People in Moscow hold a rally in support of jailed opposition leader Navalny. (April 21, 2021)
Russian people took to the streets on April 21 in support of opposition leader Navalny, despite intimidation, restrictions and disruptions by the authorities. The protests that swept across the country were not only massive, but also reflected popular sentiment and public discontent, and underscored the growing discontent with Putin’s regime in Siberia and among the intellectual community.
Protests ignore authorities’ intimidation, sweep the country
People in dozens of major Russian cities took to the streets again on the evening of April 21 in support of opposition leader Vladimir Navalny. From Russia’s easternmost regions of Kamchatka and Sakhalin (the Kuril Islands), to the Far East bordering China, to the Kaliningrad region bordering Poland on the Baltic Sea in the far west, thousands of people demonstrated to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Navalny and other political prisoners whose lives are now in danger. Demonstrators called for professional doctors to treat Navalny. Other slogans used in the demonstrations were: “Putin is a thief,” “Russia doesn’t want Putin,” “Russia will eventually become a free country,” ” Putin step down”, “Stop the war and persecution”, “Change”, etc.
The mass demonstrations that swept the country were launched only a few days ago, with little time for organization and preparation. Not only did the authorities issue special threats and intimidation in advance to keep people away from the demonstrations, but some city centers were closed and cordoned off by police early in the day. Despite the fact that some of Navalny’s main supporters in various parts of the country had been interviewed by police and arrested before the demonstrations, which were held on a working day, the demonstrations were still well attended, reflecting the popular sentiment in Russian society today.
According to the statistics of the human rights organization “Information of the Ministry of Internal Affairs”, the demonstrations on the 21st resulted in nearly 2,000 arrests nationwide. The largest number of arrests was made in St. Petersburg.
In the capital Moscow, Manesh Square next to Red Square was closed by police early in the day. But several main streets adjacent to Manesh Square that were not blocked by police, in the State Duma, and near the former KGB headquarters, today’s Federal Security Service headquarters, were crowded with demonstrators later that day.
Siberia becomes a boiling point of discontent among the leaders of the demonstrations
In Ekaterinburg, Siberia’s main city, former Ekaterinburg mayor and prominent activist Roizman, who took part in the demonstrations, said that despite the late hour there, a steady stream of newly arrived people joined the protest. He said that the march was so crowded that there was no end in sight, and that the number of participants was by no means smaller than the demonstrations in support of Navalny in late January.
According to Roizman, the people’s various grievances are accumulating, and the injustice and unfair treatment of Navalny is just one of the most acute of these issues at the moment. Support for Navalny has also become a pretext and trigger for protests against Putin’s regime.
Several other major Siberian cities, Omsk, Tomsk, Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Novosibirsk, known as the City of Science in the former Soviet Union, had very large crowds of people demonstrating in the streets on Wednesday.
Many current affairs commentators and some media believe that the demonstrations in several major Siberian cities were the largest in recent years. And the cities of Ekaterinburg and Novosibirsk became the center of Wednesday’s protests across Russia.
Central Moscow drifting away from Siberia
Moscow and St. Petersburg have long been at the center of Russia’s anti-government protests, with the two metropolises leading the way. But the growing number of people taking to the streets in Siberia now reflects a new direction of discontent and protest in Russian society.
Popkov, a current affairs commentator, said many local leaders in Siberia, where the climate is harsh but vast, are now appointed by the central government in Moscow and local elections have become a formality, and many of these leaders are unaware of local sentiment.
Popokov said that despite the abundance of local resources, the real income of the population has been declining, and the population is particularly dissatisfied with the inability of the bureaucrats representing Moscow to look after the local interests of Siberians.
ACT-1, Popkov: “They are not satisfied that the Siberian region, as the main taxpayer, pays a large part of the Russian state budget. They are equally unhappy that the bureaucrats who represent the central government in Moscow are only concerned with plundering local resources.”
Academician of the Academy of Sciences arrested for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union
Former Ekaterinburg Mayor Roizman said another thing that struck him about the 21st demonstration was that he saw many familiar members of the Academy of Sciences, university professors, appearing in the procession, reflecting an awakening in Russia’s intellectual community.
Some commentators on current affairs argue that the Russian and former Soviet intelligentsia has played a key influence in the 100-year history of modern Russia, both in the October Revolution and in the movement for change and openness on the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Increased intellectual discontent and more intellectuals joining the demonstrations is never good news for Putin’s regime.
In the city of Nizhny Novgorod on the banks of the Volga River, on the day of the demonstration on the 21st, Khazanov, the deputy director of the local Institute of Applied Physics, was arrested by police in his office for retweeting pro-Navarni and pro-demonstration posts on social media. Although Hazanov was later released, the incident caused a great stir because he is a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a renowned physicist.
Some commentators believe that this is the first case of a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences being arrested for political reasons in recent decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union since the persecution of Sakharov, a prominent Soviet dissident, Nobel Peace Prize winner and father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb.
A prominent Russian political figure, former State Duma Deputy Speaker Ryzhkov, was also arrested at one point by police after he retweeted a similar post on social media the same day. He was not sentenced to prison, but was still fined.
Rogov, a Russian political scientist, said the confrontation between anti-Putin forces and Putin’s regime has entered its 10th year since mass anti-Putin demonstrations broke out in Russia in late 2011. The anti-Putin forces have failed to massively expand their camp. And Putin has used various means to suppress them for 10 years. Although the intensity and scope of the crackdown are increasing, it has not been able to weaken the anti-Putin forces, and the contest between the two sides continues.
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