Posted on March 9, 2012 - by Venik
Anti-Putin activists plan Moscow street protest
Organisers hope to see at least 50,000 people turn out, although just 5,000 have signed up for the event on Facebook
Activists refusing to recognise the election of Vladimir Putin are seeking to keep up the post-election pressure with a mass protest on Saturday, but concede that the movement needs to move beyond the streets of Moscow.
Organisers hope to see at least 50,000 people turn out for the protest on New Arbat, one of the city’s main streets. But just over 5,000 people have signed up for the event on Facebook, while a post-election protest on Monday gathered 20,000 people, a fraction of those who attended protests in the lead-up to Russia’s presidential vote.
Although anger remains high at Putin’s re-election, in a vote that international observers say was marred by fraud and a lack of competition, there is a recognition among protest leaders that the movement must move beyond public rallies in its bid to challenge Russia’s frozen political system.
Putin won nearly 64% of the vote around the country, according to official figures, but he failed to break the 50% barrier in Moscow. Alexey Navalny, a popular opposition leader, has spoken of creating a “universal propaganda machine” to break the hold of state-run television in provincial Russia.
“Now is the time for long-term goals,” said Yevgeniya Chirikova, an opposition leader who shot to prominence after fighting against the building of a road through Moscow’s only oak forest. “More than anything, we must go out and meet people, bring the truth to them and explain what is going on.”
“Our task now is to help people realise that civil society work must be like their regular work,” Chirikova said. “Of course it’s hard – it takes time from your family, affects your health – but without it we will achieve nothing. We have no political competition.”
Other activists, rather than seeking to spread the word beyond Moscow, are hoping to change things in the capital. Sergei Parkhomenko, a journalist and protest organiser, said he would focus his efforts on returning mayoral elections to the capital. Putin cancelled these in 2004.
“I want to see a battle for Moscow,” Parkhomenko said, echoing Putin’s pre-electoral phrase. “But not the kind that Putin has talked about – a brutal, violent one. Moscow is the only city in the country where Putin doesn’t have a majority, we need to capitalise on that.”
Parkhomenko said he was certain protests would continue to gather tens of thousands of people. “We never had fewer than the amount we had permission for,” he said, predicting a turnout of more than 50,000.
Sergei Udaltsov, a radical leftist and protest organiser, said the public demonstrations would continue until Putin’s inauguration on 7 May. Udaltsov, alongside Navalny, attempted to “occupy” a square in central Moscow during the last protest on 5 March, before being violently dispersed by riot police. He said there could be another attempt in future.
“We want new fair elections to be carried out in Russia so that people could choose power for the country without censorship, violations and frauds,” Udaltsov told RIA-Novosti, the Russian news agency.
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