Moscow activists try to spark a new Occupy Movement against Putin, pension reform, and police persecution

Moscow police smothered in its crib on Monday morning what activists surely hoped would one day be called the Tvardovsky Monument revolution. Officials reportedly detained six activists and at least one journalist at the Strastnoi Boulevard monument on September 10, cutting short the “indefinite protest against the authorities’ ineffectiveness.”

The open-ended demonstration (which involved several young people picnicking with juice boxes and McDonald’s takeout) was supposed to continue until the government canceled its “predatory pension reforms” and decriminalized “extremist speech” (an offense that's been used to persecute Russia's political opposition). The protesters also demanded the resignations of President Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

After the rally seemed to have ended, more demonstrators started assembling about 300 feet away, at the Rachmaninoff Monument, apparently hoping to keep the protest going. Police later detained another eight demonstrators. Before that happened, one activist told Meduza that similar rallies are planned in Saratov, Volgograd, and St. Petersburg, though he offered no details about where exactly they will take place.

The Strastnoi Boulevard demonstrations took place a day after nationwide protests against the government’s plan to raise Russia’s retirement age. In total, police across the country detained more than 1,000 activists on Sunday.