Russia Protests: Week Two
Snowmen have been pressed into service to broadcast political slogans critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin: this one says "We just love to watch (Putin's) press-conferences, we had no idea we lived so well.”
Update: 20:30GMT - So far, 4,567 people have been detained in more than 80 cities, 1,450 of whom were in Moscow, according to the independent OVD-Info police monitor.
Said political scientist Kirill Rogov on the air of Echo Moskva: “This is the biggest protest phenomenon in the entire period of Putin’s presidency, in all 20 years. It will be difficult to estimate its size, but its geography - the number of cities - is unprecedented. We see a different generation of protesters who are not afraid. "
Among those reported detained was the wife of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Yulia. She was later released. Also prominent political scientist and Chatham House associate Yekaterina Schulmann has been detained in Moscow.
Images and video footage on social media show a massive police presence, with widespread violence against protesters.
Navalny’s brother Oleg and lawyer Lyubov Sobol were also placed under pre-trial house arrest on charges of violating coronavirus restrictions by calling people to join protests.
OVD-Info reports the arrest of 82 journalists.
Most of the arrests have taken place in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Protesters have been heard chanting “Putin is a thief” and “down with the czar.” Protesters have been seen carrying toilet brushes — a reference to the $700 toilet brushes Navalny describes in his "Putin's Palace" investigation — throughout the rallies.
Russian analysts say the chances of the Kremlin ordering the release of Navalny are extremely low. To the contrary, they observed an escalation of police tactics - with heavier force and the shutdown of transport links. Furthermore, students and government workers were reportedly threatened with sanctions if they attended the protests.
“This is the biggest protest phenomenon in the entire period of Putin’s presidency, in all 20 years. It will be difficult to estimate its size, but its geography - the number of cities - is unprecedented. We see a different generation of protesters who are not afraid”
At the time of this writing, it’s 5pm in Vladivostok and 10am in Moscow on Sunday, January 30.
Even with the temperature hovering around -15C, protest have been underway in the Siberian capital of Vladivostok for many hours, with supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny chanting “My Russia is in prison.”
Nervous authorities have been throwing everything they can to subdue the expressions of outrage at the jailing of opposition leader Alexi Navalny, who was imprisoned earlier this month after returning home from Germany for life-threatening poisoning. Tactics have reportedly included threats against students and workers, in addition to jail sentences. Also, the closing of metro stations and limits on other transportation services.
This live map on social media shows dozens of protests across Russia’s eleven zones, from its border with Scandinavia to the Pacific coast.
Citizen journalists are reporting a heavy police presence in central Moscow, with many modes of transport blocked. According to open source posts on social media, protests have been identified in dozens of cities across Russia, from its border with Scandinavia to the Pacific coast. In the Siberian city of Omsk, protesters could be heard chanting, “down with the czar.”
Snowballs from last weekend protests have been supplemented with snowmen holding political slogans critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin: one of them says "We just love to watch (Putin's) press-conferences, we had no idea we lived so well.”
Last weekend, with tens of thousands of protesters turning out across Russia, the authorities reportedly shut down some internet services in order to inhibit the opposition leaders’ ability to mobilize people. At least 4,000 people were arrested across Russia last week, with open sources showing riot police using blunt force on protesters, including women, children and the elderly.
As the second wave of protests were set to ramp up, the ambassador of Portugal to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), of which Russia is a member, voiced opposition to the official crackdown in Russia - saying it condemned the “violent suppression” of the peaceful protests of last weekend. In a rare display of dissent, he said he was speaking on behalf of 26 OSCE-member countries, including his own. To date the OSCE has issued no statement in the crackdown, including on its social media platforms.
For more context on the Navalny case read my CNN Opinion OpEd here
