One day off - one city

Alexey Navalny began a series of rallies throughout Russia - from Murmansk to Vladivostok

In mid -September, the opposition politician Alexei Navalny began a series of campaign rallies in Russian cities - as part of his election campaign in the 2018 presidential election. The politician and his supporters visited Murmansk, Yekaterinburg and Omsk - and several thousand people gathered in each city. Until the end of 2017, the headquarters plans to organize at least 40 such rallies. Medusa talks about the new campaign of Alexei Navalny.

Opposition politician Alexei Navalny began a series of campaign rallies in Russian cities. The politician and members of his team made the first trips to Murmansk (September 15), Yekaterinburg (September 16) and Omsk (September 17). Rallies are organized by Navalny's volunteer headquarters, which the politician team opened in the spring and summer of 2017; All meetings are agreed with local administrations.

According to the organizers, three thousand people gathered in Murmansk (the police reported 500 participants), 8-10 thousand in Yekaterinburg (according to the police-1400 people), 7 thousand in Omsk (the NGS Omsk wrote about 3,800 participants, the data did not cite data); Each rally lasted about two hours. Navalny said that in every city meetings became "the largest political rallies in recent years." The only detainee on the shares was a resident of Murmansk, who tried to shout to break through to the stage.

Rallies are part of Navalny's election campaign . The main topic of performances is corruption. In addition, in Yekaterinburg, the politician promised to carry out the reform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and increase the salaries of police officers, and also met with the mayor of the city Evgeny Roizman (he fed Navalny pancakes). In Omsk he said that oil "does not work for residents of the city and the country." At a rally in Murmansk, the politician said that he was ready to “guarantee security” to Russian President Vladimir Putin if he himself becomes the head of the country. “He planted a huge number of normal honest people. He “hesitated” the whole country. I consider him the king of corruption and one of the main villains of our country. <...> If he is ready for a peaceful transit of power, I believe that he and his family can guarantee immunity. It will be very unpleasant for me to sign it. But for the future of the country, this must be done, ” said Navalny.

The Government of the Sverdlovsk Region tried to ban a rally in Yekaterinburg, although it previously agreed on it. On September 6, the Ministry of Public Security of the region agreed on a rally, provided that it was held at the site proposed by the department (they agreed to the headquarters of Navalny). On the same day, the ministry sent a letter ( .pdf ), which called the goal declared by the organizers (“Meeting with Alexei Navalny to inform about his activities”) “violating the requirements of the Constitution” and asked to file a new notification; The headquarters refused to do this. “In the morning of September 16, I was on the Square [defense where the action was scheduled], people from the Ministry of Public Security said that they would not miss us,” said Leonid Volkov, head of the Medusa headquarters of Navalny. - In the afternoon, we returned to the square with Alexei [Navalny] and achieved that the deputy minister arrived there. He also said that they would not let us in. We replied: “Okay, but we have notified everyone, we have 15 thousand people in the base. They will come anyway, and you will receive a thousands of crowds, uncontrollably walking around the city.” After 15 minutes, the action was agreed for us. Then, probably, about 200 employees were driven to the rally at the rally. For comparison: there were six police officers in Omsk. ”

In all three cities, a variety of street promotions were held at the same time as rallies. According to Volkov, in this way the authorities tried to interfere with the holding of rallies. “In Yekaterinburg there were rallies of ecologists and deceived equity holders. In Omsk there were a prayer standing against the [film] “Matilda” and a rally of trade unions. Of course, this is due to our arrival, the events were urgently collected for us, ”Volkov is sure.

A rally of deceived equity holders on September 16 took place in many cities of Russia, while in Yekaterinburg it was visited by the regional governor Yevgeny Kuyvashev (according to the Government of the Sverdlovsk Region, the event was attended by 5500 people). A rally of ecologists against the illegal landfill took place on September 16 on the Yekaterinburg ring road within a few minutes (the police detained the participants); Judging by the video of the action, about 10 people took part in it. The prayer standing in Omsk on September 17 gathered approximately 20 people and lasted an hour.

The next meetings of Navalny will be held in Novosibirsk, Vladivostok and Khabarovsk - September 22, 23 and 24, respectively. According to Volkov, all shares are agreed with the authorities: “Every Monday we submit a hundred applications in 20 different cities for two weeks ahead. Somewhere they refuse lawlessness, somewhere they offer places almost in cemeteries, and by other answers we make a route. ” The chief of staff of Navalny noted that Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk “traditionally very calm cities”, but in Vladivostok he expects problems: “They tried not to let me go to the opening of the headquarters, they detained my car several times. But while the preparation is in the standard mode. ”

According to him, the headquarters plans to hold about 40 more rallies: “Until December there were ten weeks left. For one we are doing three cities for now, as we reach Central Russia - we can do five, ”he explained.

Evgeny Berg