‘He’s Not Our Tsar’: Russians Protest Putin Ahead of Inauguration

- Two days before President Vladimir Putin is due to be inaugurated for a fourth time, more than 1,600 people were detained across Russia at protests against his extended rule.

It was the first major protest against Putin since January. Then, opposition politician Alexei Navalny had called for a boycott of the March elections after he was barred from standing due to a fraud conviction that his supporters say is politically motivated. The mostly peaceful protests drew thousands onto the streets.

They did not, however, stop Putin from winning 77 percent of the vote. The president was re-elected with a record number of ballots, making him the longest-serving leader since Josef Stalin.

Unlike January’s demonstration, the protests on Saturday turned violent. While thousands across the country — from Vladivostok in the Far East to Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea — marched in the protests which were called by Navalny last month, it was in the capital where the clashes were most severe.

By the time Navalny’s supporters arrived at Pushkin Square at 2 p.m., several hundred pro-Kremlin “volunteer” militia had already occupied the square. Wearing orange-and-black St. George’s ribbons — a symbol of patriotism — they approached protesters aggressively, tearing up signs that read: “He is not our tsar” and “I am against corruption.”

As the groups converged, a pro-Kremlin activist punched Alexei Berezhkin, a 27-year-old Navalny supporter. A policeman intervened, telling the aggressor to disperse. Then he spoke sternly to Berezhkin. “The policeman told me I was blocking the man’s way,” Berezhkin told The Moscow Times.

Then came the arrests. Only fifteen minutes after Navalny’s supporters arrived en masse, riot police, known colloquially as “cosmonauts” for their bulbous helmets and armor, spilled into the square, snatching protesters one by one.

Those who weren’t taken stood firm. And when Navalny arrived on the scene around 2:25 p.m., they burst into cheers. Addressing the crowd, Navalny said, “I am proud of us for coming out here today.”

Ten minutes later, he, too, was detained.

As the riot police formed barricades to push protesters out of the square, they ran into the neighboring streets, cheering and clapping and chanting: “Down with the tsar!” and “Putin is a thief!”

Some protesters lit smoke bombs and threw bricks at policemen. Others were beaten bloody with batons in scenes that were reminiscent of the massive clashes between law enforcement and protesters on the eve of Putin’s inauguration in 2012. That day six years ago marked the beginning of a clampdown on Russia’s emerging opposition movement.