The Art of Protest and Crackdown
While many Muscovites have escaped the August heat and wild fire smog to enjoy late summer at their dachas (including Mayor Yuri Luzhkov), the country's fledging opposition movement has been busy as can be with a series of growing protests.
The protests, which have brought thousands out into the streets each weekend supporting popular leaders such as rock star Yuri Shevchuk, Boris Nemtsov, and Lev Ponomarev, are in principle nothing new. The slogans are familiar, the criticisms of Putin's excesses are routine, as are the cries for basic rights, freedom of expression and accountability. However, what is changing is the severity with which the authorities are cracking down on the demonstrators, betraying an irrational fear of the movement's significance.
Many longtime Russia observers have noted that the well-practiced art of protest followed by crackdown come in cycles, going all the way back to before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. There are certain periods of heightened motivation on behalf of demonstrators, which is not always correlated with the same level of tolerance by the authorities.
This time, the harsh crackdowns by the Russian security services against the protests are a reflection of lurking political uncertainty, as the President surges ahead of the Prime Minister in opinion polls, underscored by growing discord between regional and federal powers.
In the past, many of these protest leaders might face some harassment, some dispersals by force, but rarely were they placed under arrest, jailed, and charged unless a transfer of power was imminent. Today came the news that Moscow's Presnensky court sentenced human rights hero Lev Ponomaryov three days in prison for disobeying a police order for protesters to disperse. At a protest rally concert (for which the sound equipment was seized by the authorities to prevent any subversive (?) music), Nemtsov was arrested and thown in jail along with 20 others before eventually being released the next day.
It what was perhaps the most poorly judged gesture of repression came during a well-attended performance by the legendary band U2, when authorities arrested representatives from Amnesty International and Greenpeace who had been invited to set up stands at the concert and distribute information to fans. These surprising detentions came just one day after a meeting between Bono and Dmitry Medvedev. The well known rock critic Artemy Troitsky told Echo Moskvy: "These organisations take part in every concert in every city in the world. They are an organic part of the U2 tour. It always goes off peacefully. Unfortunately our law enforcement agencies have a kind of allergy or sickness towards people and their human rights."
As may be expected, these tactics are backfiring, and seemingly inviting more people to come out and join the demonstrations, placing additional pressure on the leadership at a moment of relative weakness. As result, some concessions have even been achieved - the government has relented on its plans to build a highway through the Khimki forest, which had been a subject of considerable public outrage in the past number of months. Surprised by the news, one of the leading activists said he was flabbergasted, describing the president's decision "a stunning victory for civil society."
It just goes to show that these protests, even when they are brutally repressed and challenged by the power of the state, are capable of achieving concrete results, especially in a time of slight divisions between the feds and regions. The leadership of the opposition should feel encouraged to ask for even more.
By James Kimer, Guest Commentator to the Khodorkovsky and Lebedev Communications Center