We don't get out of here

In St. Petersburg, on September 9, the shares were delayed and beaten the most strict. Report "Medusa"

In St. Petersburg, the protest against the pension form, declared by the supporters of Alexei Navalny on September 9, was originally agreed with the authorities - however, two days before the rally, the city hall proposed to transfer it, and the action turned into an unauthorized one. As a result, it was in St. Petersburg that the police and riot police treated the protesters the hardest: according to preliminary data, at least 350 people were detained, including minors. At the request of Medusa, Katerina Kuznetsova watched how the rally and a spontaneous procession to the cruiser Aurora passed.

At first, the authorities of St. Petersburg agreed on the action against pension reform on Lenin Square near the Finland Station, but then changed their minds. On September 7, the city administration announced that in the area of ​​the square a water supply and a centenary sewer broke out - and proposed transferring the event to the specific park on the outskirts.

The organizers of the rally refused to change something at the last moment-and called on everyone to gather in the same place. When on Sunday the first participants came to the Finland Station, it turned out that Lenin Square was completely cordoned off. There were police and emergency services around the perimeter; Behind them - right at the monument to Vladimir Lenin - several workers in specialists roamed alone. It was impossible to go to the square, so people stayed on a small patch near the metro. Soon a crowd formed there.

“I came [to a rally] for my parents,” admitted a student of one of the city colleges Alexander. - They also wanted to come, but found out that the action was not agreed and scared. I am also very scared, but what to do?

“Now we are going out for our parents, and then they will marry us,” the 19-year-old Yaroslav added cheerfully. In his hands he held multi -colored balloons with the numbers “60” and “65” painted on them (as a result of pension reform, women will retire at 60 years old, and men at 65). Next to him stood a fifteen -year -old schoolgirl Mary in Panda's costume.

“For about a year I have been going to rallies and always in the image of Panda,” she said. - I do not tell teachers about it. The closer they are in position to the heads and director, the more actively play for Putin. In the lessons, physicists tell us that he is smart and thinks a few steps forward.

There were very few pensioners among the protesters. 63-year-old Tatyana Mikhailovna told Medusa that she came to Lenin Square mainly out of curiosity: “It became interesting that the force would gather here.” “Drugs are not visible. Good people, youth, ”concluded a pensioner.

Meanwhile, the youth began to unfold posters (“Putin, where is our money?”, “Pay pensions, and do not build palaces”, “We are tired of us”) - and OMON employees began to detain their owners, pulling them out of the crowd, and leading to the buses standing nearby. "Shame, shame!" - shouted after them the protesters. At some point, someone threw a smoke saber towards the police-and the crowd took it scaredly back.

- Now everyone will be knitted? - asked a neighbor a young man of about twenty.

Mass detentions, however, did not yet begin - instead, the police informed the audience that the action was not agreed, and offered to go home. Part of the crowd began to slowly retreat to the neighboring streets. Along the way, some women tried to talk with riot police, who stood in a cordon.

- Guys, aren't you ashamed? You have a mother. The pension applies to everyone! - said one of them

One of the policemen smiled wryly and put a finger to his lips.

The first direct clashes with the police began near Lenin Square - in Finnish Lane. A crowd of people, pushed from a patch near the metro, tried to break through to the center of the city; A riot police line came to meet them. The column stopped and began to chant: "Police with the people - do not serve freaks." OMON in response rushed into the crowd, cutting it into several segments.

The first to detain people with Russian flags: the tricolors were selected, and their owners were roughly dragged into buses. "Do not beat people!" - the students shouted. At some point, a few more smoke checkers flew from the crowd into riot police. After that, the protesters retreated again.

By 16.00, about 80 people were detained; Among them, according to the volunteer of the headquarters of Navalny in St. Petersburg, Ekaterina Ivanova, there were about 20 headquarters coordinators. Because of this, the rally was left without leadership-and then the command was taken by the 18-year-old student of one of the universities Oleg. Climbing to the garbage urn, he offered to go to the center to the center - towards the Sampsonievsky bridge, not far from which there is a cruiser of Aurora.

- Come on! This is our city! - the protesters shouted approvingly.

The crowd went to Pirogovskaya embankment and right along the roadway went towards the Aurora under the signals of cars passing by. It was incomprehensible - either drivers welcomed the protest, or they were indignant at a suddenly arising traffic jam.

At the Sampsonievsky bridge, riot police met the column. People turned back, but after about 300 meters collided with another chain of police officers. The crowd was actually blocked on a small area of ​​the embankment. Several people in protest sat down on asphalt, others called to break through the riot policemen with a haste, "while there are few of them."

Meanwhile, the police took the protesters in two rings on different sides of the embankment - in each of them there were about two hundred people. Gradually squeezing the ring, riot police pulled out people out of the crowd and led away to the autozaks; Among the detainees were the journalists of the St. Petersburg Internet Gazeta Paper and the editor of The Village.

“We don’t get out of here,” one of the protesters suddenly said.

- Let go home! - shouted another.

A crush began in the crowd; One girl lost consciousness - an ambulance was called in chorus. The volunteer of the headquarters of Navalny Anastasia Osipova was so tightly broken by his hand during the arrest that she had to be taken from the police department to the hospital - where gypsum was applied under the escort.

At some point, the bus was adjusted directly to the crowd-and people began to enter it themselves, as if finding another form of protest. The police stood silently nearby, some smiled. The bus was filled, another drove up. And then - two more. According to the OVD-Info at 20.30 Sundays, at least 354 people were detained for promotions in St. Petersburg.

- Where will the people in buses take? - asked the Medusa correspondent for one of the police officers.

- Are there people there? He asked in response.

Katerina Kuznetsova , Petersburg