The answer is simple: don’t stay home — that’s the most important thing.
The greatest dream of all Russia’s corrupt officials is for this protest to come to nothing. You need to understand: they are seriously rattled. Demonstrations have been announced in 100 cities across the country. Nothing like this has ever happened before, and what is happening now shows that it is precisely the anti-corruption agenda that unites everyone, regardless of their political views.
Now to the specifics.
Tverskaya Street, 2:00 p.m. The situation here is clear. The law is on our side, and under a Constitutional Court ruling, the march and rally are considered authorized. Even so, they will not close off Tverskaya for us, and they will not allow a proper rally to take place.
But we must come out, and not doing so would mean withdrawing our claims against Medvedev and his palaces, and against everyone else as well. I am not prepared to withdraw those claims, and I doubt I’m the only one.
I sat and thought about a format that would:
Let us take to the streets
Make it harder to obstruct us
Require no coordination
Minimize the risk of detention
Having thought it all through, here is what I propose. Here is Tverskaya Street:
It is 2.5 km (1.6 miles) long. The metro stations along it, from north to south, are Belorusskaya, Mayakovskaya, Pushkinskaya, Chekhovskaya, and Okhotny Ryad.
What do we usually do at marches? We walk. We walk together as a sign of protest, solidarity, or support. So here too, you should come out of any metro station at any point on Tverskaya Street and walk.
Just walk along any section together with everyone else. Direction: counterclockwise, if you imagine both sidewalks as a circle.
In other words: you can come out at Belorusskaya and walk south with the flow toward Okhotny Ryad. You can come out at Mayakovskaya and walk to Pushkinskaya. You can come out at Pushkinskaya, walk to Okhotny Ryad, cross the street, and walk back to Pushkinskaya — this time northbound, again following the flow.
You can walk a kilometer. You can walk five — back and forth. It depends on your determination. More is better than less.
We walk with cheerful faces. We enjoy the spring day. We greet our friends, and in our eyes there is determination to fight corruption. I don’t know — maybe we do the wave, like in a stadium. If there are many of us, the ring formed by the sidewalks on Tverskaya will come alive and surge.
It will be a real march. Just one without a beginning or an end. Posters and Russian flags are welcome, but — as you understand — they increase the likelihood of detention.
Still, as I wrote before, I promise to file an application with the ECHR (the European Court of Human Rights) for everyone who is detained and prosecuted. Later you will receive compensation from the Russian government. I have obtained it in every one of my own detention cases.
I will walk this way too, keeping my promises to voters. In 2013, 30% of Moscow voters cast their ballots for me. I promised them that I would speak out against corruption no matter the pressure. And that is exactly what I am doing. I believe I am expressing the views of hundreds of thousands and millions of Muscovites. Who can stop me from walking through my own city?
Here is the Moscow group on Facebook, and here it is on VK (VKontakte, a Russian social network). If you are going, be sure to call on everyone you know to join.
It is important to remember the goal of the “He Is Not Dimon to Us” protest: from those in power, we demand answers; the public, we inform about what is happening. This is very important. We are not naive enough to think that a single rally can solve anything.
Here are the leaflet templates, including ones for distribution in your apartment building entrance (a standard shared entryway in Russian residential buildings; DMP format). Don’t be lazy — print them out and put them up. Here are the posters for the rally.
Shoeffiti:
I saw a great idea on Dmitry Chernyshev’s blog. Let’s make it happen. It seems to me that this is exactly right for our situation under media censorship:
One of the symbols of our investigation became Dimon’s colorful sneakers — that’s where it all began.
And we all know the youth tradition found in many countries: throwing sneakers over power lines. It has long since ceased to be street-gang symbolism and has become a form of street art.
There is even a term for it — “Shoeffiti” (Shoes + Graffiti).
Let’s combine the two. In Russia, let shoes hanging from wires become a symbol that we are waiting for answers to questions about corruption.
A careful review of the relevant regulations showed that this is completely legal and violates nothing. Just observe basic safety precautions. And everyone’s got an old pair of sneakers anyway.
Word of mouth will quickly spread what it means to everyone, from the young to the old.
Make posters about the protest. Make them. Make them funny. Photograph them and share them.
The ACF Investigations Department is establishing a prize for the best poster. The winner will receive exactly the same sneakers as Dmitry Anatolyevich’s.
Where to go in the regions.
Here is the list of groups. Find your city and join.
In some cities, permits have been granted. In the others, we proceed from the same principle as in Moscow: if they do not give us a venue, then the Constitutional Court indicates that the location named in the first application is the one considered authorized. The protest is decentralized; we cannot coordinate 98 cities. Follow what is being posted in the groups, but above all — come out.
To stay home is the same as writing a personal letter to Medvedev, Putin, Yeliseyev, Rotenberg, Timchenko, and the rest: guys, everything is fine. Keep robbing us, and don’t worry — we will put up with it all and won’t even ask questions.
On the 26th, I’ll see those who are not prepared to endure this forever.
P.S. Sharing this post and the video is, of course, encouraged.