What a pleasure it was to see this image on Twitter after returning from Saturday’s rally.
This pro-Kremlin analytical foundation explains to everyone that Moscow is home to such a silent, submissive mass that you can safely spit in its face, laughing all the while, and there is only a 4% chance that it will provoke outrage.
So those are pretty good odds. You can keep spitting. Why not?
On Saturday, our city showed that no, you cannot. There is a limit to humiliation, and there are people—many people—who are not prepared to tolerate it.
The idea that only street protest works has once again been confirmed. Until now, the authorities did not care in the slightest about indignant posts or complaints to the election commission, but today this is being called a “political crisis.”
Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels are churning out articles claiming that Sobyanin’s people (allies of Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin) created this crisis out of thin air. And the mayor’s PR contractors are firing back: no, it was you idiots in the presidential administration who came up with all this, and now you do not want to deal with the consequences.
But it is too early to celebrate. So far, we have only established that there are far more of us than the Kremlin expected. Now they will test our ability to pursue our goals persistently and consistently. Can we do it again, or is our memory only three seconds long, like a goldfish’s?
The candidates are doing the right thing, and they are not betraying those who came out to support them. They have announced that if they are not registered, then next Saturday, July 27, at 2:00 p.m., we will gather outside City Hall. Here is the Facebook group, and here is the VK group. Sign up and invite people you know.
Against the backdrop of the Moscow rally, St. Petersburg has faded somewhat into the background, even though things there are even worse than in Moscow. What is happening there is outright gangsterism.
In St. Petersburg, on Wednesday, July 24, at 7:00 p.m., there will be an officially sanctioned rally, with virtually no risk of detention. Facebook group, VK group. Please come, and bring everyone you can.
And now for the vindictive part—I could not deny myself the pleasure of sharing this document with you.
So who is this lucky holder of a residence permit in the Italian Republic? And not alone, but together with five children?
Could it be the very same person who was so anxious on the eve of the rally? So afraid that a large crowd would turn up.
Do not doubt that this is a residence permit. You can google it yourself, and here it is: on the Italian police website, the Italian version says “Permesso di soggiorno,” while the Russian version says “residence permit.”
Every year, we spend 21 billion rubles (about US$330 million at the time) to cover the losses of VGTRK (Russia’s state broadcasting company), where Solovyov works despite holding a residence permit in another country, and Brilyov despite having British citizenship.
That is 143 rubles per person, including infants, the elderly, and the sick. Not much? I begrudge even a single ruble spent on these scoundrels and hypocrites.
Until we learn to take to the streets and stay there as long as necessary, we will go on feeding these parasites. For them, our lack of rights is a source of income. If there are free elections, Solovyov will lose his villas on Lake Como.
But we do not even care about his villas. What we need is the right to choose, because otherwise Russia is doomed to poverty and decline. And we want to live normal lives.
Come out. MOSCOW: July 27, 2:00 p.m., 13 Tverskaya Street ST. PETERSBURG: July 24, 7:00 p.m., Lenin Square in front of Finland Station