The opposition coalition “The Other Russia” is holding a rally called “The March of Objectors”. The meeting in the centre of St. Petersburg has not been sanctioned by city authorities.
This is the second attempt to hold the march after the first one, in Moscow, was banned in December last year. Several hundred people are marching in the centre of St. Petersburg. The organisers promised to bring thousands of protesters, but they haven’t succeeded. The number of police seems to outnumber those taking part in the rally. The rally has been timed to parliamentary elections in St. Petersburg, which are to take place on March 11. Some of the liberal parties have been refused registration and therefore got no chance to take part in the election. Some of the protesters have come to express their discontent with that. A many people, however, have joined the rally to protest the state of democracy in Russia, demanding more democratic freedoms and even calling for a revolution. Russia Today’s political commentator shared his view of the protest and its organisers.‘What I think is interesting is that people who are protesting are very much on the margins of society. These are people who have been in politics before and even had some success, but over the last few years the public opinion is not interested in them any more. We have Garry Kasparov, the famous chess-player, former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, former National Bolshevik Eduard Limonov. Many of these people have much in common except for they object. Objection is front against the current constitutional reality and political reality in Russia. And these people know public opinion is not interested in them. And, unfortunately, they don’t want to use the system any longer, they want to work outside the system. This is not good for the political situation of the country,’ he said.