Khodorkovsky supporters met the sentence of Meshansky Court with an hour-long yell of "Shame!"
Photo: Grigory Tambulov
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
The Last Demonstration of Protest
// Mikhail Khodorkovsky's supporters met the sentence with a tears
Yesterday there was one last demonstration of protest organized by Mikhail Khodorkovsky's supporters. Once they learned the sentence, about 200 protesters gathered next to the Meshansky Court building and for an hour and screamed: "Shame!" The reinforced police units had nothing to do. The protest went peacefully.
Everyone --the protesters and police -- were impatiently waiting for the last day of the sentence reading. The police spent 12 days on Kalanchevskaya Street. The people were coming to the court building daily. There were Khodorkovsky's supporters and opponents and police had to separate them from the court by cordoning off the building. Yesterday, police brought reinforcements just in case. One of the policemen told Kommersant yesterday that the police cordon was doubled in numbers by the interior troops. The authorities were afraid of another fight like that which happened on May 16 when Khodorkovsky's partisans got into the brawl with police (see Kommersant article from May 17).
Nobody had doubts that the sentence reading would be finished on Tuesday. Even the road workers, who were fixing pavement in front of the court building were gone. They started to work in the first days of sentence reading. Some people were sure that the road work was designed to prevent the protests.
About 200 of Khodorkovsky's supporters showed up for the last demonstration. Compared with previous days, they looked more somber -- nobody sang, rarely somebody yelled "Freedom to Khodorkovsky!" afraid to miss the latest announcements about the sentence. As before, the protesters were amusing themselves by letting green and yellow balloons in the air. One of the demonstrators brought a contraption she had made depicting a Teddy-bear in the bird cage. The Khodorkovsky opponents, as usual, were standing with the posters "The thief belongs in jail!" and "Khodorkovsky, your money smells like blood!" However, they were silent as well and didn't even react to the news from the court room.
The news that Khodorkovsky got nine years came out around noon. Some journalist ran from the court building to the crowd of the protesters and said only three words:"Khodorkovsky nine years," and then, he ran back. The protesters went silent. The women started to weep. The activists of the Consciousness Group, the demonstration organizers, burst in tears together with Marina Litvinovich, aide of the Committee 2008's leader, Irina Vorobieva, the head of the Coordination Council of the Defense Movement, Vorobieva's party comrades, and Pavel Osin, the activist from the Defense. "I cried only twice in my life. This is third time," Osin said to Kommersant.
Somebody started to yell: "Shame!" and the protesters picked up and were screaming the slogan for almost whole hour. That was first time when the protesters were screaming as a choir only one slogan. Before, the activists were competing who would outwit whom and as a result each small group of protesters had its own slogan to yell. This time everyone yelled "Shame!" Even the police were impressed. "I didn't expect from them such unity," a plain-clothed officer told Kommersant.
After finishing their yell "Shame," the protesters went on with different slogans with less enthusiasm and unity: "Misha (nickname for Mikhail) in Jail -Shame for the Country!", "Misha in Jail --Whole Country in Feces!", "If You Want to Live Under the Dictatorship -- Trust to the Prosecution!" Litvinovich and Vorobieva, who were sitting on the cast iron fence, directed the screamers. One of the elderly participants ask Osin : "Maybe we should do -- One, Two, Three - Putin Go Away'?" Osin answered that organizers agreed not use political slogans because it might get them in trouble with police. The pensioner sadly sighed and started to sing The Battleship "Varyag".
Hour and half later, the protesters learned the sentence to Platon Lebedev and started to yell "Shame!" for the second round. Then, they took a five-minute break, after which Osin offered protesters to turn their backs to the police and keep their hands behind the back "like in the walk inside of prison". The people obeyed and the police burst out laughing. There were no more tears. "Our tears dried up because of anger," said Vorobieva.
At 3 p.m., the time allowed for the demonstration was over. Despite the police expectation, the protesters quietly went home. The Consciousness Group has permission for the demonstrations for another week. However, the group's activists said that there will be no more protests: "It just doesn't make sense anymore..."
Oleg Kashin
All the Article in Russian as of June 01, 2005
|
|
|
