Three years ago, on September 21, 2014, more than 26,000 people gathered in Moscow for what was considered at the time the largest opposition protest since Vladimir Putin’s inauguration for a third presidential term in 2012. Crowd estimates for the protest in Moscow were based on checkpoint results by the independent monitoring group SONAR.
Thousands also demonstrated in St. Petersburg and other Russian cities against what they said was a covert Russian war in eastern Ukraine.
Aleksandr Ryklin of the opposition Solidarity movement said the slogan for all of the protests was: “Putin, enough lying and making war!”
Yelena Volkova of Moscow said that Russian authorities should “stop this outrageous covert war that they don’t admit” waging.
Banners at the Moscow protest read: “Putin, I’m sick of your lies,” “Don’t shoot our brothers” and “I don’t want a war with Ukraine.”
Daria Nikolayeva told RFE/RL that a precedent was set by Russia’s deployment of military forces across Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March 2014 and Russia’s speedy annexation of Crimea through an illegal referendum.
The Moscow march was officially approved by the authorities, while in St. Petersburg, nearly 10,000 people gathered outside the Kazan Cathedral for a rally that was not sanctioned by authorities. In Yekaterinburg, nearly 5,000 anti-war demonstrators were jeered by hecklers and in the Siberian city of Barnaul, at another unsanctioned demonstration, activist Artyom Kosaretsky was reportedly assaulted by authorities after holding a sign that said “Siberia against war.”
The protests were scheduled on September 21 to coincide with the United Nations annual International Peace Day.
This year, an anti-corruption protest was held across Russia on March 26 that attracted 60,000 people across 80 Russian towns and cities. The protest was a response following the release of an investigative film posted on YouTube by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, “He Is Not Dimon to You,” about the corruption of Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev. A similar protest was held on June 12 that also attracted even more people across more cities in Russia and is widely viewed as the largest protests since 2012. More than 1,000 protesters were arrested or detained.
Source: “Thousands march against war in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Opposition grows to war in Ukraine,” RFE/RL Russian Service, The Ukrainian Weekly, September 28, 2014.