.
“And we will come again,” the young fair -haired man, standing nearby in a cafe, comments on what is happening, “is not scary.” It is bad that there are few leaders. Only Navalny ... well, Roizman, but he was not here.
“It seems to me that this provocation was, I just don’t understand why,” says his friend.
- We will come again, although they took the leaders. I don’t know who the leader, ”summarizes the third, representing the classmate of Ilya Yashin.