Page 13 - RusRPTAug19

been arrested the night before on what opposition leaders claimed were trumped up charges.
In particular, anti-corruption blogger and opposition activist Alexei Navalny had been arrested on charges of organising an unsanctioned rally.
However, on July 28 his spokesman said Navalny had been taken to hospital after suffering from an acute allergic reaction that caused his face to swell and red rashes on his skin among other symptoms. His spokesman said that Navalny was not known to suffer from any allergies and commentators were quick to ask if he had been poisoned.
Has something changed?
Russia watchers have been asking if something has changed in the Kremlin’s attitude to protests. The police were exceptionally violent while the protests were entirely passive.
“The Kremlin is now making it clear that violence is the standard response to protest, rather than just one of a number of possible responses. That is a shift,” says Greene.
Green goes on to speculate that either the Kremlin is sending a message to those would-be demonstrators that have not joined the cause and is telling them to stay away. Or the Kremlin is trying to calm the jitters of the elite, who are Putin’s most important constituents, and to show them he still has the situation in hand.
Russian state media largely ignored the clashes with police in the heart of the capital, but where it did report the story it drew parallels with the “yellow jacket” protests in Paris, in that protestors had attacked police and that most of the protestors had been bussed in from the regions.
The main difference between the Paris protests, apart from their size, is that the protesters in the French capital have been actively destroying property and throwing stones at the police, whereas the Moscow protestors have done no reported damage nor have they attacked the police in any obvious way.
The police right to break up the protests has long been a point of contention as according to the Russia’s constitution Article 31 the people are entitled to peacefully protest.
13 RUSSIA Country Report August 2019 www.intellinews.com