Yesterday, Defender of the Fatherland Day was celebrated quite widely, as expected — with the film *Officers* and televised congratulations. And the day before yesterday, the authorities, through one of St. Petersburg’s judges, made clear the real place of Russian officers in the current order of things.
Sergei Gulyaev, co-chair of the *Narod* movement and a former lieutenant colonel in the Russian army, was arrested for ten days for organizing a picket in defense of servicemen Arakcheyev and Khudyakov. He was accused of resisting the police during the dispersal of the protest. The picket took place back on February 3. Its organizers, Gulyaev and Dmitriev, were detained for a day but released pending further proceedings. There is video footage clearly showing that neither Gulyaev nor anyone else got into any fights with the police or offered any resistance. But apparently the judge was more concerned about the March of Dissenters, scheduled for March 3 — the anniversary of the first such march in St. Petersburg, in which Gulyaev was the central figure.
So for Aunt Valya Matviyenko, the task of neutralizing the leader of the St. Petersburg opposition became a matter of principle. He was locked in a cell and will be released from custody on the evening of March 3 — when the march is already over. In protest against this unjust ruling, Sergei has gone on a hunger strike. On Tuesday, his lawyer will appeal the sentence. Sergei Gulyaev was unable to attend yesterday’s congress of Afghan war veterans (veterans of the Soviet-Afghan War), which he had helped organize. But the congress took place. One of its decisions was a statement in support of Gulyaev, calling his arrest "a spit in the face of veterans." OK, Aunt Valya. We will not forget. We will not forgive.