Other Russia

On Sunday, 31 January, Russian oppositionists in a traditional style conducted unauthorized protest actions with the demand to follow the article 31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation which guarantees the right of peaceful meetings. In St. Petersburg, about a hundred people came to the meeting with placards “We are not slaves; slaves are not us,” “It’s a sin to bend the Constitution,” and so on. Law enforcement officers started severely detaining the loudest participants (in the picture) who yelled political slogans.

In Moscow, two protest actions of the objectors were held that day. At first, approximately forty protesters marched along the Garden Ring Road, and then half a thousand of oppositionist gathered on the Triumphal Square. The police surrounded them and snatched the most active people out of the crowd. Law enforcing officers detained more than a hundred of oppositionists in general, in particular the co-head of the Solidarity movement Boris Nemtsov. 

But what disturbed the Kremlin most was the demonstration held on 30 January in Kaliningrad. There, from ten to twelve thousand dwellers of the most west oblast of the Russian Federation took part in the demonstration, and there were representatives of almost all oppositional parties and movements among them. The demonstrators demanded to give the citizens back the right to elect the head of the region, and they called to resign not only Governor of the oblast Georgiy Boos, but also Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The increase of charges for housing and communal services and transport tax, the obstructing duties for import of foreign brands of used cars in Russia were other causes for actions.