In Barnaul, a rally in support of those involved in the “Bolotnaya case” was turned into a tragic farce

On the evening of July 26, an unusual action took place in Barnaul. Local oppositionists wanted to hold a picket in support of those involved in the case of mass riots on Bolotnaya Square on May 6, they submitted applications to the city administration for several places on the “red line”, but they did not approve any of the applications, proposing to move the action to a less crowded place. The organizers (Barnaul Civil Movement) decided to turn the protest into a tragic farce. The picket was small (about 20 people), but it took place in a completely symbolic place - on Freedom Square near the monument to victims of political repression, under the motto “Back to the future! Forward - to the 37th!

“The picket’s demands: to accelerate the adoption of United Russia’s legislative initiatives that make the persecution of civil activists legal, the main motive of the action: “support United Russia” - speed up the return of 1937,” civil activists said.

The picket began with a sluggish squabble between permanent “Protestant” Viktor Rau and police major Vladimir Kulaev: both exchanged barbs, reproaches for ignorance of the law and advice to respect this law. Police officers stated that the action could not be considered sanctioned, because the organizers did not comply with the three-day notice period that they agreed to change the location of the picket. Organizer Tatyana Rau explained that she could not do this because... The picket was planned for July 26; the administration received notification of the postponement of the picket on the evening of July 23, Monday, and sent written consent to officials only the next day. Victor Rau shook a paper from the city administration, which recommended moving the picket to Freedom Square. “If you do not accept the proposal of the city administration (to change the location of the picket - editor’s note) with a written message about this, the holding of a public event will not be approved by the city administration,” the paper read.

The police insisted that the picket was unauthorized and all participants faced “legal liability.” “As you can see, no dispersal is taking place; we warned citizens that the organizers are dragging them into an administrative offense,” Major Kulaev emphasized.

Victor Rau said that in this case, he would hold a single picket: his wife laid out posters with slogans on the asphalt, and Mr. Rau set up a one-man theater - he took the posters one at a time, went to the monument and then returned back, reciting “We need to kill foreign agents who are on the Internet! Tighten the screws and life will get better!”, and the like.

As always, the operational video recording was conducted by gloomy people in civilian clothes who stubbornly remained silent; police officers also filmed, ignored questions from the media and picket participants, and for some reason refused to present their official identification.

The picket lasted a little over an hour, and when the participants began to disperse, the police stopped the Rau couple and offered to “go with them into the car and give an explanation in writing” about the administrative offense that, in their opinion, the Rau couple had committed. Viktor and Tatyana refused, but promised to come to the police department after receiving the summons and write an explanation.

In general, to be honest, the city authorities, together with the police, with their irrepressible zeal in complying with all norms of the law, only added color, significance and drama to the event. Without this confrontation, the opposition’s picket would most likely have looked paler...