MOSCOW (AP) — The Moscow police plan to stifle an opposition protest by clamping down on the center of
the city backfired — not only did the massive demonstration take place, but it was spread throughout a
wide swath of the city.
Moscow police always come out strong for unauthorized protest gatherings, but the plan for Sunday’s
demonstration demanding freedom for jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny was especially anathema
symbolically.
It was to start on Lubyanka Square, where the Federal Security Service that Navalny accuses of poisoning
him is headquartered, then march a half-kilometer to the presidential administration building, about as
close to the levers of power that a protester could get without breaching the Kremlin’s walls.
Police responded to the provocative plan by closing seven subway stations in the vicinity and restricting
pedestrian traffic in a large trapezoid from Red Square to Lubyanka, an area that contains many tourist
sights and some of the city’s best shopping.
On Sunday, journalists were able to reach Lubyanka, but few people who looked like potential protesters
could get there. An hour before the action was to start, Navalny’s team told protesters via a messaging
app to head to two still-open subway stations.
After police detained some protesters and drove others away from the stations, the Navalny team told
people to go to the square fronted by three of the city’s long-distance train stations. More detentions
took place on the square and its fringes.
Thereafter, the throngs set out for the Matrosskaya Tishina jail, where Navalny is held. Once repelled by
police there, many headed back to the stations area.
In all, a demonstration that could have been contained in a relatively small area and observed by few who
weren’t participating, the demonstrators spread their message across much of central Moscow, attracting
considerable attention along the way with their chants of "Putin, resign!" and "Putin,
thief!" — a reference to an opulent Black Sea estate reportedly built for the Russian leader that
was featured in a widely popular video released by Navalny’s team.
On surging main roads and even side streets, passing drivers laid on their horns and flashed victory
signs out the window, indicating that support for Navalny and dismay with President Vladimir Putin has
spread well beyond the mostly young people who were motivated to navigate the icy sidewalks.
Although Putin and other officials have likened the protesters to terrorists, what Muscovites saw from
their windows as the throngs passed was a stream of people better-behaved than the average crowd of
soccer fans. The only vandalism observed on the trek were slogans traced on snow-dusted car windows:
"Putin is a thief" and "PTN PNKh," the text-speak version of a profane insult of
Putin.
More than 1,500 people were reportedly arrested in Moscow, including Navalny’s wife, Yulia, but there
were few visible attempts to provoke police. Many of those who were grabbed and forced into police
vehicles seemingly were picked at random. Across the country, nearly 5,000 people were detained.
As helmeted riot police chased some marchers into a subway station toward the end of the demonstration, a
woman having a cigarette laughed and said: "Is today a Russian holiday?"
For the demonstrators it wasn’t a holiday, but they may feel encouraged by how police tactics gave them
an inadvertent opportunity to show their determination.