Over 50,000 join opposition protests in Moscow

Clara Weiss

An estimated 50,000-60,000 people joined an officially sanctioned rally by the liberal opposition on Saturday in the city center of Moscow. The rally was held under the slogan “Let’s take back our right to vote.” Its main demands were the inclusion of liberal opposition candidates on the ballot for the Moscow City Council elections on September 8 and the release of politicians who have been arrested in the previous week as part of a massive police crackdown on the opposition. Smaller protests took place in St. Petersburg and several other cities.

The call for the protest was supported by all the major figures of the liberal opposition in Russia, including Alexei Navalny, who is still in jail, and Liubov Sobol, who was arrested again just before the beginning of the rally. Several prominent entertainers, TV moderators and musicians also supported the protest, among them the popular YouTube moderator Yuri Dud. The rapper Face and electronic music group IC3PEAK, which count among the most popular musicians in Russia among youth, joined the rally with performances.

According to reports, a substantial portion of those attending were young people, many of whom had never joined an opposition protest before. A significant factor that contributed to the large turnout, beyond the participation of popular music groups, was the violent crackdown on the opposition in recent weeks. At two unsanctioned rallies, on July 27 and August 3, the police and paramilitary organization OMON, which forms part of the National Guard, arrested over 1,000 people, transforming the center of the Russian capital into a virtual state of siege. Hundreds of thousands of people have watched footage of the violent crackdown on social media.

Following the mass arrests, members of Alexei Navalny’s staff have continued to be subject to raids and criminal persecution.

As in previous weeks, there was a heavy presence of police and OMON. According to a report in the liberal Novaya Gazeta, OMON troops were brought in from other regions of the country, most notably Tula. By the end of Saturday, around 240 people had been arrested.

Many demonstrators, including prominent figures like Yuri Dud, came to the protest wrapped in or waving Russian flags. Slogans included: “Down with the Tsar [Putin]!” “Putin is a thief” and “Russia will be free.”

Amid growing social and political discontent within the working class, the Kremlin has seized upon the protests by the liberal opposition to both stage exercises of state repression against protests and step up the legal and political framework for the repression of mass protests.

On Friday, the state agency Roskomnadzor, which has overseen a massive extension of internet surveillance in recent years, called upon Google to stop advertising “illegal events” on YouTube. Should Google not comply with the request, the agency warned, the Russian government would consider this foreign interference into its sovereignty. The Stalinist KPRF, a “loyal opposition” of the ruling United Russia party in parliament, is now preparing a bill, scheduled to be introduced to parliament in the fall, which would threaten anyone accused of “virtual interference” in the electoral process with criminal persecution.

While the ongoing crackdown on the opposition must be seen as a serious warning and opposed as an attack on democratic rights, workers and youth must be warned about the extremely right-wing character of the political forces that stand behind the protests.