Citizen and security officer

Why is the march on June 12th is the struggle for "justice in normal mode"

There is an extension
Negotiations on the march. Ilya Azar - about how the action on June 12 was born from democracy and chaos and why it could neither coordinate nor cancel

Preface to discussion

From the editorial office

As often happens with our civil society, a tactical, albeit unprecedented victory - the termination of the criminal prosecution of Ivan Golunov - turned into a split. People who stood in the pickets yesterday were divided into two camps: those who advocated the “discharge” and the regrouping of forces in the struggle for innocently sitting on narcotic articles, and those who demanded not to slow down and not enter into negotiations with the regime, but put pressure on it. The discussion almost resulted in the question of whether it makes sense to reach the march that has already been announced and not agreed with the authorities on June 12.

The editorial board of Novaya Gazeta traditionally does not call citizens to take the streets if it is obviously known that as a result they can become a victim of violence and criminal prosecution. We adhered to this principle now, although among our employees there were supporters (and even leaders of opinions) of both camps. Many of us took part in the action on June 12 on pure ponds - for civil, not professional motives. Many, on the contrary, did not take to the streets. We are sure that this issue has become equally acute for our readers. Therefore, in addition to reports from the scene, we publish the opinions of our journalists - Kirill Martynova (below) and Julia Latinina (read it here). We offer to support your position close to you and speak out in the comments. Indeed, regardless of tactics, we are all sure - the situation with falsified criminal cases under article 228 of the Criminal Code must be fundamentally changed.

"New"

On the day of Russia, people gathered in the center of Moscow to reach the police building on Petrovka and express their attitude to the provocation against Ivan Golunov and other falsifications of criminal cases. Golunov had been released by that time, but the provocation actually continues. After all, we did not find out who committed the crime and threw him drugs, and also did not receive an answer to the question of where the order for this “service” from the security forces came from.

The answers will have to be sought inside the Moscow police, so the walk to Petrovka looked quite meaningful to continue the campaign in defense of our colleague.

Further on the Moscow boulevards, two anthropological types and two values ​​systems clash occurred. For Russian citizens, walking the streets of its capital in a good company, under the national flag and peaceful slogans in support of justice - this is happiness and the subject of legal pride. For the police authorities, which hindered this procession, such behavior of citizens is an attempt on national security and an occasion to mobilize all forces to clean the city. For citizens to declare their attitude to the persecution of Golunov means demonstrating that the country has other unfair criminal cases, and we need to lead to compliance with laws for everyone. For those to whom such behavior of citizens across the throat, the reasoning begins that Golunov has already been released, which means that our society is ungrateful and does not know how to stop, even after they go towards him “from the very top”.

Well, a citizen is a citizen, and a security forces is a security forces, and they do not converge together. To answer who is right here, you will have to decide who Russia exists in the first place.

Those who went outside on June 12 and headed for Petrovka suggest that it was police who serve the country, and not vice versa.

In this indigenous worldview question: to prove that after the liberation of Golunov it was necessary to sit at home, you can only from a police perspective. Like, if anyone else wants something, except for the liberation of Golunov, the club and auto-zak are relied on.

The propagandists, of course, hastened to promote the theme of the “black ingratitude of the opposition”: the latter, they say, did not want to protect the journalist from the very beginning, but to overthrow the power. But this design breaks off at a half -word exactly where it is conveniently propagandists.

In fact, people do not therefore go to opposition processions that they experience irrational hatred of power. On the contrary, people require the replacement of power for the reason that authoritarian rulers cannot cope with their functions. The justice and law in the case of Golunov partially triumphed, but the participants in the procession need this goal to be achievable for everyone. In short, those who went to the procession simply wanted the law to be fulfilled not only in the form of exceptional mercy and emergency. We want justice in normal mode.

There is no need to say that a peaceful procession under the Russian flag cannot violate the "atmosphere of the holiday" on June 12. If someone violated her, then police ceilings, randomly arising on the way of people. But the participants and guests of the festive festival "Times and the era" looked at the protesters with interest. Reconstructors of the Civil War in the United States, depicting the Indians, even offered manifestants to hide from the police in their tent.

Citizens act noticeably more professional than the police. Judging by their actions, the police were given two teams: not to let the procession on Petrovka and detain people with symbols on clothes. They completely failed the first task, having managed to block only the main streets, but not the alley and not the Hermitage Garden, which is opposite the police department. As a result, people were stopped at Myasnitskaya, then stopped on Trubnaya Square and on the corner of Petrovka and Boulevard Ring, cut into groups, and they still passed.

It was a new street protest tactics: not to conflict with the authorities, not to seek a breakthrough, but to flow out any obstacles and go not planned a route, but in general any.

To fight such a peaceful procession, the security forces would have to block the whole city in general and cancel the festive events.

People walked in a calm step, and after them, always late, fled and drove on buses, employees of the Russian Guard. As a result, the security forces did not guess to block the passage through the “Hermitage” and were very upset, seeing the crowd with the Russian flag on Petrovka. The panic of the responsible persons, which began at this moment, fell on the video. It turned out something like the lessons of entertaining Moscow for security forces.

Police officers intensively grabbed people dressed in T -shirts with inscriptions and drawings, and often dragged completely outsiders into the autozaks. This is such a factory for the production of new activists for the opposition. In the meantime, citizens, until late at night, coordinated the delivery of water and power to the detainees, agreed with lawyers, and distributed information about the detentions.

That would be such a professional police.