News broke yesterday that Alexei Navalny, a politician for the opposition who has built his reputation on his anti-corruption stance, has been found guilty of corruption himself, and sentenced to five years in prison. He claims that he is innocent, and that the trial is politically motivated. Netizens trust him, in particular among the LiveJournal community, where Navalny built his reputation, and they have taken to the streets to show their outrage at the verdict and sentence. Navalny initially decided to withdraw himself from the Moscow mayoral elections, but has reconsidered, and will still stand. He will be allowed to campaign while an appeal is pending, but were he to lose the appeal, he would spend his time as mayor behind bars.
From Drugoi’s LiveJournal
In support of Navalny: protest in the centre of Moscow PHOTOS
In Moscow today, thousands of residents of the capital came out into the centre of town to support Alexei Navalny. They closed Manezhnaya Square and people gathered at the Duma building, the Moscow hotel on Okhotniy Ryad, and at the National hotel on Tverskaya and Mokhovaya streets. The protest has been going on for a few hours already [Note: the protest has now finished]. There have been a few attempts to stop traffic on Tverskaya. Large numbers of police and interior troops have been deployed to the place of the protest. At least 60 people have been arrested.
Comments from Drugoi’s LiveJournal
cskamsk:
It’s pointless doing anything without force. If there’s no blood, no casualties, then nothing important will be resolved.
_shin_akuma_:
I’m proud of the country!
vg48: (responding to above)
A small, but unconditionally, the best part of it…
o_maksimoff:
Once again, our lot are acting like girls. The Spanish would have already burned the Duma down long ago.
celebeauty:
To OMON, we’re all the fifth column. They believe that they’re saving Russia.
Valera_Valeri:
It’s pretty calm
dimych1978:
Muscovites, you’re great. I really didn’t expect such unity from you. Thank you!!!
petit_brie:
Today, incidentally, is Nelson Mandela’s birthday…
ledstorm:
Putin must have pissed his pants.
grand_damme:
Four bulls on one girl…((
urmodig_skald:
Putin‘s gay [Note: this was painted on the Duma walls during the protests yesterday]
gaster_uz:
The people are really tired…
atma_raga:
Yeah, there’s more of you that I expected. Well done guys, for not sleeping. It’s interesting to look in the faces of the OMON guys, what kind of people are they, what are they thinking, who are they fighting with, which side are they on…
outternet: (responding to above)
OMON don’t tolerate people who think a lot. If they let them in at all.
6a6auka:
I’m wondering why none of these thousands took a Molotov cocktail… ((( Chuck it at 6 cops and all fucking hell breaks loose…
sashasdk36:
Fucking hell, we should cut people’s hands off for vandalism.
yar1804:
The escape from the prison truck is great! Well done to the guy who opened the door!
ruslan_vsk: (responding to above)
It was all hilarious! Nice one guys! They kicked out the back door and escaped!
imxonavt:
This is infinite shame… Botox has gone completely mad.
sasha_maevski:
I think that lots more people would have gone if they’d known about the protests, and the movement in general. I think that the LiveJournal community know loads about it, but the majority of people haven’t even heard of Navalny, or they’ve heard his name but don’t know anything about him… for example my parents – they’re fifty, they would be very surprised. Like lots of people, they don’t get involved in politics, none of my business, and so on) So what can you expect))
gorini44:
Idiots, they all want to live through the nineties again. Crowd of sheep. [Note: the nineties were a difficult period in Russia]
attorney_msk:
For some reason, adults seem to take these sorts of events as a fun game of “Putin get out”…
andremf: (responding to above)
I didn’t see any adults there, just hipsters and bloggers
seniorkoto:
The guy who shot the video is a fucking idiot, why the hell show the face of the guy who opened the door to the prison van?
krikunovoi:
So is Navalny really completely innocent? If he’s guilty, then we need to protest not because he’s gone to jail, but because why the hell isn’t everyone in jail, everyone is equal in the eyes of the law, otherwise we’ll all be swimming in shit.
tubushow:
Why isn’t there a single photo of the “thousands” who came out onto the streets?
otpustitrava: (responding to above)
You need to listen to Echo Moscow [they’re saying] 50,000 gathered. Where are the photos of the thousands?