From Pushkin to Jean-Jacques. May 8

After Yakimanka on May 6, after Manezhnaya Square and Kitay-Gorod on May 7, on May 8, the remaining oppositionists continued “mass festivities” in Moscow. By 9 pm those who were not detained in pure ponds and on China-Gorod, reached Pushkinskaya Square. At first there were 60 people gathered, a third of them were journalists. The party almost did not hold tents and fences, did not put forward any demands, did not hold posters and simply waited for the development of events. When the gathered, including journalists, became more than 100-150 people, the events began. "Look, riot police are running!" - the old woman with a bouquet of white flowers pointed to the assembled. Of the buses arranged around the area, they began to go out and line up in the chain of thirty-seconds of riot police. From the side of the cinema, at the monument to Pushkin, a cordon of the security forces was lined up, as if demonstrating the very fact of his appearance. Having released by journalists and everyone, after a quarter of an hour, riot police demonstrated: everyone who did not want to go out will take the “remaining inside”.

Several people were taken from monuments one by one. “There are detentions in the framework of investigative actions in the case of the organization of riots on May 6,” the police officer reported standardly, refusing to introduce himself. After several detentions, the newly arrived riot police began to squeeze the crowd from the square towards Tverskaya Street. "Dear citizens, the event is over, go to the subway!" - the police officer called for a megaphone. Having pushed a bunch of peaceful people on the Tverskaya sidewalk, riot police broke them into squares and cut off the already few crowd on different sides: whom in the direction of Mayakovskaya, who in the opposite, whom in the subway.

The next attempt to meet in the amount of more than three took place on the other side of Tverskaya, on the boulevard. But there, the riot chain quite quickly blocked the boulevard, as a result of which several dozens of demonstrators turned out to be clamped at Pushkinskaya, at the house at 17 Tverskaya, at that time, the first carriers with the detainees went and arrived new: one of them, trying to turn around Tverskaya Street, blocked it, which caused the mass indignation of the drivers who stuck in the traffic. Once again, having hurt the crowd, the riot police retreated, leaving the remnants of the protesters in bewilderment about the further route.
It should be noted that all this time the crowd moved without “leaders”. It was not visible that Alexei Navalny, who announced his arrival, announced his arrival.
Photo: Reuters/ sergei karpukhin

The expected deputy Dmitry Gudkov dissolved in the unknown. Nothing was heard about the plans of Sergei Udaltsov. But then Ilya Ponomarev and Ksenia Sobchak appeared on Tversky Boulevard. Having gathered a couple of dozen like -minded people and several dozen journalists around them, they proudly walked along Tverskaya towards the Kremlin. True, after a hundred meters they ran into a riot police detachment. After short negotiations, walking, led by Selebriti, turned back. And again they stumbled upon riot police, overlapping the path to the boulevards. A little hesitating, everyone went to Gnezdnikovsky Lane and headed towards Nikitsky Boulevard. “Now, near the ITAR-TASS building, we will meet friends, and then we’ll go to the old Arbat,” Ilya Ponomarev announced along the road. The “acquaintances” at the TASS building was the arrived Alexei Navalny surrounded by several dozen walking.

The meeting of the “Columns of Ponomarev” and “Navalny’s columns” were already waiting for the police: one chain closed the exit to the Bolshaya Nikitskaya (for example, the Mayak cafe), the other was a passage to Nikitsky Boulevard (for, for example, already in a loved rustle of the cafe “Jean-Jacques”). The first to the buses were sent to Navalny and Sobchak: having planted, which is characteristic, into different cars that were disposed of
them to different departments. Ponomarev, clamped in the riot room, also tried to detain, but he referred to deputy inviolability and demonstrated the certificate.

After they were detained from one and a half dozen walking, it seemed there was no one else to detain: deputy Ponomarev remained on the street with his inviolability surrounded by journalists with their certificates and press cards, nevertheless, the security forces continued to escalate: surrounding Ponomarev with journalists with one ring, they closed up another, and two more at a time. At a small intersection, there are several times more participants in mass festivities. On the ITAR-TASS building on an electronic scoreboard with news, meanwhile, the message shone: "The opposition came to Nikitskaya, the detentions began." Especially for those who did not notice.

The next point was again marked by Pushkinskaya, and Ponomarev and journalists moved back, the same route that they came. Somewhere in the lanes at the beginning of the procession, the car stopped. “There is a riot police column in front,” the driver warned and went on. The remaining column turned into a lanes and came out a little at a distance from the expected meeting with riot police.

However, the detachment was waiting for everyone again on Tversky Boulevard. Meanwhile, it became known about the detention of a deputy
The inviolability of Dmiy Gudkov. The situation cleared up later and turned out to be extremely comical: according to Gudkov, he went to the protesters from the side of Nikitsky Boulevard, noticed Ksenia Sobchak in the car carrier and went to her to figure out what was the matter and ask what was happening. While he looked back in the car, the doors of the vehicles closed, and everyone was taken in the direction of the Moscow Ring Road. The remaining people who wanted to walk already reached the patriarchal ponds, from where they moved to the new Arbat, where they met with previously lost Sergey Udaltsov. There, the Gudkov and Sobchak freed by this time joined them.