Young people should know ‘true essence’ of Bolotnaya Square protests – Smolensk governor

(Interfax – SMOLENSK, Russia, May 28, 2013) The governor of the Smolensk region has insisted on organizing discussions at local secondary schools and higher education institutions to tell students about the “true essence” of opposition rallies on Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square, an Interfax correspondent reported from a regional conference.

“Stories are being widely told about events on Bolotnaya Square, about protest rallies, about how their participants turn their backs on each other all the time. We can see all this in the media – the interviews with Lebedev and with other participants of those Bolotnaya events. We can see what their true essence is, what true goals they pursue, and whose money is behind all this,” Smolensk Governor Alexei Ostrovsky said in addressing the head of the regional department for education, science and youth affairs, Lyudmila Ivanicheva.

“We need to carry out roundtables or something in senior grades, in 10th and 11th grade, and at higher education institutions, and tell the young people about all this. That’s the kind of work we need,” he said.

He suggested holding such discussions after the summer vacations and before the end of the year.

Tuesday’s conference dealt with proposals for measures to prevent political and religious extremism, ethnic strife, the radicalization of youth and their drawing into anti-government conspiracies.

An opposition demonstration on Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012, that had been permitted by the city administration, ended up in clashes between demonstrators and police, with more than 400 people detained that day and afterward.

The authorities accused the demonstrators of deliberately staging the riots and assaulting violence against police.

Two people have been convicted in connection with the clashes. Mikhail Luzyanin was sentenced to four years in prison in November after admitting his charges of participation in mass riots and use of violence against police.

Konstantin Lebedev, accused of co-organizing the clashes, received two and a half years of jail in April.

Twenty-seven people are still awaiting trial. Five of them have travel restrictions, one is under house arrest, one more is in hiding and on the international wanted list, and the rest are in jail.