Muscovites “stroll” en masse in protest at Putin

  Whether there were in fact 20 thousand “strolling” through the centre of Moscow to demonstrate their protest over Putin’s third presidential term may be in question, but the crowd which can be seen here was huge.  The police first claimed there were one thousand, then doubled the figure.

The well-known writer Grigory Chkhartishvili, (who writes under the pen name Boris Akunin) announced the event on his blog which is well-worth visiting. He explains that since it turns out that in Moscow it’s prohibited to walk along the boulevards and squares (or else you’ll end up surrounded by OMON riot place as in the photo below, he and other writers are planning a stroll along the boulevard ring from the monument to Pushkin on Pushkin Square to the monument to Griboedov at Chystiye Prudy

He lists other writers then himself:

“Grigory Chkhartishvili (I signed without my pseudonym so as to hide behind others’ backs. In fact, your honour, this lark was of interest to me solely as an illustration to the book “The Writer and suicide”)

He adds that he doesn’t know about all the madmen since their number is constantly on the increase.  

As can be seen from the video clip, many took the opportunity to get autographs from the well-known writers, actors, etc who took part.

“The aim of the experiment is to establish whether Muscovites can in fact freely walk around their own city or do they need to get some kind of special permit?”

Given he violent treatment of peaceful protesters and removal of citizens from the streets all together as a telling form of marking Putin’s inauguration, the question seems warranted.  

Information from Grigory Chkhartishvili’s blog at: http://borisakunin.livejournal.com/62269.html

and http://grani.ru/Politics/Russia/activism/m.197689.html where the video clip is well-worth watching