Thousands of Russians present letters of prot
MOSCOW — Thousands of Russians lined up in cities across their country Saturday to present letters of protest at government offices, the second widespread show of public discontent in two months.
The protests, initiated by the Open Russia organization founded by Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, an exiled former oil tycoon, centered on the right of all Russians to present letters listing grievances to the government.
Some of the protests turned violent. Nearly 120 people were arrested in St. Petersburg, according to OVD Info, an independent organization that tracks protest arrests, and there were scattered detentions in at least a half- dozen other cities. A heavy police presence in Samara thwarted any protest there, organizers said.
Pictures of the protest in St. Petersburg, which organizers said had attracted about 300 people, showed riot police officers hustling protesters onto buses, including one older woman holding a sign critical of President Vladimir Putin, which said, “V.V. Putin — there is a way out — take a pension.”
The overarching theme for the day was “Nodoel!” or “Enough!” as in enough of Putin and his government. Signs and many petitions called on him not to seek a fourth term in next year’s presidential election. He is expected to run, although he has yet to officially declare his plans.
“We have Putin, we don’t need food,” read one sarcastic protest sign in the Siberian city of Tomsk, where some press reports said 500 people had participated.
Before Saturday, Open Russia announced that it had organized protests in about 30 cities. Overall, the number of participants was smaller than the tens of thousands who turned out in about 80 cities for protests called by the main opposition leader, Alexei A. Navalny, on March 26. Navalny has called for more demonstrations on June 12.
In Moscow, hundreds of people holding petitions lined the sidewalk near the Kremlin administration building between Red Square and Staraya Ploshad, or Old Square. For a little more than two hours starting around 2 p. m., petitioners filed into a government office to present their letters, many of them written on the spot.
In the days before the protest, the government had deployed construction equipment and barriers near the office that handles such letters, leaving organizers to believe the entrance would be blocked.
After word went out that the letters were indeed being accepted, many more people arrived to stand in line. Organizers said that an early count found that at least 1,500 people had presented petitions in Moscow.
“We must participate in such events to show the authority that more and more people whose rights are being violated are against this,” a 30-year-old marketing specialist who identified herself only as Veronika