I’ll always remember Murmansk as something wonderful and surprising.
This is the first city on our autumn tour, and we decided to start here precisely because it is considered “problematic” for opposition politics. It’s easier to begin with a city of over a million people. But Murmansk is small, and the authorities put pressure on everyone. Here’s what they pulled off before my arrival.
And on top of that, the weather: 5°C (41°F), pouring rain.
So I thought: 400 people would be a success. 150 would be fine. I wouldn’t want fewer than that, but speaking to any number of people is my job now.
In the end, there were about 3,000 people. A fantastic rally. Right there in the rain.
It’s nonsense to say there is no political life in regions like the Arctic North. There is—and it’s thriving. People want a normal life and are not prepared to put up with this gang of thieves sitting in the Kremlin or in the local administration.
Everyone was absolutely great, and it was a real pleasure to speak there. The questions were good too.
Our Murmansk campaign office did an amazing job. The organization was excellent.
The local police also did an excellent job. Everything went very calmly; they say there was some provocateur throwing things, but he was quickly detained, and I didn’t even notice. As for organizing people’s entry and exit, it was done perfectly. If only the police in Moscow worked like that.
Only after I stepped off the stage did I learn that some thugs had ambushed Kolya Lyaskin, the head of our Moscow campaign office, and struck him on the head several times with a steel pipe. They attacked him from behind.
Vile, cowardly scum. This is the only way they know how to fight us. They understand that no one in Murmansk would come out to rally for them.
When the news spread, people came up and asked me to pass on their regards to Kolya. I’ve already spoken to him on the phone. The hematoma on his head is huge, but he was lucky that most of the blows only glanced off his head and landed on his shoulders.
But they beat him with the intention of leaving him disabled.
We’ll get through this. The people are with us, while the authorities have no one on their side except some thug with a pipe in a back alley.
People of Murmansk, thank you so much for coming. Your trust means a great deal to me, and I will do everything I can not to let you down.