Sunday, September 16, 2012

Tens of thousands join anti-Putin protest


Tens of thousands of Muscovites took to the streets on Saturday for the first mass protest rally against Vladimir Putin’s regime since June, as the opposition knuckled down to prove its staying power in defiance of a crackdown on dissent.
Police estimated the crowd that marched through Moscow’s central boulevards to the protest rally on Sakharov street at 14,000, but witnesses estimated the number at about 50,000. The numbers were still less than the 100,000 or so that took part in the first protests this winter, but enough for opposition leaders to claim the street protests were still a force to be reckoned with.
The speeches, however, took on a darker tone – with more demands for social justice – as leaders called for protesters to dig in for a long battle ahead.
“There is not enough personal anger in this fight,” roared Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption blogger who has become one of the opposition’s most charismatic leaders. “The other side knows that they stand to lose millions, their yachts and their houses on the Cote d’Azur ... we have to see our fight for freedom and for equal rights as concrete things. The destruction of corruption means the country’s riches for all of us and equal rights mean equality for all our children and not just cushy jobs for the children of the Kremlin elite. We have come out and demonstrate to ensure the future for ourselves and for our families. We have to come out as if we were going to work.”
The authorities “are trying to frighten us,” he said. “But we are never going to be frightened, and we are not going to forget and forgive.”

Read more: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/20ed0236-ff59-11e1-b543-00144feabdc0.html#axzz26bC3Ar5Q

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