Thursday, November 14, 2019

On an Obviously Fake Pretext, Russian Siloviki Demand Shiyes Protesters Close Tent City


Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 9 – Apparently concerned that the Shiyes protests won’t end because of the onset of winter and that the continued activism there not only is serving a model for other demonstrations around the country but also becoming radicalized and ethnicized, Moscow has taken another step to shut them down.

            (On Moscow’s growing concerns about the Shiyes “problem,” see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/10/kremlin-fears-protests-against-moscow.html,

            Ten days ago, Russian OMON forces moved to cut the tent city where the demonstrators continue to stand guard against the construction of a massive dump for trash from Moscow off from the outside world (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/10/omon-forces-move-to-cut-off-shiyes.html).

            Now, the Arkhangelsk police and private security companies hired by those who want to build the dump have demanded that the activists dismantle their tents and leave the area, implicitly suggesting that if they do not do so on their own, the authorities will take steps to make that happen (mbk-news.appspot.com/news/shies-lager/).

            Aleksandr Sladoshtiyev, an environmental activist there, says that the armed men have based their demands supposedly because the presence of the demonstrators and their encampment is getting in the way of re-cultivation of the area. The authorities say that protesters must be out of the way by November 18 for that work to begin.

            He says that this is only the pretext and that the real goal of the armed men is to end the Shiyes protests No one engages in re-cultivation during the winter. The weather is too cold and the ground too frozen to allow that. But apparently, the powers that be have concluded that they will look better if they claim to be defending agriculture rather than attacking anti-trash demonstrators.


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