A strike broke out at the transport shop, where workers had gone unpaid for several months. The ringleaders paralyzed the facility’s operations, set tires on fire, and built a barricade. Stones and sticks were hurled at law enforcement officers.
Representatives of the security agencies acted strictly according to protocol: they cordoned off the area, cut the offenders off from the main road, and began negotiations.
After the talks broke down and the angry workers lit another torch made from construction debris, the local Interior Ministry department (MVD, Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs) decided to carry out a forceful operation. To disperse the demonstrators, specialists detonated a stun charge and moved in. The ringleaders were subdued within minutes.
So, did that shock you?
This is not quite news yet, but a verbatim retelling of the scenario used in security forces drills in the city of Zlatoust, in the Chelyabinsk region:
And there is only one question for the authorities who organized these drills: why was such a simple way of preventing unrest as paying the wages people were owed not even considered?
Did it never occur to them?