American protests are always picture-perfect: a single-minded crowd, proudly holding their posters, knowing that their questions will somehow be addressed or at least vastly covered by media outlets. Have you ever wondered what protests look like in Putin’s Russia?

Source: Brian Elfman

What’s happening?

This past July, Russia has been in flames literally and figuratively. The month marked the 20th year of Vladimir Putin’s complete control over the country. This anniversary did not cause much celebration; if anything, it turned peoples’ attention to the many injustices surrounding the Russian political system. So what was the backlash?

A Moscow city council elections scandal sparked the greatest amount of resentment. Like America, in order to become an official candidate for election, a contender needs to collect a specific number of signatures–in the case of the Moscow elections, around 5,000. Furthermore, those signatures need to be reported to the Moscow City Election Commission that will either accept or reject their validity. The scandal took off when almost every opposition candidate (anyone who doesn’t belong to the governing United Russia party) was rejected for “unauthenticity” of signatures. Candidates were accused of forging the paperwork, even for the signatures that were signed by their family members. In response, the opposition organized a negotiated protest on July 20 under the motto “register independent candidates, hold equal elections.” Around 22,700 people showed up to the demonstration, which made it one of the largest in Russia’s history.

The July 20th demonstration itself was relatively peaceful; however, what happened later was unacceptable. Unregistered candidates that were accused of “unauthenticity” were searched and Alexey Navalny, the opposition leader who simply encouraged people to keep demanding what they want, was arrested for 30 days.

Nevertheless, people came out on July 27th to continue demanding equal elections. Here is what happened.

Even before the start of the demonstration, the independent candidates were arrested with no particular accusations from the police. The demonstration hit a record 1400 people detained, most of whom were violently beaten up by the police. Witnesses say most people were arrested and put into police cars without explanation. Some were just passing by the demonstration but still forcefully taken away.

Another weekend, another police terror against peaceful pro-democracy protesters in Moscow. Hundreds of detained and counting.



Follow @novaya_gazeta for more videos, pictures, updates — they risk being arrested for covering the crackdownpic.twitter.com/rky0l3uI7V — Maksym Eristavi (@MaximEristavi) 3 августа 2019 г.

Elizaveta Imenovskaia became an accidental spectator of one of the demonstrations on August 2nd. Here is what she saw:

“First, I’d like to say that we (me and my friend) came across the demonstration accidentally. Even though I support the movement completely, it would have been too dangerous to go there consciously… When we got out of the subway station, people kept chanting “stop lying to us.” At first, the police tried to physically separate the crowd, but people stuck together and didn’t give in. Protesters decided not to get involved, and thank God we didn’t, because a few seconds after, new 40-50 OMON fighters came in and formed a circle around the crowd. It seemed like it was impossible to get out of that weird formation for those inside. Then OMON suddenly started running at people in the circle to separate them one by one. It was so scary to see that a person, just as if you are being run over full-on by the crowd. The police somehow have permission to physically hurt you, and you don’t even know their names. It was disgusting, this entire system is.”

Elizaveta’s experience highlights the thousands of other Russians that have witnessed these protests too. But the protests are still going on and the public is not stepping down.

Why are the opposition candidates oppressed?

Let’s put it bluntly, the candidates we are talking about are not popular or well-known by the public, largely because of the monopoly United Russia has over media. Why does the government care so much about not letting them through? A big part of the reason is the story of Alexey Navalny. Back in 2013, Navalny ran for Moscow mayor and just like in the case of these candidates, was not well known. He later lost, getting 27% on the polls. Despite the loss, 27 percent is a big number for a common nobody. Not only did his polls scare the government, but the election also gave him public attention and a whole new platform to base his campaign on. He is now considered to be a major threat and the main opposition to dominant United Russia.

Russian officials believe that if candidates run through now, they’ll rater run for Duma (Russia’s version of U.S. Congress), and they aren’t wrong.

What’s next?

According to a Russian political scientist, Vladislav Inozemcev, at this point, the public will not stop until it hears back from the government. Astonishingly, so far, almost none of the government officials have addressed demonstrations publically. “If they keep pretending like nothing is happening that, of course, will be the most stupid decision they can make in a situation like this.”

“The situation is very far from reaching its bottom,” Inozemcev says.



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