Direct speech

Mikhail Shneider , Solidarity:

I probably won’t be very original if I say that I was counting on a smaller number of protesters. Because the topic is narrowly human rights, and such things usually attract only civil activists who have been involved in this for a long time, and I actually didn’t expect that there would be so many people. According to my calculations, about 2,000 people came, give or take. It’s hard for me to imagine, because I wasn’t walking inside the column, but at the very beginning, otherwise it would have been possible to estimate it by density, but I just can’t imagine what it was like inside. According to my estimates, the number is approximately the same. As for the composition of the participants, it is, in general, traditional. More people are around 40 years old, that is, these are those who have been in the subject for a long time, people who experienced the last years of the USSR already in adulthood. That is, they understand where the current regime comes from.

If you compare it with the stocks in 11, 12 and early 13, then there was more drive. But this also depends on the topic: the slogans “defend your rights” and “fair elections” affect people more, they are important for everyone even now. On the other hand, rescuing political prisoners is still a moral, moral and ethical topic; it is important for a relatively small number of people. The topic is federal, but not everyone takes it to heart. Not everyone has injured relatives, not everyone is active in the civil movement, not everyone follows the course of events, people have jobs, and so on. Then, purely psychologically, this topic is rejected, people don’t want to think about it, because it’s unpleasant. They immediately project this onto themselves, a feeling of fear appears - everyone imagines themselves in the place of these guys and what would happen to them. Therefore, of course, there cannot be too much drive at such events - we are not talking about fun here, but about liberation.

Alexander Ryklin

Not enough, you say... Of course, not enough. Did you expect the working class and the working peasantry to join us? That a column of Ivanovo weavers and Sormovo strike committees is approaching? But you waited for this in vain. I want to disappoint you - there was no one but us today, there won’t be either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow... It’s just that today there were so many of us, and tomorrow, perhaps, there will be fewer or more of us...
So, all the questions and complaints to ourselves...

Ilya Yashin , RPR-PARNAS :

The march, in my opinion, was successful. When it started pouring at night, I expected there wouldn't be too many people, but several thousand people showed up. I think it is very important that so many people continue to come out to express solidarity with citizens who are behind bars in politically motivated, trumped-up criminal cases. And this is important not only from the point of view of showing society our determination in the fight for the rights of these people, it is important from the point of view of demonstrating moral support for the political prisoners themselves. Because the most important thing when you are sitting behind bars is the feeling that you are not abandoned and not alone, that there are people who are waiting for you in freedom, who support you. This gives strength to endure all hardships with dignity.

In general, I do not see a trend towards a decline in protest. We must understand that this event was organized by a collective of activists, and not by a traditional group of politicians, including Navalny, and therefore there was probably a certain ceiling of participants. But it seems to me that there is already a lower bar, relative to which the protest movement does not fall. And the fact that a lot of people gathered on Sunday is very significant, in my opinion.

If we talk about the general mood of the procession, some fatigue was felt yesterday, but this was primarily due to the fact that a significant part of the event participants also took part in the election campaign. A lot of people were really very active. You see, we need some winning stories, we need to win something, really achieve success, this gives moral strength to activists and supporters of the opposition. Therefore, rallies can be held with any, very different moods, it depends solely on the current political context - if we win something, then there will be one rally, if we lose or people are imprisoned, then there will be a completely different mood.

Georgy Satarov , political scientist, president of the INDEM Foundation:

Firstly, you actually need to sue for breaking the law. And secondly, I don’t see anything surprising in this. We have witnessed large violations, for example, during various legal proceedings, and not only. Actually, there is nothing new about them breaking laws. Their goal in this case is to make it as difficult as possible for people to mobilize, this is understandable. The later they make a decision, the more difficult it will be for people to gather.

There are at least two reasons for the fact that they committed these violations right now. Firstly, such impunity for breaking laws cannot remain, so to speak, permanent. Since they do this completely without any responsibility, this naturally escalates. And secondly, in this particular case, the problem is that they are not sure whether they managed to bring down the protest wave or not, and they are afraid of its continuation.

Pyotr Tsarkov , human rights activist, Solidarity:

As you know, we first submitted a notice to hold the action on October 26, and did not receive any decision in a timely manner. After three days had passed since the deadline, we received a response through the press. That is, we learned from various sources that we were denied permission to hold the action. We received the document, which can be interpreted as a refusal, three days later than expected, which is a direct violation of Law 54, Article 12. In addition, upon receiving this document, we saw that it did not contain any reasonable proposals for alternative route options. This is the second violation of Law 54.

Doing everything in our power to ensure that the action took place on the weekend before the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression, which, as you know, takes place in Russia on October 30, we submitted another notice of the action on October 27, Sunday, and were faced with slightly different actions city ​​hall. We did not receive a written response within three days, but, nevertheless, yesterday, on the last day provided for by law for a response, officials from the Department of Regional Security called us and verbally informed us of the management’s position. Namely: that we are asked to hold a procession only along the outer side of the boulevard, let us remind you that we asked for this entire boulevard, from Pushkinskaya Square to Turgenevskaya, while from Turgenevskaya Square we are not allowed to go along Myasnitskaya Street to Lubyanka, but are asked to turn onto Sakharov Avenue and walk along it to the Garden Ring. In addition, the number of participants should be reduced to 10 thousand people. The mayor's proposal itself, of course, should be considered. However, our position is that telephone negotiations and transmission of information through the press are not acceptable for us. We consider this to be an evasion of the mayor's office from the negotiation processes and, thus, the creation of obstacles in organizing the event.

Lev Rubinstein , poet, publicist:

The mayor's office in this case, as it is called in street slang, is “bulling.” I don't even know how to comment on this. In general, it seems to me that the tactics of coordinated marches have exhausted themselves. If there is a procession, I will most likely come to it. But speaking strategically, I think that the practice of coordinated events has outlived its usefulness. It seems to me that if you go out, then just take it and go out, as was already the case on the Writers’ Walk or on Manezhnaya Square. The question is quantity. If there are a lot of people ready to come to an uncoordinated street rally, that’s one thing; if there are few, that’s something else entirely. There will always be some people, but, of course, the majority of Muscovites are not ready to get hit on the head with a baton or be packed into paddy wagons, and I understand them. This is a question of a quantitative leap. If enough people come somewhere, then after that no approvals will be needed.

Sergei Parkhomenko , journalist, political commentator:

By moving from the notification principle to the permitting principle, the Moscow government is breaking the law. How can you feel about this? With regret. They simply believe that they are not in danger, that they can do this with impunity. They believe that they control the Moscow courts, control law enforcement agencies and do not have to fear responsibility for breaking the law, and therefore they calmly violate this law.