Staunton, March 15 – Protests against
Putin’s constitutional changes have been far more radical outside of Moscow
than within the ring road even though in most cases the siloviki have cracked
down hard against them (charter97.org/ru/news/2020/3/15/369521/
and dw.com/ru/в-санкт-петербурге-задержали-пикетчиков-против-поправок-в-конституцию-рф/a-52782543).
The Seven by Seven portal which
tracks developments in the regions provided a glimpse of anger there in a story
about protesters in Ryazan headlined “’Dictators End Badly – They are ‘Zeroed
Out,”’” (7x7-journal.ru/articles/2020/03/15/diktatory-ploho-konchayut-ih-obnulyayut-na-odinochnyh-piketah-protiv-popravok-v-konstituciyu-ryazancy-napomnili-putinu-ob-uchasti-byvshego-rumynskogo-prezidenta-chaushesku).
A series of individual protesters
succeeded one another, staying within the limits of the Russian law and
avoiding the attacks that others who have demonstrated elsewhere have suffered.
Their posters and their comments to a Seven by Seven journalist highlight their
increasing radicalization.
Aleksey Borisov, who rose to
prominence as a leader of the anti-Plato tax movement of truckdrivers, held up
a sign declaring “Putin is a liar and a usurper. Russia without Putin!” He said
that Putin would only be remembered for his crimes and for redividing the
country into masters and slaves.
Activist Aleksandr Bekhtold followed
him. He said he had lived most of his life under Putin’s rule and couldn’t take
it anymore: “I do not want to see him in power anymore! Because he is a liar
and a thief – and we don’t need a president like that.”
Timur Telunts, a second-year student
at the School for Human Rights, held up a poster with two pictures. In the
first, taken on December 21, 1989, Romanian dictator Nikolai Ceaucescu was
delivering a speech and pounding his fists. In the second, four days later, he
and his wife are shown being shot for their crimes, “’zeroed out,’” as it were.
“Why don’t we draw any conclusions
from the lessons of history?” he asked rhetorically. “Many tyrants end in the
same way and do not die natural deaths. And even if they do, then they remain
in the memory of their peoples exclusively as usurpers and dictators, even
though wihle alive, they had ‘a high percent of popular support.’”
Aleksey Fedulov followed him. He
declared bluntly that as a result of what Putin has done, “the hopes [of
Russians] for the future have been ‘zeroed out.’” Without regular circulations
of elites, there cannot be any development and no hope for that is now left.
A fifth demonstrator, Irina Kusova,
held a poster declaring “’Stop the Mutilation of the Constitution! Instead,
finally get to work!” And a sixth,
Margarita Vinokurova, held up one that declared simply “’Putin Must Be Retired!”
Passersby generally ignored the protesters,
neither supporting or opposing them. Although one man, who said he admired
Putin “as a man,” was confused by the reference to Ceaucescu, professing not to
know who that was but saying “God be with him.”
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