Sarah Lindemann-Komarova: “A Good Day for Russia: The Navalny Protests”
Subject: A Good Day for Russia: The Navalny Protests
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2021
From: Sarah Lindemann-Komarova <echosiberia@gmail.com>
A Good Day for Russia: The Navalny Protests
By Sarah Lindemann-Komarova
Sarah Lindemann-Komarova has lived in Siberia since 1992. Was a community development activist for 20 years.
(With photos: echosiberia.medium.com/a-good-day-for-russia-the-navalny-protests-e7e437b5cda2)
To the great relief of anyone paying attention, there were no big surprises in the January 23 “Navalny Protests” in Russia. Everybody did their job, the people who wanted to protest protested, the events from around the country were live-streamed on You Tube, and covered extensively on Facebook, and Telegram and VK, some people were arrested (3296 according to OVD-Info) but the omnipresent security personnel did not interfere with the protesters movement. It was not a kumbaya scene everywhere. There was some aggressive behavior on the part of police and protesters, most notably in Moscow and St. Petersburg. But, overall, it was a good day for Russia. A better day for some than others in relation to Navalny and the three audiences he was targeting: Putin, the West, and the Russian people.
It was an ok day for Navalny. On the plus side, there were well organized protests throughout the country. The preemptive arrests of some organizers, such as in Novosibirsk, did not have a discernible impact. The livestreams by his local supporters were wonderful, Kristina in Khabarovsk was my favorite (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJrdxhAO_p4). The number of cities and towns on the list is certainly more expansive than previous protests. But, the number of people participating was a million shy of what was needed to make this a game changer. If you take the high end of the 15 city estimates I could find (thanks to Tayga.info and friends online) there were 72,200 people. Be generous and match the Moscow 40,000 in St. Petersburg and you get 112,200. Add another 100 cities with a very generous count similar to Irkutsk (2,000) and you get just over 300,000 protesters.
This is a disappointing number considering Navalny’s recent Putin Palace corruption video that has garnered over 70 million views. There is a huge disconnect between the appeal of his on-line corruption work and proactive support for him as a political force. I wrote about this earlier in relation to Navalny’s strongest regional headquarters in Novosibirsk. Four Navalny Coalition members were elected to the City Council in a record low turnout election with 33,000 votes out of 1.1 million eligible voters. This isn’t nothing, but what is it?
This schism was evident during the protests. Flipping from one city to another it was notable that the chants “Putin Thief”, and “Freedom for Russia” were more numerous than those to “Free Navalny”, getting him out of prison appeared almost tangential to the protest he initiated. The weakness of these numbers is demonstrated by how hard it is to find them. If you Google “number of Navalny Protest participants”, you get nothing but arrest numbers in headlines throughout the world.
It was an ok day for Putin, the number of protesters was not intimidating. More importantly, the security services throughout the country demonstrated restraint. Consider the possibilities when emotions are high and anti-government, the official view is that people are attending unsanctioned COVID super spreader events, and the security services are out in full force. It is almost a miracle there were no deaths and no city where the overall atmosphere could be characterized as violent.
With regard to arrests, it was only clear in Novosibirsk that the line between hanging out and attending a political meeting was carrying a sign. And yet there, as in other cities, there was a range of reasons for arrest and in some instances it seemed to be arbitrary. Andre, covered his experience extensively on-line. He was taken into custody intervening in the arrest of what he thought was an underage girl. He was held for 3 hours, 30 minutes outside in the cold and the rest was procedural and boring. He found it invigorating, “We attended an unsanctioned meeting…we went through the massive government machine and realized there is nothing scary…. There will be a fine, big deal, guys there is nothing scary.” There are undoubtedly arrest stories that are scary and individuals who used excessive force. Had those incidents been the norm or more numerous, that would have been the worst case scenario for Putin.
As for the West, an ok day for those who want to see Russia as an enemy and do not believe that the Russian people can and will build their own democracy. They got what they needed to continue the spin by focusing on the arrests instead of the experience that the majority of protesters had yesterday and the impressive infrastructure that was available to support the people who were arrested. Information about resources was widely available on the Internet before the protests. Andre served as advisor to the 80 others he was detained with in Novosibirsk. Khabarovsk Navalny Headquarters videographer Kristina counseled people being dragged away, “do you know how to get legal help, go to Telegram OVD info and they will tell you how”. Human Rights lawyer Pavel Chikov reported that 67 lawyers provided services to 1,013 people being held in 85 police precincts in 28 cities through “Apologia Protest”.
Which brings us to the Russian people. They had a very good day. 2021 will mark the 30th anniversary of the transition to democracy in Russia. January 23 demonstrated that there is a growing and vibrant civil society in Russia and an infrastructure to support it. Anyone with a smartphone or computer with Internet could watch comprehensive coverage as You Tube live streams rippled through the time zones east to west. There was wall to wall on-line coverage by Moscow and Novosibirsk Navalny headquarters and Rain TV. They mostly provide the opposition perspective.
The following reports capture the broader spirit and complexity of what took place and why this was a good day for Russia.
Report from Sochi posted on Facebook (450 participants/+12 C): This was the most massive unsanctioned event in the history of the resort. They sang “Aquadiskoteka” (a song that features Putin’s dacha in the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKw3n1Gsrtw&feature=emb_logo) and shouted “down with the king”. Instead of paddy wagons, there were resort buses with the #Sochishines logo. The police major went into the crowd and talked for a long time with the students. He clasped their hands and asked them to leave, “so as not to use force, because everyone will be worse from this, everyone will be worse.” The students responded, “no, leaving is not an option”. A girl yelled at him about the batons and he was offended, “This is not Moscow”. The fact that the regions came out is super important and so is the fact that people in the regions were not beaten.
A blogger from the “Midwife’s Joke” punk rock band reported on Telegram from the Altai Republic (100 participants/-17 C): “Today was a meeting in Gorno Altaisk. As you can see, everyone is leaving because it is cold, very cold, my hands are numb. Someone said you need a shot of vodka to warm up. You can send us some money to buy a shot, the donation information is listed below. We will be very grateful, really, I need a shot, my fingers, I don’t feel them.” A friend joins in, “I suggest adding to the meeting resolution about 50 grams to warm up. Who is for (za)?”. The blogger supports the motion, “I am za, everyone is za!”
And this from Svetlana Mokovetskaya in Perm (5,000 participants/-22 C). She is the founder of one of the most successful civil society development resource centers in Russia and serves on the President’s Council on Civil Society Development and Human Rights. A brilliant and relentless NGO leader, she is married to one of the regions most distinguished human rights activists and Perm is considered the leading regional city for the human rights movement. She wore a badge identifying herself as a protest observer.
“I went from start to finish. How was it? People walked and walked. Different ages, many young people, many having a good time. A significant number of people wore masks. I saw several flags – red, anarchist, and tricolor. There were small homemade posters including “Alyosha, hold on!”. From time to time people shouted slogans about the regime. Motorists honked in solidarity. And it was cold. The police did not create obstacles; officers stood at intersections and facilitated traffic. Several times the police announced the event was unsanctioned and participation could lead to punishment and asked people to disperse. I did not see any paddy wagons. A young man with a megaphone warned people at the intersections to give way to cars and people who on the square and sidewalks. Everyone was quite polite and responsible. We waited for the green traffic lights and crossed the streets in groups. And the route was difficult, we had to cross many streets… Someone drew a stupid and insulting slogan on the white tile of the Theater facade where everyone gathered after the march.
I made a mistake wearing a badge that said I am a member of the President’s Council. Several groups of young people and a well-bred woman tried to shame me as “a member of the king’s retinue” but they weren’t very aggressive. I walked and hoped that it would be a peaceful procession. And it was peaceful. I hoped there would not be an aggressive confrontation between those marching and the police demonstrating forceful punishment “here and now”. And it didn’t happen and that required an effort on both sides and that effort was made. I congratulate us, Perm! And I was also frozen, like most probably everyone. And I really hope that there will not be a coronavirus outbreak.”
The New York Times photo reportage “Wave of Anger Across Russia” focuses on police violence and looks terrifying. The Russian State channel 1 coverage focused on protestor violence and looked terrifying. The reality is most people were not engaged or even interested in the protests. That does not mean Putin doesn’t have a big problem. He does, but it is not the palace featured in the viral video or Navalny. Pro Putin, Communists, Social Democrats, the 3% that are pro Navalny, no one is satisfied with their quality of life. More and more people are becoming active in their communities to address these issues using a wider range of tactics than protest. Their leader has yet to surface.