The Real Russia. Today. Before and after Moscow's August 3 democracy protest

11:22 am, August 5, 2019

Source: Meduza

Monday, August 5, 2019

This day in history: 175 years ago, on August 5, 1844, the painter Ilya Repin was born in Chuhuiv, modern-day Ukraine. His major works include “Barge Haulers on the Volga” (1873), “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581” (1885), and “Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks” (1880–91).

On the ground at Moscow’s August 3 march for fair elections
Video: How Moscow police violently arrested hundreds of protesters and bystanders on August 3
The results of Moscow’s August 3 protests for free elections
Opinion: Oleg Kashin says Saturday's police brutality forces a new moral calculus for regime supporters
Ahead of new Moscow protests, Russia’s authorities order polling designed to exaggerate support for a police crackdown
Moscow City Hall organizes an extremely last-minute free rock concert — for the day of the city’s next mass protest
Read the Moscow government’s full decree opening a criminal rioting case against election protesters
News briefs: draft dodgers, bad news for LGBTQ activists, and bad news for post-Soviet officials

Another protest, another violent crackdown 👮

Anton Andrienko for Meduza

On August 3, the latest in a series of protests for fair elections took place in Moscow, with protesters demanding that opposition candidates be freed from jail and permitted to run for Moscow City Duma seats. The demonstration’s organizers called on Moscow residents to march en masse along the city’s Boulevard Ring. Most of the protesters gathered on Trubnaya Square and Pushkin Square, where police and National Guard troops immediately began to arrest them in large numbers. At least 800 people were violently forced into police vans and taken into custody. Preliminary reports indicate that more than 10 of those arrested were also injured. Here’s what the protest looked like on the ground.

See the photos here.

👮 How Moscow police violently arrested hundreds of protesters and bystanders on August 3

On August 3, demonstrators in Moscow protested for the fourth straight weekend, protesting against election officials' refusal to register dozens of independent candidates for the September City Duma race. For the second consecutive Saturday, the mayor's office refused to issue a permit for the rally, during which demonstrators marched along Boulevard Ring in the city’s downtown. Police officers estimated that 1,500 people attended the march, 600 of whom were arrested, though arrest documents indicate that turnout was as high as 10,000 people. The human rights organization OVD-Info reported that precise data on the number of individuals arrested during the protest would only become available on the morning of August 4, but it is already clear that at least 700 people are currently in police detention, following the event. Among those arrested were opposition activist and candidate Lyubov Sobol, the husband of a member of Russia’s ruling party, a man riding by on his bicycle, a group of foreigners, and hundreds of others.

⚖️ The results of Moscow’s August 3 protests for free elections

Police arrested more than 800 people in Moscow at demonstrations in support of free elections. Police arrested dozens of minors, and several protesters were injured. Lyubov Sobol, an anti-corruption activist and one of the most prominent independent candidates denied access to the September City Duma ballot, was fined 300,000 rubles ($4,600). Investigators also formally opened a criminal case against Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) for suspected money laundering.

Read Meduza's full summary here.

Oleg Kashin: Russians have been forced to adopt ‘Everyday Satanism’ 😈

In a new article for Republic, columnist Oleg Kashin says the brutal crackdown on Saturday’s demonstrators in Moscow is a watershed moment in Russia’s social contract, and he argues that the police violence on August 3 changes the moral calculus forced on the regime’s supporters. Kashin says Saturday’s march wasn’t a political rally in the traditional sense: There were no leaders (they’d all been arrested), no single rallying point, and no speeches or slogans. Instead of politics, Saturday marked the culmination of a week-long police operation that had been announced and advertised in advance.

The August 3 “stroll” along Moscow’s Boulevard Ring was less a protest than the authorities’ sociological study of the real strength of the city’s “most fearless, most motivated, and most uncompromising” citizens, Kashin says. In the end, several thousand people turned out, ready to become victims in the promised crackdown and face the likely consequences of criminal charges and subsequent problems at work or school — all for a cause (Moscow’s toothless City Duma) that is not technically significant. These results are a defeat for the government, Kashin says, and the authorities are now busy devising various excuses to justify the city’s police takeover.

While Saturday’s police violence doesn’t change much for Moscow’s opposition (which has always had a strong sense of moral righteousness), the authorities’ “moderate” supporters must now embrace a more sinister moral calculus — a kind of “everyday Satanism,” where the cost of the government’s social services is its constituents' blessing for unjustifiable police brutality. Ordinary Russians have been made culpable, Kashin argues.

Sorry to bother you ☎️

The Russian authorities have mobilized sociologists in the wake of mass demonstrations against Moscow city officials, and pollsters are now busy surveying the public’s attitudes towards elections, protests, and the response from the police. One poll released on August 2 by the government-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) immediately won attention from the country’s pro-Kremlin pundits, who promptly cited its results as proof that the public is against demonstrations and “unrest,” and supports Moscow officials’ decision not to register independent candidates for the upcoming City Duma race. Meduza examines the problems with VTsIOM’s polling and looks at some of the other survey work now underway in Russia.

Read Meduza's investigative report here.

Shady shashlik 🍖

On July 31, a notice appeared on Moscow City Hall’s website announcing a new rock festival called Shashlik Live. The festival was scheduled to begin only three days later and continue for two days in Gorky Park. Most of the musical acts involved had been invited to participate only a few days beforehand, and some learned about their sets from the City Hall notice itself. Two of those bands, Bravo and Tequilajazzz, quickly announced that they would not be performing. The Shashlik festival is not the only major public event set to take place in Moscow this weekend: Area residents could also choose to attend another music festival organized by the entertainment website Afisha, a soccer match between Spartak and Dynamo — or a mass protest supporting opposition candidates for the Moscow City Duma. The city’s police department warned last week that it may be unable to handle such a large number of events. For its part, the Moscow government argued that Shashlik Live was planned “pretty long ago” and with no reference to the city’s growing election protest movement.

Read Meduza's report here.

“Indications of criminal activity” 👮

On July 27, thousands of protesters gathered in central Moscow to demand that opposition candidates be permitted to run for the city’s legislature. The local government did not grant a permit for the event, and police arrested more than 1,300 of the demonstrators, often through violent force. Three days later, Moscow’s Investigative Committee opened a criminal case that human rights advocate Pavel Chikov called “a signal that the price of protest is now prison” and “a second bolotka.” The new case alleges that what occurred on July 27 and may occur again was not a peaceful protest but rather a set of violent “mass riots” punishable not by fines but by prison time. Those convicted of calling for the “riots” will face up to two years in prison, participants would receive three to eight, and organizers could be put behind bars for up to 15 years. As of this publication, six people had been charged in the case.

On August 1, Pavel Chikov obtained and posted a scan of the official decree that opened the mass riot case. In it, Major Vladimir Menshov of Moscow’s Investigative Committee alleges that “unidentified individuals” intentionally planned a riot that was “accompanied by armed resistance” under the guise of organizing an election protest. Meduza translated the section of the decree that explains those allegations.

Read the decree here.

News briefs

Yours, Meduza