Posted 8 years ago on May 12, 2012, 1:10 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Protesters in Moscow are occupying Chistye Prudy square under a statue of Kazakh poet Abai. #OccupyAbai is demanding free and fair elections after the third fraudulent election of President Vladimir Putin. On Sunday, the eve of Putin’s inauguration, tens of thousands of people occupied streets in Chinatown and elsewhere in Moscow. In scenes reminiscent of Bahrain or Oakland, police brutally attacked the peaceful demonstrations with batons. Hundreds were arrested, but thousands persisted - taking the streets during the day, and occupying squares at night. Although police have banned tents, the occupiers have adopted mobile tactics using sleeping bags and generators to disperse and re-occupy when evicted by police. Social media covering the protests has been targeted and heavily repressed; last weekend, two of the largest global livestreaming websites (Ustream and Bambuser) went offline due to DDoS attacks on opposition livestreamers in Moscow.

Today, Occupy Abai is marching in solidarity with the indignad@s, Occupy, and allied social movements in the #12M Global Day of Action.

#OccupyRussia on Facebook