Hi everyone.
I'm doing fine. I'm sitting in a cell at the Danilovskoye police station with Alexander, a 66-year-old homeless man (he actually made it to retirement age!).
Alexander is very surprised. He was sitting on a bench, bothering no one. Then the police show up, take him away, and put him in my cell even though there are two empty ones next door. They also took his shoes, so the atmosphere in our tiny cell is really very... inviting. Oh well. A homeless person is a person too. I gave Alexander the rest of my KFC chicken and wrote a complaint for him about them taking his shoes. Right now we're having a civilized conversation about urbanism and public spaces. We were discussing whether it's comfortable to sleep on Sobyanin benches (benches installed under Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin's urban improvement program).
Overall, I'm sure you understand what's happening. This kind of emergency detention (they dragged me to the police station in flip-flops and shorts) is meant to stop me from helping prepare the September 9 protest against raising the retirement age. Usually they try to detain people on the eve of a protest, but this time they did it a full two weeks in advance. This is a very important issue. The Kremlin is worried. And what needs to be done is also clear. Since I'm being forced to sit this out, each of you now has a little more work to do in getting people to come to the protest. Bring two people with you, and one more on my behalf.
I'll be tried on Monday for taking part in the January 28 rally. I ask:
So why did you wait half a year? The police had been looking for you all that time, but couldn't find you.
On September 9, we all need to take to the streets in our own cities.