Yesterday amid the news of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, Dmitriy Monahov, an activist from Moscow, tweeted that he was a Russian, but not a thug, a murdered or an invader. “It’s a shame Putin’s my president. On 9 AM I’m going to the Manezhnaya square [in the center of Moscow] to protest the war” – he wrote. And today he came. Alone. He had no signs or leaflets, he just came and started speaking out his point of view before the onlookers.
upd (6.27 PM): Monahov was sentenced to 15 days’ arrest. says OVD-Info.
01. He was speaking out quite loudly. “Why is everything O.K. in Kramatorsk and Slavyansk? The so-called “separatists” left those towns. Murders happen only where the “separatists” are.
02. He said that Putin’s actions were subject to article 353 of the Russian Criminal Code(planning, preparing, starting or conducting an aggressive war). Passers-by stopped and listened, I believe there was enough of them for 9 in the morning. “Our president is guilty of starting a war. The [Russian] paratroopers’ corpses [killed in Ukraine] didn’t appear out of nowhere. Let us open a criminal case and bring our president to court.”
03. Then the police came.
04. They started detaining him. Monahov said by law he had a right for solitary protest, but they didn’t listen to him much.
05. Three of them wasn’t enough to subdue him.
06. The passers-by looked with interest. Some asked the policemen not to use force since the guy was alone. Others, on the other hand, told him that in Stalin’s times he’d be shot right there.
07. Let’s try from the other side, guys.
08.
09.
10.
11. “Shut your mouth, dumbf**k” – a passer-by shouted. “If you don’t like it, go away, this is our motherland and we will live here” – another cried.
12. Backup came, now there were four policemen. Three shoved him into the car by the front, a fourth pushed him on the back.
13. They were trying to get him in for five or seven minutes. Although all he did was stand with hands raised.
14.
Later today, more Russians took to the streets of Moscow, bearing signs.
И еще один пикет #москва #манежная pic.twitter.com/GeBnHptSYQ
— Ante Uni (@AnteUni) 28 августа 2014
Naturally, more arrests followed:
Человека с флагом РФ забрали #манежная #москва pic.twitter.com/DQDxx1g08j
— Ante Uni (@AnteUni) 28 августа 2014
Source: Livejournal, Twitter Translated by Kirill Mikhailov
