Yesterday, while in St. Petersburg, I got several near-hysterical calls from members of Moscow YABLOKO. All about "how dare you do this." For the millionth time: I have not been responsible for YABLOKO's mass events for almost a year now. As I understand it, the headquarters is handling all of that now. Call them and direct your hysteria there. As for my personal opinion: yes, I also think it was a huge mistake to hold a rally with such a pompous title — "For Internationalism!" — using mostly paid goblins: At the very least, it strips us of any moral right to criticize United Russia and all the other crooks. We ourselves are turning into the same kind of crooks. It has a super-negative effect on the few people who came for free. Of course, for someone genuinely motivated by ideology, it's disgusting to stand at a rally next to some old woman who came for 200 rubles. It's especially disgusting to hear the endless "We have never deceived anyone" from the stage. This is a direct effort to destroy the "core electorate." Once again, everyone had a chance to witness the organizational and ideological crisis of the liberal movement. A month before the election, that is clearly the last thing we need. I can fully understand why the organizers didn't want to speak in front of an empty Bolotnaya Square (a well-known protest site in Moscow). But then they simply shouldn't have held it at all. Or they should have done it in a different format. They could have gathered a picket of 40 people, and that would have been fine. At least it would all have been honest. There was money for the event — that was obvious from the expensive stage — so it should have been spent effectively. We managed to gather more people in St. Petersburg, for free, and without any serious preparation costs. Although perhaps the main reason for holding the rally was the promised coverage on Channel One. At 9 p.m., this spectacle appeared in the same report as events by Russia Molodaya and Young Guard, etc. It can be stated that there are two stable brands in the country that can gather people for free: the Dissenters' March and the Russian March.
P.S. If anyone in the comments is going to try to convince me that the people in YABLOKO's green hooded robes came out of genuine conviction, don't waste your time.
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