Russia – No Noticeable Change

Monday March 3 2008

Beneath grey skies and slicing cold sleet the few dozen Russian neo-dissidents that gathered for an unsanctioned ‘Dissenters March’ at Moscow’s Chisty Prudi metro station late this afternoon were easily outnumbered by a couple of hundred interior ministry troops and OMON riot squad police.

Russia today is pretty much exactly the same country as it was yesterday morning. Dmitry Medvedev may have been elected president but there is precious little sign that his recent assertions over ensuring freedom of expression are more than liberal sound bites aimed at assuaging public opinion.

Moscow’s dissident rally had been specifically banned by city authorities and the police viewed any attempt at unfurling an Other Russia flag – or lighting a flare – as a provocation and arrested around 30 of the protestors within minutes of the 5pm start.

Plain-clothes officers identified key people before the OMON men moved in. Veteran human rights activist Lev Ponomarev and Marina Litvinovich, ‘The Other Russia’ leader Garry Kasparov’s deputy, were among those hauled away.

One plainclothes man asked by western reporters why he was identifying activists muttered, “it’s my job,” before moving away.

Kasparov was not there. He chose to lead a march in St Petersburg that had been allowed. Evening newscasts in Moscow devoted a few seconds to both the Moscow and St Petersburg events after lengthy reports of Sunday’s election. Medvedev and Putin were shown beaming and waving to supporters at a Red Square rally last night and joking with staff at Expedition, an exclusive Moscow arctic sea food restaurant, where they celebrated Medvedev’s win yesterday afternoon.

The evening news also reported on Gazprom’s decision to restrict supplies of natural gas to Ukraine by 25% in a payment dispute. Turning off the gas to Ukraine seems to be an annual event these days, although the European Union was today keen to downplay it as “a business dispute”.

The few protestors left under the sleet at Chisty Prudi (which means ‘pure ponds’ although the square looked more likely a dirty sink today) expressed their weary anger at the Kremlin.

Nothing had changed with Medvedev’s election, said bearded Jakov Kornev, a retired builder aged 59 but who looked more like 80.

Holding aloft a copy of the Russian constitution he declared: “I came here today because I am tired of being scared. Russia today is a mafia state. The regime is purely criminal.”

Tatar pensioner, Asnisan Neftakova, 60, said she and other dissenters had been “denied the chance to vote for our people.”

“I am here today to show my support for democracy,” she said. Gesturing with contempt towards the lines of steel-helmeted interior ministry troops, she added: “These police here live fully on Putin’s pay.”

Bookseller Alexander Khatov, 54, who said his dissent dated back to his support for the Prague Spring Communist thaw of 1968 – after which he was denied access to university education – said the show of force demonstrated that the Kremlin was “scared of people expressing their constitutional rights.”

Medvedev has insisted he wants to tackle Russia’s endemic corruption and what he calls the country’s “legal nihilism”. But since he also insists he will not deviate from the path establish his predecessor, Putin – who will remain on the scene as Prime Minister – it looks like there will be a role to play for the dissenters for a long time to come.