“I don’t understand anything at all” – Picture of the Day – Kommersant
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On Saturday, September 24, those who disagreed with the partial mobilization again took to the streets of protest. There were noticeably fewer active protesters in Moscow than on Wednesday. The police detained not only the participants, but also bystanders. In St. Petersburg, the security forces acted, as usual, harshly: they used batons and stun guns. According to OVD-Info (the project is included in the register of foreign agents), more than 1,300 people were detained in Russia. The Interior Ministry has not yet commented on the situation.
Promotions against announced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilization was again coordinated by the “Spring” movement. Let us recall that already on September 21 – a couple of hours after the president’s address – it announced “an all-Russian protest against graves”. Then, according to OVD-Info, at least 1,368 people were detained in 43 cities. The Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the suppression of “unauthorized actions”, and the number of their participants was called “insignificant”.
How told “b”On Wednesday, Vesna invited those who disagreed with the mobilization to march along the Old Arbat – and the police were clearly not ready for that action. Saturday was different. “Spring” in social networks urged to gather at Chistye Prudy “in mourning clothes.”
The police took into account the mistakes of the environment: already a couple of hours before the start of the rally, paddy wagons were stationed near the metro, and police squads were walking along the boulevard around the pond. They seemed to obey the “Spring” – they were in black uniforms, black helmets and masks.
The police stopped the girls, checked their documents and looked into backpacks and bags. Then the first arrests began. So, a girl with a pink backpack and a slightly less pink umbrella was taken to the paddy wagon. “I don’t understand anything at all,” she managed to tell reporters. Another girl was smoking at the tram stop; two policemen looked at her, looked at each other, nodded to each other and went to check the documents. After examining the passport, they politely asked to “throw away the cigarette” and “follow them.” “Why? I don’t understand what’s going on,” she replied. “Nothing terrible is happening, we will check you in the database,” the police said. When the girl began to clarify “which base” they mean, all their politeness disappeared – they grabbed her by the arms and dragged her to the paddy wagon.
By 17:00 Moscow time, the police no longer checked passports – they simply stopped passers-by. “Dear citizens, you are in the zone of an unauthorized rally. Please leave the territory and do not accumulate, ”one of the employees repeated into a megaphone. Those who did not have time to “not accumulate” were detained, and it is not clear on what basis.
Girls in clothes of both dark and light colors were sent to paddy wagons; at the same time, none of them expressed their attitude to mobilization before the arrest.
For the entire time of the action, the correspondent of Kommersant saw only one obviously protest episode at Chistye Prudy: the girl stood on a bench and managed to shout several times “We are not meat!”
Potential mobilized also did not ignore. “I’m going by myself! I don’t resist!” shouted the man, whose hands were tightly wrung. In the middle of the boulevard, a detachment stopped a middle-aged foreigner; clearly not the Russian passport, which he irritably showed to the police, did not save him from going to the paddy wagon. He tried to object (with a clear European accent), but the detachment commander interrupted him with a question: “So you don’t like our laws?” – and the foreigner did not begin to answer anything. And near the monument to the Kazakh thinker Abai Kunanbaev, another detachment arranged a long inspection of two middle-aged men in tracksuits. One of them had a military ID with him, the police immediately took it away, but never gave it back – after checking the pockets and backpacks, the men were taken to paddy wagons.
At the same time, Vesna on social networks suggested that the protesters “turn to Pokrovka”. Apparently, the police also monitored social networks. After the first announcement, several OMON groups regrouped towards Kitay-Gorod. Vesna warned that “paddy wagons were on Maroseyka” — and indeed, it was there, in front of the Kommersant correspondent, that several people were escorted to buses.
In social networks, the message “the final is Zaryadye Park” appeared, and “Let’s go!” was heard in police walkie-talkies. They quickly divided into two buses, which, at a red traffic light, rushed along Ilyinsky Square.
The protesters got there a little early. They approached Zaryadye in groups of 10-15 people. To the music from “Seventeen Moments of Spring”, the participants of the action dispersed around the park. Two dozen girls stood near the exhibition center. OMON was jogging towards them through young birch trees; then the command was heard: “We take those who are standing!” And they really were “taken”. Those who tried to escape were quickly caught up. “Do you want to run right away? Weird!” – mockingly commented one of the policemen. “Eight of them drag one woman!” – a passer-by was indignant.
When the music changed to the theme from the film “An Ordinary Miracle”, the police detained a pensioner in a red (and not at all black) coat and with a blue (not at all “mourning”) umbrella. “I did what? she was indignant. Or acted provocatively? They don’t explain anything to me!” The seven policemen who accompanied her were indeed silent.
By 6:30 p.m., the protest action was apparently over, but both at Chistye Prudy and Zaryadye, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs stopped passers-by and checked their documents until late in the evening.
In St. Petersburg, the city authorities have restricted the entrance to the Sennaya Ploshchad metro station. People moving along Sadovaya Street were blocked by ranks of OMON. At 17:10, arrests began on Sadovaya. The Kommersant correspondent saw that the police acted rather harshly. Tasers and batons were used against the protesters.
By 18:00, some protesters were able to break through to Nevsky Prospekt. They moved down the street, chanting anti-war slogans, but the riot police quickly stopped them.
According to OVD-Info, at least 1,370 people were detained in 43 Russian cities by 21:00. In Moscow, human rights activists know about 548 detainees, in St. Petersburg about 500. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has not yet commented on the situation.
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