What Navalnists did outside Moscow: Riots in St. Petersburg, the Urals and Kuban
Rallies in support of opposition blogger Alexei Navalny took place in 90 Russian cities. They were different: from peaceful small stands to aggressive marches.
The most stormy day turned out to be in St. Petersburg. There, the Navalnists gathered on Senate Square, but did not stand for long; they were dispersed by the police. It was not possible to hold a rally on the Champ de Mars.
Then the crowd moved onto Nevsky Prospekt, straight onto the roadway. At the Kazan Cathedral, riot police blocked their path, but the protesters rushed at the police and broke through the cordon.
One of them, with inappropriate cruelty, attacked a traffic police officer who was regulating traffic, hit him and threw him to the ground.
The rally continued on Vosstaniya Square. There, as in Moscow, Maidan workers boasted of “trophy” riot police helmets.
Towards evening, harsh arrests began. Now the liberal media are exaggerating the incident with a woman who threw herself at the feet of a riot policeman and was hit in the stomach. She supposedly has a concussion.
The Navalnists also behaved aggressively in Yekaterinburg. At the end of the procession, which they were allowed to carry out unhindered, they began throwing snowballs and smoke bombs at the riot police, after which they were detained. The former mayor of Yekaterinburg, liberal Evgeny Roizman, took part in the illegal action.
In Krasnoyarsk, Maidan protesters used tear gas on the police and beat the head of the city's Public Chamber, Sergei Volkov.
At the same time, the police provided assistance to one of the protesters who became ill. However, the liberal media presented this episode as a brutal beating.
In Krasnodar the action was unusually numerous. Some man climbed onto the monument and pulled down his pants, it is unclear whether in support of Navalny or as a sign of protest. The protesters threw garbage at him, although this extravagant gesture fits well with the “toilet” symbolism of the actions, whose participants today were waving men’s underpants and toilet brushes.
English version :: Read in English What Navalny's supporters did outside Moscow: Riots in St. Petersburg, the Urals, and Kuban