The Real Russia. Today. Moscow's ‘psychoactivists,’ RGGU's ‘turnover,’ and Navalny digs in

Tuesday, May 1, 2018 (Happy May Day, everyone!)

• Police detain two dozen “Psychoactivists” at Moscow's May Day rally
• Police detain Western flag bearers in St. Petersburg, where Telegram's turnout isn't so great
• RGGU loses another long-time faculty member
• Navalny gets a warning from Moscow's district attorney

It's a May of a day 🎉

👮‍♂️ In Moscow

Police detained a group of 25 so-called “psychoactivists” at a May Day rally in Moscow. The demonstrators carried signs promoting awareness about mental illnesses in Russia, and several of the participants themselves suffer from various psychological conditions. “I know my diagnosis. Do you?” read one sign. Other said, “‘Bipolar’ isn’t a fashion accessory — it’s my diagnosis,” and “There are more of us than it seems.”

The artist Ekaterina Nenasheva was one of the demonstration’s organizers. Last summer, she was detained in Red Square during an act of performance art. Nenasheva refused to remove her VR headset, which she was using to view photos of Russian psychoneurological boarding homes. The police later sent her for psychiatric evaluation, and she was ultimately released without any charges.

👮‍♂️ In St. Petersburg

Police in St. Petersburg detained nearly a dozen activists who attended the city’s May Day rally carrying the flags of Ukraine, Great Britain, Finland, Israel, Georgia, the EU, and the United States. Two of the demonstrators also had a rainbow flag and a portrait of Vladimir Putin.

On May 1, St. Petersburg also hosted an Internet freedom demonstration in support of the instant messenger Telegram. Fewer than 3,000 people reportedly showed up.

Moscow's Monday Telegram rally ✊

Self-proclaimed supporters of Internet freedom and the instant messenger Telegram assembled and dispersed at Sakharov Prospekt in Moscow on April 30. Organized by Russia’s Libertarian Party and the Internet Protection Society, the demonstration lasted about two hours. One volunteer organization estimates that roughly 12,000 people attended the rally. Moscow’s police department says about 7,500 turned out. Meduza reports from on the ground in Russia’s capital.

• Read our special report: “‘We’re smarter than our parents’: Thousands protest against Russia’s attempt to block Telegram”

More trouble at RGGU 🎓

The Russian State University for the Humanities (RGGU) has informed one of its most decorated scholars, linguist Maxim Krongauz, that it won’t be renewing his contract at the end of the semester. “I’ve worked at RGGU for almost 28 years and chaired the Russian language department for 22 years. What a shame!” Krongauz wrote on Facebook.

Igor Isaev, the head of RGGU’s linguistics department, says Krongauz’s part-time contract with the university is expiring and the notice he received is merely a formality. He’ll need to submit additional personnel paperwork, Isaev says, if he wants to request another labor agreement. Krongauz says he’s worked part-time at RGGU for at least four years already and he's never received any notices from the school’s administration.

RGGU has seen its fair share of scandals lately. In 2016, RGGU President Yefim Pivovar stepped down after 10 years on the job, and the faculty selected Yevgeny Ivakhenko as his replacement. One of Ivakhenko’s rivals for the position accused Russia’s Education Ministry of meddling in the election, after which nearly a dozen professors resigned in protest. In August 2017, without any official explanation, Ivakhenko was suddenly removed as RGGU president. Sources tell Meduza that one of the possible reasons for Ivakhenko’s ouster was his refusal to support the Education Ministry’s plans for a more “clerical and national-patriotic” curriculum.

The stage is set for another Navalny-police showdown 🥊

The Moscow district attorney’s office has reportedly “warned” the opposition activists Alexey Navalny and Lyubov Sobol against staging an unpermitted anti-Putin protest on May 5. Over the weekend, negotiations between Navalny and City Hall broke down, when the mayor’s office refused to offer the activist a central location for his demonstration against Vladimir Putin’s next presidential term. Moscow officials said they would sanction a protest at Sakharov Prospekt, but Navalny insists on marching his supporters down Tverskaya Street to Manege Square, just outside the Kremlin.

Navalny’s supporters in Kostroma are encountering similar problems. Alexander Zykov, one of the activists organizing a local May 5 protest against Putin, was jailed for 15 days on May 1 for failing to perform mandated community service. The judge reportedly ignored a medical document temporarily excusing Zykov from the work.

Déjà vu? In 2012, a day before Putin’s last inauguration, several thousand people protested in Moscow against Putin’s return to the Kremlin. More than 30 demonstrators were later convicted of inciting or inflicting violence on police officers in a controversial campaign known as the “Bolotnaya Square Case.”