Moscow news
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14-May-2012
Debates, songs and volunteers
When Occupy activists began setting up camps across the world last fall, there seemed little prospect of the movement spreading to Russia, where a no-nonsense police force and a weak and divided opposition – not to mention the weather – appeared to present insurmountable obstacles to any form of prolonged, public protest.
But making predictions here is a fool’s game and on Thursday night, some 2,000 anti-Putin activists gathered at a three-day old camp at a square in Chistiye Prudy, holding impromptu debates, strumming guitars and swapping stories from the protests that have continued in one form or another since May 6.
“We’re here because we care about the future of Russia and don’t want to see Putin in power for another 12 years,” said student Nikita Belov, as he perched on the low wall of the square’s pond.
Behind him, two young girls with acoustic guitars entertained the crowd with a song from the Soviet- era cartoon “The Bremen Town Musicians,” injecting new relevance into the animated film’s soundtrack, which reportedly infuriated Kremlin officials in the 1960s.
When Occupy activists began setting up camps across the world last fall, there seemed little prospect of the movement spreading to Russia, where a no-nonsense police force and a weak and divided opposition – not to mention the weather – appeared to present insurmountable obstacles to any form of prolonged, public protest.
But making predictions here is a fool’s game and on Thursday night, some 2,000 anti-Putin activists gathered at a three-day old camp at a square in Chistiye Prudy, holding impromptu debates, strumming guitars and swapping stories from the protests that have continued in one form or another since May 6.
“We’re here because we care about the future of Russia and don’t want to see Putin in power for another 12 years,” said student Nikita Belov, as he perched on the low wall of the square’s pond.
Behind him, two young girls with acoustic guitars entertained the crowd with a song from the Soviet- era cartoon “The Bremen Town Musicians,” injecting new relevance into the animated film’s soundtrack, which reportedly infuriated Kremlin officials in the 1960s.
“We might not achieve our aims, but we have a right to express ourselves,” said Belov, as the crowd clapped their approval of the song, with its refrain of “Freedom.”
But the mood at the camp has been festive and largely free of overt political sloganeering, with the ubiquitous white ribbons – the symbol of the protest movement – the only real indication as to the convictions of those present.
Police have so far made no move to detain activists, despite Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, vowing Thursday that security forces would disperse the “illegal” camp. “All such camps share the same fate, all over the world,” Afisha.ru reported him as saying.
“They won’t close down the camp – they can’t jail us all, after all,” opposition leader Boris Nemtsov told RIA Novosti. “Putin is afraid of the protests – he’s seen how the people reacted to his inauguration.”
With protest figureheads Navalny and Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov jailed for 15 days last week, formal leadership of the camp passed to Solidarity activist Ilya Yashin, backed up by socialiteturned- dissident Ksenia Sobchak and opposition parliamentarian Dmitry Gudkov.
The sight of the impeccably made-up Sobchak and the suited, clean-cut Gudkov negotiating with workers ordered to remove the square’s portable toilets late Thursday provided one of the camp’s moments of high comedy.
Yet activists have largely organized themselves, providing food and setting up volunteer teams to clean up the square, as well as security patrols to deal with local drunks.
“We’ve got volunteer teams making sure we keep the place clean,” a young activist said as he handed out free food to protesters. “The city street cleaners who come in the morning have nothing to do.”
The camp was criticized by Kremlin-connected political analyst Sergei Markov.
“These white ribbons have become the symbol of an attempt at an Orange Revolution in Russia,” Markov told RIA after visiting the camp Friday. “And I am against that.” But Markov agreed that every generation had the right to protest. “We stood out on squares in our time to bring an end to the Communist Party,” he said.