“Protest as a quest”: how SERB, NOD and the police tried to disrupt the activist conference

I was one of the speakers at the “Protest as a Quest” conference, which was organized by the “Perpetual Protest” activist community. People from different political forces spoke at it. I was asked to talk about feminist art activism using the example of my actions. I talked about the media strike for Yulia [Tsvetkova], in which I participated with other activists, about the “Bridge of Sisters” campaign in support of the Khachaturian sisters. In general, I tried to tell what political and ethical principles are behind feminist activism, I talked about horizontality and inclusiveness. Other speakers had political reports in a narrower sense.

The first report began, Alexey Minyailo, a former defendant in the “Moscow case,” spoke. About ten minutes later we heard very loud sounds, some kind of patriotic fanfare . The coffee break room - where everyone who came to the event ended up - was broken into. I saw a man from SERВ who hit me at a rally for Belarus , and an activist of the NOD. They burst in, as always, with very loud music, and began trying to break down the door to the room where the event itself was taking place. They besieged our door very loudly, but the lecturers tried to read reports. We dragged one of the lecturers through the window [to speak at the event].

About 25 minutes later the police arrived. It seems to me that the NOD and SERV members themselves called her. Within two hours, we had two groups of police officers change. All this time people continued to lecture. The police first found out whether the organizers of the event had a lease agreement, then they left and came with the National Guard. Together they entered the hall at the moment when there was a presentation with a screenshot of a “newspaper without Putin.” A funny and awkward situation. Basically, everyone was laughing, it was such a sad laugh, but everyone tried to troll either the police or the NOD members, and joked with each other.