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Eastern Europe
May 11, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
square. Then more police arrived and cleared the square of protesters.
Demonstrations have become a regular occur- rence in Russia over the last year, since Navalny went on a regional tour starting last summer ahead of the March presidential election, but the authorities have been pulling their punches allow- ing most to proceed unmolested, even if they were not officially sanctioned. However, this demon- stration elicited the toughest action by police
seen in several years.
Anti-corruption blogger and opposition activist Alexei Navalny spoke briefly to the crowd before being arrested. The sign behind him says “I’m against corruption.”
Points of contention
There are several points of contention regarding this protest, the first involving the demonstrators' right to assemble without permission from the city government. The Russian constitution guarantees the free right of assembly, but what is not clear is if demonstrators need a permit or not.
The city government offered Navalny an alterna- tive venue, across town on Sakharov Prospect but Navalny defied the city and called for an assembly on Pushkin’s Square. The authorities are taking the line that a legal location was offered to the demonstrators, but they chose to ignore it. Indeed, the city usually offers protestors some location, but typically it is in out of the way suburbs of Moscow. The opposition claims that the constitu- tion guarantees their right to assembly and that no permit is needed; they only need to inform the state of where and when the demonstrators will assemble and are free to choose the location.
The confusion was acknowledged by the European Union (EU) in a statement, which said: “Even if some of the demonstrations were not authorised in the location where they took place, this cannot justify police brutality and mass arrests.”
Despite the arrests, almost all of those detained
were immediately released. Shortly after midnight on May 6, Navalny said on social media that he had been released from custody in advance of
a court appearance, which is expected to take place on May 11.
“Apparently the order came down not to ‘jail me before the (Putin) inauguration,’” wrote Navalny. The penalty for the offences of organising an unsanctioned rally and disobeying the police could see him fined and jailed for up to 30 days.
The government was keen to break up the demonstration but it is still being careful not to inflame the situation.
While the protests became a media circus, garner- ing widespread coverage in the international media - although there was almost no coverage in the state-controlled domestic media - the number of Russians supporting the protests remains small.
According to the most recent independent Levada Center poll the propensity to protest with political demands remains at a historic low.
At the same time the Russian population remains largely satisfied with the government and the majority believes the country is “going in the right direction,” according to Levada.
In an even more recent poll, a record high 81% of Russians believed that they were happy overall, according to the state-owned pollster, the Rus- sian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM). The proportion hasn't sunk belong 80% for two years. Among the age group of 18-24, 88% of the respond- ents said they considered themselves happy. And for wealthy people, the proportion was as high as 95%, while even 55% of those who were unsatisfied with their financial situation said they were happy.
While there is clearly a small and vocal group of Russians that are increasingly critical of the Kremlin, what is not clear is how widespread these attitudes are. Although the international community and its press strongly criticise Putin