Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny got the massive demonstrations he asked for over the weekend, as gigantic crowds assembled in most of Russia’s major cities, …
Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny got the massive demonstrations he asked for over the weekend, as gigantic crowds assembled in most of Russia’s major cities, prompting an equally massive crackdown from the police against “unsanctioned” public events. Western governments protested against the mass arrests, while the Kremlin insisted foreign powers should stop meddling in Russia’s internal affairs. The Moscow Times wryly noted Russia’s Interior Ministry spent the weekend frantically attempting to downplay the size of the protests. The demonstrations in Moscow and St. Petersburg, for example, clearly appeared to be much larger than the 4,000 or so claimed by the Interior Ministry. The demonstrations also skewed much older than the Russian government’s narrative about excitable students rushing out to enjoy a bit of street theater at the urging of Navalny and his young squad of provocateurs. The Moscow Times chatted with older participants who said they took to the streets because they worried about the future of their children under the seemingly endless rule of President Vladimir Putin and his allies, whom Navalny has denounced as corrupt oligarchs. On that subject, Navalny’s anti-corruption expose concerning the lavish Black Sea “palace” allegedly built for Putin by his cronies, released after Navalny returned to Russia after treatment for poisoning in Germany and was immediately arrested, has racked up over 70 million views online and was cited as an inspiration by many of the demonstrators who spoke to the Moscow Times: Vladimir,15, one of a group of boys smoking cigarettes a few steps from riot police, was attending his first protest despite warnings from his school. He said his motivation for coming out was poverty, as his disabled parents and grandmother only receive 15,000 rubles ($200) a month from the government, which barely covers Moscow rent. “I am against corruption in our country. I don’t like low salaries, low pensions, the fact that the government is stealing and then lying to us,” he said.
