Parade "Snowwear"

In Vladivostok, tractors who imitated ice cleaning were put up against the manifestants

Photo: Ivan Belozerov

The local authorities did not agree on the “voters' strike in Vladivostok, referring to the dismantling of the Christmas tree first, and then, when it was removed, to conduct ice cleaning on the central square of the city. As an alternative, the city administration first proposed a “guide park” at the youth house, but in the end, judging by the documents, “master classes for children in embroidery and beadwork” should have passed on the street and at a temperature of –15 ° C.

Despite the ban on the authorities, activists of the headquarters of Navalny called on the inhabitants of Vladivostok to go to the central square of the city. The rally quickly moved to a peaceful procession along the streets of Vladivostok, in which, according to the organizers, about 250 people took part.

Circus on ice

The central square was blocked on the morning of January 28-the ice was scattered over it (as the activists of the headquarters of Navalny found out using data obtained from the city video surveillance webcam, the ice was brought and scattered by unknown people at night) and put on the perimeter of the fence with the “Caution, the technique” works. After noon, about twenty units of equipment - tractors with buckets were lined up near the breasts of scattered ice. But all cleaning of ice was postponed. By two o'clock, protesters began to be pulled up to the fences.

“If tomorrow we are told to stand here at this house, then the day after tomorrow we will not be able to leave the house without permission, as in North Korea”

The activist Vlad Potapov calls what is happening a “circus”: “They themselves threw ice and themselves began to remove it. More precisely, they do not clean, but stand and wait. Municipal workers like slaves ordered them! " According to Potapov, there is no point in a peaceful procession, as the organizers of the action offer, we need to break through the fences to the square and rally there: “If we tell us to stand here at this house, then the day after tomorrow we will not be able to leave the house without permission, as in North Korea,” but Potapov’s headquarters convince that the strike should be peaceful. Then they call her participants to go “for a walk”.

"The authorities are afraid of talking about fake elections and organized fake ice cleaning"

The procession runs along the central streets of Vladivostok, people chant "we are power here", "elections without choice", "elections - boycott, we are not cattle." Motorists will be alarm in support. “I saw this for the last time in 2011,” says one of the passers-by. Here and there, carriers with riot police and police cars are visible, but they do not delay anyone.

The procession runs along the central streets of Vladivostok photo: Ivan Belozerov

After the protesters after the “walk” return to the square, the snow removal equipment suddenly begins to work-the tractors move in a circle (there is almost nothing to clean), one of them tries to crush a small piece of ice on the asphalt with a bucket. The crowd laughs. "Circus tractors!" - the protesters scream and move the fences separating them from the equipment. Then people go to the center of the area with posters, tractors circle around them, the protesters overlap the road to one of them, but after a short bickering with the driver they diverge.

Under the press

“The authorities are afraid of talking about fake elections and organized fake ice cleaning,” activist Dmitry Zubarev comments on the situation. In his opinion, there were no detentions for promotions in Vladivostok, because "the team from the Kremlin did not receive."

But this does not mean that none of its participants will be brought to administrative responsibility. “The risk of being detained will be preserved for a long time, possibly for a whole year,” Zubarev believes, explaining that the police shot the action on the video.

And in general, employees of Navalny’s headquarters in Vladivostok believe that they can safely claim the title of “one of the most pressed” in the country. On January 12, mass detentions for “illegal campaigning” began among the volunteers, with respect to activist Nikita Panfilov, a trial was launched due to repost on the action on January 28, apartments of other activists, according to volunteers, listened to the FSB, and searches were held at the headquarters. However, they do not intend to give up and, if the authorities begin to pursue the rally participants on January 28, they will apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.