Zakhar called it exactly right: when we were on our way to the rally together, he said, So how long are we going to be protesting? Until they break it up?
I told him: dude, don’t worry, they definitely won’t break this one up. It’s all officially permitted, nice and civilized.
Well, I was wrong, old man. Apparently my “banned” status is hereditary. In the end, about 30 OMON riot police officers blocked Zakhar, Yulia, and me off and escorted us out of the rally.
The rally itself was huge — it did my heart good to see so many people there. We made our contribution too, which was gratifying: in every episode of “Navalny at 20:18”, I talked about the issue, and in the latest one I urged people to come. After all, our viewership runs from 850,000 to 1.7 million.
I hadn’t planned to speak at all. We came in through the regular security checkpoint, not the “organizers’” entrance. We were standing quietly at the back. Then one of the rally organizers — Yulia Galyamina — messaged me: come up to the stage, people clearly want you to speak.
All right, so we went. And really, practically every other person we passed asked me: are you going to speak?
It took us about two hours to make our way through the crowd.
There was another cordon by the stage, but they let us through. So we went in and stood there. I was waiting for one of the organizers to come over and tell me what to do.
After that, it’s all on video. A colonel came running up, flashing his ID. I said to him: so what now? He didn’t know himself. But he called in the “cosmonauts” (slang for riot police in full gear), and they formed a circle around us.
Zakhar looked at me reproachfully: you said they weren’t going to break it up.
Then Galyamina came over: why are you standing there, let them through. The colonel replied: no, you’re not the right organizer.
So in the end everyone was arguing while we just stood there. To Galyamina’s credit, she fought as hard as she could. But as far as I could tell, the whole thing was being run by some guys from City Hall (or maybe the Presidential Administration—who the hell knows; some suited creeps who were giving orders to the police), and Vinokurova from the organizing committee was voicing their will on behalf of the organizers. She immediately started pushing some nonsense about how I was forcing my way onto the stage. You can see for yourselves in the video just how hard I was “forcing” my way up there.
So in the end it was: come with us. I said: are you detaining me?
The colonel, very proudly: don’t get your hopes up. I’m not detaining you, but you will have to come with us.
Zakhar was already on the verge of tears, so we didn’t argue and went with the police. They first led us farther away, and then completely outside the barriers.
I read that Dima Gudkov refused to speak in solidarity. I appreciate it, but it would have been better if he had spoken and said everything he thinks about this and everything else. In any case, thanks for the support.
UPDATE: This may help clarify what happened.
So, nothing new. They “uphold” the right to assembly in exactly the same way they carry out the demolition program.
It’s a shame, really, that all this fuss distracted a bit from the substance of the rally. There were a lot of people there, and they were determined — that matters.
The nastiest moment was this: when they were escorting us out of the rally, those same suited creeps who were running everything were looking at me with triumphant smiles. As if to say: what did you think, that we were amateurs? I’ll admit, it was unpleasant. I’ll think of something to do to wipe those smug smiles off their faces.
Anyway, everyone who came did great. There were no fewer than 20,000 people, and that’s fantastic. I was very glad to see everyone. The minor incident didn’t really spoil the overall impression.
There will always be intrigue around any protest rally, and the authorities will do everything they can to exploit that intrigue and any disagreements. They’ll try to control everything. The right approach is to stay calm about it and simply not let them play you against each other.
We will continue fighting the crooks and thieves in City Hall — and everywhere else too.