Page 57 - BNE_magazine_bne_September 2019

bne September 2019 Eastern Europe I 57
“Violence heightens the sense of injustice, clarifies dividing lines, and sharpens the sense of immediacy – all of which are key ingredients in popular uprisings,” said Greene. “That is not to say that a massive popular uprising is in the works. Things like this happen without bringing down regimes. But it is to say that the things that bring down regimes often look like this.”
Several of the leading opposition leaders were not at the protest as they had 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.
Greene 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 situa- tion 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.
"Citizens of the Russian Federation shall have the right to assemble peacefully, without weapons, hold rallies, meet- ings and demonstrations, marches and pickets,” Article 31 reads.
However, the authorities have added the caveat that they must ask for permission to protest within the city due to the disruption to traffic. While the courts are scrupulous in assigning a venue to any protests it is always away from the city centre and out of the spotlight.
However, something does seem to have changed. The opposition has been notoriously disorganised and prone to internecine fighting, but the issue of the Moscow city council elections and
number remains too small to spark a general “coloured revolution” that could force Putin out of office.
Nikolai Alekseev, de facto leader of Moscow’s efforts to hold a gay pride parade faces a similar issue and explained the problem to bne IntelliNews.
“The authorities make it clear that anyone that comes out in support faces clubbing by the police. We are waiting for the point where Russians are so fed up with their leaders they are willing to face being hit by a police baton for the change they want. We are not there yet.”
The sanctioned protest the week before drew 20,000 people but the unsanctioned protest drew 10,000 people that were in effect willing to face police violence for their political convictions.
After six years of austerity and falling incomes this 10,000 remains a very small share of Moscow’s population of some 15-17mn people, but is neverthe- less a significant number of people.
The city council elections are yet another sign that the Russian population is maturing and becoming more vocal
in what it expects and demands from
its government but to force real change on the Russian political system it has
a long way to go.
“What we are seeing today is the process of struggle, with the underdog
“The police were exceptionally violent while the protests were entirely passive”
the onslaught of the police appears to have unified the oppositions efforts to some degree.
While the bulk of the commentary has greeted the protesters' determination to face down police charges and stand up for their cause with glee, claiming the Putin regime is ripe for collapse yet again, the reality is that yes the protes- tors have been galvanised, but their
maturing and getting stronger by day.
At this particular stage, the Kremlin
has “succeeded” in what generations
of opposition leaders failed to do – it united the liberal opposition,” tweeted Leonid Ragozin, a well-known Russian journalist. “This ain’t going to be a linear process, but unless Putin starts reforms (as in real clampdown on corruption and criminal behaviour of Security bodies) the intensity of this struggle will keep rising.”
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