March rallies in Barnaul

On March 5, two rallies dedicated to the past presidential election were held in Barnaul. Day and evening. In the afternoon - a rally in support of Putin (the people, as you know, such shares have long been called Putings), and in the evening, after work - a meeting of the "disagreements". However, it was not about disagreement with the results of the elections and the victory of Putin, but rather with the methods with which he got this victory.

Both rallies went under the slogans "We are for honest elections." And both in the same place - in the city center, on Sakharov Square. Only in the afternoon they gathered in Sakharov in order to praise the "new old" president, and in the evening to scold. And if in the afternoon the atmosphere on the Putings was like at Soviet demonstrations-some kind of stray-pathos (may I forgive me sincerely rejoicing supporters of Putin!), In the evening the square was small and sad. Sincerely sad.

The official organizers of Putings traditionally announced the Altai Regional Council of Trade Unions and the Putin People’s Headquarters. There were about 5 thousand people on the square (7 thousand were counted in the Central Internal Affairs Directorate). “All of them came to express their support to the course of the Government of the Russian Federation for the stable development of the country, peace and public agreement,” the official website of the regional authorities told us a couple of hours later. The permanent leading rallies to Putin’s subframe and the Party of Power Artem Makota joyfully announced that the rally participants "gathered in a single impulse to celebrate the victory of the mind and the triumph of justice."

“I congratulate everyone on our big and pure victory and propose to unite around our national leader in defense of our victory,” said Alexander Lazarev, the head of the “People’s Staff”, the deputy of the regional parliament.

The speeches of the speakers were interspersed with dance and vocal concert numbers. There were no representatives of the authorities and the Party of power among the speakers - “only the public,” emphasized the head of the “People’s Staff”, AKZS deputy Alexander Lazarev.

The rally concert "Honest elections - Honest Victory" began at 13.00. I asked the organizers why this time was chosen. The leadership of the regional council of trade unions failed to get a comment: the deputy chairman of the AssSP Vladimir Dobrygin, having noticed me at first, diligently turned away - apparently, in the hope that I would not notice it, and then in response to all the issues stubbornly was silent.

“Nobody drove anyone here,” Konstantin Emelin, chairman of the student union of agrarian university, said, warning my question. - Our university students learned that there would be such an action and came here to support. There are quite a few buses on which people arrived from rural areas.

Why in the midst of a working day? .. I also work, but pulled an hour from a working routine to come here. This is a very important event for our country, I do not think that something more significant will happen in the near future. Compared to this, I think, it is not so important that people missed an hour or two working time.

There are usually many home -made stretch marks and posters with a wide variety of slogans, often wise and ridiculous - well, at least non -core. On the March Putings - stretch marks are large, beautiful, bright and ... faceless. Among them, I met only one very small handwritten poster. Its author, a student of the Altai State University, expressed support for a presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov. He explained that he was a supporter of Prokhorov, does not believe in the honesty of Putin’s victory, and he came to the rally in his support because the students "asked the faculty leadership."

The “evening” rally - no longer supporters, but opponents of Vladimir Putin - began at 18.00. The venue of the rally on all sides was surrounded by metal barriers, at least 30 police officers were guarded by the entrances to the square. They could not answer the question of why barriers are needed.

Obviously, the protest movement in Barnaul is gradually fading: if in December 2011 hundreds of people entered rallies (and less and less came out with each new action), then only a few dozen “disagreed” took part in the rally on March 5. With many regular participants, we already recognize each other by person, say hello ... The atmosphere is almost “family,” the “disagreements” themselves joked sadly. One of the activists of the Barnaul for Honest Elections, wanting to cheer up the participants of a small action, called not to turn the rally "into a memorial service for the remnants of political freedom" and "recall the vigorous spirit that reigned here in December." Another activist said "our task is to wake the population."

"We underestimated the power of the zombie and the administrative resource.

It is necessary to work with the population, give information alternative to the one that is pouring from the pro -government media. And protect the rights of citizens. Our motto should be “one for all, all for one,” said one of the leaders of the movement Andrei Teslenko.

In the final, the participants in the action, holding hands, took a round dance for several minutes and chanted "when we are one, we are invincible" and "one for all, all for one."

“You see,” one of the regular participants in these rallies told me when everyone was already dispersing, “you see, they held clean elections.” Legally clean. But dishonest. There is almost nothing to complain about, there are no formally gross violations. Previously, they threw the ballots, but now people. After the December elections, they realized that it would not work with such cheap methods to ensure victory, and provided it more expensive. They simply carried out such a special operation at the highest level. Purely conducted. We won the information war. And it turns out, now we seem to say nothing ... And everyone was quiet.