Mass protests challenge Kremlin
Thousands hold anti-corruption rallies across Russia
Tens of thousands of protesters held anti-corruption rallies across Russia on Monday in a new show of defiance by an opposition that the Kremlin had once dismissed as ineffectual and marginalized.
Hundreds were arrested — including opposition leader and protest organizer Alexei Navalny, who was seized outside his Moscow residence while heading to the rally in the city centre.
The Moscow protest was the most prominent in a string of more than 100 rallies in cities and towns stretching through all 11 of Russia’s time zones — from the Pacific to the European enclave of Kaliningrad — with many denouncing President Vladimir Putin.
Thousands of angry demonstrators thronged to Tverskaya Street, a main avenue in the capital, chanting “Down with the czar” and singing the Russian national anthem.
The protests coincided with Russia Day, a national holiday. Riot police moved in to break up the crowd and randomly seized the protesters. Over 700 people were arrested in Moscow, while in St. Petersburg, about 500 were forced into police buses at an unsanctioned rally that drew up to 10,000 people.
The demonstrators appeared to skew predominantly younger — those who were born or grew up during Putin’s 17 years in power.
Similar crowds turned out on March 26, rattling officials who had perceived the younger generation as largely apolitical.
School and university staff who reportedly reprimanded their students for attending the March protests warned them against going to Monday’s rally.
Ivan Sukhoruchenkov, 19, attended anyway with four university classmates to protest what he described as “stagnation of the political system.”
“Change is always good,” Sukhoruchenkov said, adding that he and his friends were concerned about corruption — Navalny’s rallying cry — that “manifests itself in all areas: from traffic police to university professors.”
Navalny had called for the anti-corruption demonstrations, and they drew crowds of several dozen to the 10,000 in St. Petersburg.
Some of the rallies were sanctioned by authorities and peaceful, but police cracked down brutally on others.
Although it was not immediately clear if Monday’s protests were larger than those in March, they underlined the deep dismay with the government. Putin is expected to seek another term in 2018, and Navalny has already announced his intentions to run.
Moscow officials had agreed to allow Navalny’s rally, but late Sunday, he said official interference had prevented contractors from erecting a stage at the agreed-upon venue and instead urged demonstrators to gather on Tverskaya Street, which was closed to traffic for the Russia Day festivities.
Authorities allowed the unsanctioned rally to proceed, although riot police cut the crowd in half and began pushing the lines while grabbing some people from the crowd. Some of the arrests were violent with police using batons and dragging people along the street.