You have no idea how amazing it was to listen to the radio broadcast from Bolotnaya Square on December 10. For us, it also had an extra practical significance: starting on the 9th, in our cozy detention center they began dragging out and assembling additional bunks. They were expecting new arrivals.
(the first image Google gives for the search term "Bolotnaya") But after every station started saying "tens of thousands of people," it became clear there would be no new arrivals. It’s not us who are behind bars — it’s the Kremlin crooks who are trapped. I mean, sure, we’re eating barley porridge while they’re still spreading caviar on hazel grouse, but they will never again enjoy their meals the way they used to: the VIP dining hall will be shutting down soon. You can detain a thousand people, or even two thousand, but even from what was happening outside our cell windows it was obvious that, if things kept developing this way, the "storming of the Bastille" scenario would kick in. Especially since the Bastille’s guards clearly stopped sympathizing with the ruling house a long time ago. We were sentenced to 15 days in one country and walked out into another. By resorting to idiotic, crude, primitive fraud in the State Duma elections, the Kremlin crooks themselves triggered the emergence of a new political reality: the population no longer supports them at a level sufficient for de facto legitimacy. Before, it was: yes, cheating, theft, and lawlessness, but they still had the support of the majority. Now it is: cheating, theft, and lawlessness, but without the support of the majority — and with that majority increasingly irritated. Television no longer impresses anyone, and the OMON riot police don’t frighten many people either. They will remain in the VIP dining hall for exactly as long as we allow them to remain there. That used to be an encouraging statement; now it is simply a statement of political fact. "Wizard Churov" and the TV media lackeys will not restore to Comrade V.V. Putin what he once had, traded away for Swiss bank accounts, and will never regain: the support of the majority. A great responsibility rests on us: to ensure that the lawful demands that have been declared are carried out. We have a mandate for this from that very majority, forgive me for the grand rhetoric. We are all obliged to come to the rallies on December 24 and to all subsequent actions that will be needed to carry out this mandate. P.S. Today I will try to meet with, or at least speak by phone to, key members of all the various organizing committees, so I can understand more precisely what is going on. So far, it seems that talk of disagreements and conflicts has been greatly exaggerated. There are minor frictions — people are people, and that is inevitable — but so far no serious contradictions have come to light.