"Yes, because everything is already enraging everything"

Article 318, part 1

Earlier, Paper reported 10 thousand. By clarifying the data on the photographs and service of Mapchecking, we adjusted the assessment. In addition to Nevsky Prospekt, where the most protesters gathered, hundreds of people were also on neighboring streets.

The figure is indicated at the time of publication, in the future it will increase.

Throughout Russia, thousands of rallies have passed. The main reason for them was the arrest of Alexei Navalny, but people went out not only in support of the opposition, but also against the current government.

In St. Petersburg, according to various estimates, from 15 to 30 thousand people took to the streets. According to the results of the rally , more than 400 people were detained.

The action began on Senatskaya Square, continued with a procession along Nevsky Prospekt and a rally on the Field of Mars, and ended - with tough the police and protesting on the Square of the uprising and the attacks of the security forces on the passers -by near the Gostiny Dvor.

Three Paper correspondents spent seven hours for the shares, walked with the column throughout the center and talked with its participants. We talk about the largest protest of recent years in St. Petersburg.

To the action

Petersburg security forces and authorities were preparing for the inconsistent rally long before it began. They came home to activists, opposition politicians and journalists and reported “the inadmissibility of visiting unauthorized shares”. In social networks of schools, they asked to “protect children”, students were scared by deductions. According to the “paper” , on January 23, they made a working day “for the entire leading unit [Ministry of Internal Affairs] and the personnel of all services and units without exception”.

In Senate Square, on Saturday morning there were dozens of cars of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, OMON, Rosgard and utilities. More than a hundred security officials were on duty. There was a lot of police at the Gostiny Dvor, at noon there even saw an armored car. Fences appeared at the Palace Square and the Peter and Paul Fortress, and later the participants in the rally threw some of them.

The detentions began already at 10:30-the Libertarian Ivan Ostapchuk, as well as the editors of the telegram channels “The Lens of Realuies” and “Piannitsa”, which illuminate protests, were delivered to the police department. A hour and a half before the promotion on Senate Square, dozens of journalists gathered, many were in the yellow vests of the press. They were also detained-despite the editorial tasks, press cards and identification marks.

“They didn’t explain anything to me at all,” said the correspondent of Mediazones David Frenkel from Avtosak. - They were convinced that I was a journalist, after which they took it to the bus. The deputy press shoe of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg [Elmar Shahirzaev] said: they will take it away and figure it out. That is, he did nothing at all to make journalists out of here.

Even before the rally began on Senate Square, at least 50 people were detained, among whom were people without posters and correspondents of Medusa, Kommersant, Neva News. Journalists were taken to police department in Kolpin and Peterhof. There they checked press cards for hours, and in the evening they were released-they were supposedly suspected that they were not journalists.

During the first detentions, protesters only gathered in the square. They were almost immediately pushed to the Isaac's Cathedral and the building of the Constitutional Court, on the steps of which dozens of people were sitting. Some jokes called themselves the Decembrists, referring to the 1825 uprising.

Senate Square

The authorities tried to block the passages to the action: they temporarily closed the lobby of the nearest metro station "Admiralteyskaya", later - "Nevsky Prospekt" from the channel Griboedov. Police blocked the Patrudes on the Palace, Trinity and Blagoveshchensky bridges.

Despite this, thousands of people appeared on Senate Square in a matter of minutes. They came in chains, some had ruffs in the hands, others had posters with inscriptions like “freedom to this citizen”. According to the “paper” , about 5 thousand people gathered in the square for an hour and a half. People parted in the Alexander Garden, occupied the entire sidewalk of Admiralty Prospekt opposite and lost a bunch of St. Isaac's Cathedral.

According to the observations of the “paper” , most of the crowd were people over 30 years old. Protest slogans, waving their hands, also picked up dozens of older Petersburgers. The vast majority of the protesters came in masks.

In the center of the city, it was raining at times, everything was melting or frozen. People repeatedly jumped on the sidewalks. However, utilities at that time were preparing to block the streets.

On the square from portable speakers, the songs of "Changes" and We are the champions sounded, the crowd chanted "Freedom!" The drivers signaled in support of the protesters, in one of the cars they even noticed a toilet ruff in the form of a gold scepter - a symbol of today's protest. An employee of the Cash desk of the Isaac's Cathedral, casually asked the smokers to move away.

Soon the security forces approached the crowd. People instantly ran away, the territory at the foot of Isaac was empty. Those who did not have time - or did not want to leave, got into a car zak. “Take two on the right,” one security official ordered another.

At the same time, the unknown attacked an employee of the traffic police, who was on duty at the Manege. Going to the roadway, the man hit the inspector. The aggressor was pushed away, he disappeared. Now the suspect is looking for who he is is unknown (at first the police detained the wrong person), the case of violence against a representative of the authorities has been opened.

As on the shares of 2018, the protest on January 23 did not have specific coordinators and even more so leaders: some recommendations were published in the telegram channel of the headquarters of Navalny and other protest channels and chats. Almost nothing happened on the square, except that some protesters threw snowballs towards the security forces, shouting “shame!”. So, when someone in the crowd shouted “on Nevsky!”, People enthusiastically began a spontaneous movement in the Alexander Garden.

The column went calmly only to the approaches to Palace. There, five riot police attacked a young man without posters and protest symbols crossing the road. He was pressed to the asphalt, stopping the movement of cars. Then five were pushed into a car gut, while the guy explained that he was not resisting.

Autosak immediately left, and the exits from the Admiralty Prospekt were blocked. The path to Nevsky was cut off. They tried to block the return road with cleaning equipment, but people still went out to Gorokhovaya Street - to get to Nevsky bypassing.

Nevsky Prospekt

About 5 thousand people squeezed into the narrow Gorokhovaya street, occupying the roadway. However, the crowd was almost instantly parted, seeing two ambulances. Protesters applauded to doctors.

Screams "Putin is a thief!" And "While we are one, we are invincible!" echoed from the walls of houses. In the crowd, they tried to chant something from Navalny’s recent investigation. “I want Putin's hookah!”, One girl exclaimed, but no one supported her impulse.

“As Alexei said, we are not for him, but for ourselves,” one of the protesters reasoned.

“Yes, because everything is already infuriated all,” the girl in the crowd expressed emotionally.

But other points of view sounded. “Well, he [Putin] can no longer be re -elected. And today, people came out mostly marginal, ”the passerby commented.

Finally turning it on Nevsky, people spontaneously went to the roadway, making the avenue to the pedestrian. The crowd applauded to herself, put Putin in resignation, and allocated Navalny to freedom. Passers -by stopped, employees of stores and restaurants went out to photograph a rally.

At the small stable, several protesters stopped to argue with a man who deployed a poster “Navalny agent of the West, a traitor”.

- And where did Navalny get such high -quality pictures from the satellite?! - the activist put forward an argument against the investigation of the Palace of Putin.

“Go to Google cards,” they answered him.

The man continued to argue, but not aggressively. Coins were thrown from the crowd: someone under his feet, and someone rushed into him. "On, hold 33 silver!" - shouted from the column. The man in response laughed and skipped “Putin - God!”, And then he left.

At the house of Zinger, the crowd was waiting for the cordon from the cars of the communal special services and the chains of the security forces. Those who tried to break through were beaten with batons. As the correspondent of Paper noted, one of the activists sprayed something like gas from the spray can from the spray can. The protesters in response rushed with tightly blind snowballs. At some point, several people screamed at once: “We go around!”,-and people moved through the park of the Kazan Cathedral.

Before the living room - a new overlap. But this time the protesters could not break through. People were divided on two sides of Nevsky, freeing the roadway. The first group remained at the perineal rows: hundreds of security officials were driven there, and the protesters gradually dispersed. The second - the most numerous - turned into a small stable. Of the scattered screams, one formed: "On Marsovo!"

Marse field

- And what do they protest against? - the child of about five years old asked his mother on the way to Marse Pole.

- Against the authorities.

Under the charge "Aquadiscopete! Aquadiscopetics! " The column reached the field of the field, once a city guide park. People flocked to the eternal fire from all sides. Columns of hundred employees of the Russian Guard lined up around the perimeter.

Soon on the Marse Field was not to push through. More than 5 thousand people came there - the gathering resembled the largest promotions like rallies against the transfer of Isaacia of the Russian Orthodox Church and protests “He is not a king for us”.

Dozens of protesters climbed onto the memorial in the center of Marse Paul. At first they were asked to get off, but more and more people rose there. The largest group launched the Banner “Freedom to Azatu” at the memorial - in support of the graduate student of Moscow State University Azat Miftakhov, sentenced to six years in a colony in the case of arson of the United Russia office. “Freedom is political prisoner!”, The audience chanted. And then: "Grandfather, drink pills."

On Marse, the atmosphere was almost festive. People rejoiced, talked, painted snowmen - they had one panties alone. Someone lit fire against the background of the flag of Belarus.

- So many people, did not expect! At my age there is nothing to do here, ”the older man rejoiced. The field of the field really reached the most part to Marse.

But it spread in the crowd and anxiety: mobile communications were almost completely absent, the security forces slowly circled around the perimeter. A massive panic took possession of the gathered a couple of times: they scattered, but it is not clear from whom. On Marse, it is slippery, so people thought out the ways of retreat.

“Here we will definitely stalify,” the young man with friends consulted, examining the paths. - We must move in that direction [to the bridge], so that, if anything, immediately run there.

Soon I really had to retreat: the huge column of riot police sharply advanced to the memorial. "Do not let anyone out!" - the security forces shouted, getting into the hitch in the center of the field. Almost everyone managed to run out.

- We went ***** (far and for a long time - approx. "Papers" ), the young man shouted, throwing Snowball at the security forces. He landed under the feet of one of the riot police with a stone, he did not react.

People ran away. Someone managed to catch the Internet-in protest chats they decided to go to the foundry, and then complete the action on the Square of the uprising. A pretty thinned column, in which the “paper” barely counted a thousand people, moved along Pestel Street. The majority turned on Mayakovsky and went to the subway. The rest are on the Square of the uprising.

The area of ​​the uprising

The protesters came to the Square of the uprising mainly from the side of Nevsky Prospekt. About 100 people stopped at the Gallery shopping center, but, not understanding what to do there, returned back to Nevsky or went to the subway.

A couple of dozens of people climbed to the obelisk "Gorod-hero Leningrad", chanting "Changes!" And "Putin is a thief!" The girl stood with the poster "My house is here, I'm not afraid." The rest watched what was happening from the sidewalks.

A few minutes later, the security forces drove up to the obelisk: the riot police tried to surround the protesters, hard detention began. People were dragged on the ground, raised by the hands and feet, resisting they beat with batons.

Riot police took even passers -by to autozaki. Several young people were pressed against the wall, one of the security forces said to the other: “Do not wait, drag them already.” Hearing this protester quietly said to his friend: "It was I who in the face of the cop loaded the snowball, and they sagged right away."

Behind the area of ​​the uprising, on Goncharny Street, on the path of the security forces who led the detainee, a woman stood with a cry “Why did you grab him, guys?” One of them rudely kicked her with his foot in the stomach, the woman fell to the ground, hitting her head. Blood was visible on her hood. The victim was taken to the first -aid post of the Moscow Station, and then delivered to the Ambulance Research Institute named after Gianelidze. There, according to Fontanka, it was previously diagnosed with a concussion, a closed head injury and a hematoma nape. The police and the prosecutor's office reported that they started checking.

Some of the protesters ran away to the potter's street. OMON tightly ousted about 20-30 activists there - in response they threw plastic bottles into the security forces. At least five people detained, and the protesters dispersed. Almost immediately, the power of the security forces began to leave the area of ​​the uprising.

Gostiny Dvor

The action continued at the Gostiny Dvor. About 100 people remain on the site near the metro. As soon as someone screamed-and he was almost immediately detained.

By 18:30 it seemed that almost all protesters were detained. But the security forces continued to look around, receiving a tip from people in civilian and balaclava.

“There, between the stalls, we take five people,” one riot police said to another. The young people standing at the stalls were taken into autozaki, breaking their hands.

- Dear citizens! The action is not agreed! - The policeman notified someone in the loudspeaker: there were only journalists in front of him, there were no people with posters or chanting.

And the detention continued. The security forces caught people in the underput, grabbed random passers -by. The girl in tears asked not to detain her boyfriend, who was led to a car carrier.

- We just went to the cafe, we do not participate in anything! - their friend explained to reporters. Another woman said that she went to the subway with her husband, he said something to the riot police-and he was detained, breaking the phone. Micked out to the car and young man in sportswear, who smoked next to the fence.

At some point, the security forces and journalists at the Gostiny Dvor remained three to five times more than the protesters. One of the participants in the action told the neighbor:

- Today everything seems to be, tomorrow I will just lie and play the Witcher. Today I have fulfilled the civil duty, tomorrow I will fulfill the “witch”.

According to the OVD-Info at 00:30, 466 people were detained in St. Petersburg. The number of victims is unknown. The head of the network of regional headquarters of Navalny, Leonid Volkov, said that next weekend, new protests will be held throughout the country.

Read also the main facts about the protest campaign on January 23 and see the photo report from the rally.