Navalny is a criminal (https://tinyurl.com/yyz36c7l ), and the West is propping him up (ala Guaido in Venezuela) & lauding a fake poisoning story in order to again attempt to foment unrest in Russia.
On January 23, I went by metro to the site of the pro-Navalny protest planned for Moscow, in Pushkinskaya Square, arriving two hours before the 2 pm protest time, and standing roughly five hours in the cold until police had slowly cleared the square.
[UPDATE: My blog post on this: https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2021/01/30/the-navalny-protests-charade-western-interference-disinfo-on-russia-once-again/]
This was a mix of young and less young people (including large numbers of self-appointed "citizen journalists"/social media activists wearing fluorescent vests easily-bought in stores to appear as accredited press) with scripted placards (handed out to participants, I saw a young man doing so).
They protested for well over1.5 hours, chanting periodically (saying nothing of content), before the first police movements to clear the square (these movements amounted to police locking arms and walking forward, to push people back).
It's what I saw in 2019 (except this time I saw very young, early or pre-teens participating), and this time it took longer for police to respond (in 2019 the response was fairly immediate).
Note the intervals when an area has been cleared. Police & protesters stand around in close proximity to one another, police not "attacking" protesters, protesters standing close enough to police to indicate they don't actually fear "police brutality".
Watch the body language, laughter even, of some of the protesters. Is that normal in a situation where one fears getting brutalized?
*
The protest was held without permission, thus illegal under Russian law.
This is not particular to Russia, in most Western countries we need permission to hold protests and are not allowed off the protest route, are flanked by heavy police presence. That's if we are allowed to protest.
In France, Yellow Vest protesters were routinely met with police brutality, including the use weapons whose use is prohibited for crowd-control operations, resulting in 10s of protesters losing an eye, others losing a hand, and many deaths.
In her February 2019 article on the Gilet Jaunes (Yellow Vests) protests, Vanessa Beeley wrote of
“...19 GJs who have lost an eye to the “sub-lethal” LBD40 bullet launcher that is being liberally used by security forces during GJ protests across France.
The LBD40 is the evolution of the notorious “flashball bullet,” 10 times the velocity of a paintball. The modern LBD40 launcher is a very accurate instrument with a “red-dot” laser pointer sight that ensures pinpoint targeting of civilians.”
...While it is classified as a “sub-lethal” weapon, when used in violation of police regulations, at close range and in unstable crowd environments, it is lethal and capable of terrible damage to a human body — particularly the face, which appears to be a favorite target of the national police in France.
...Previous investigations have revealed that the GLIF4 grenade, or “grenade de desencerclement,” has also been condemned by an internal French police laboratory inquiry and recommendations have been submitted to the Interior Ministry for the banning of their use in crowd-control operations.
...Despite all the evidence of the traumatic effects of these weapons upon civilians, the French Council of State ruled that the LBD40 was a necessary instrument of “self-defence” for the forces of “law and order.."
*
In some localized incidents, police violence occurred--often, if not usually, with a back story:
-like the police man who apologized to a woman he had kicked, saying:
"I am sincerely, deeply sorry, ma'am. Please believe me, the situation was very difficult for us. Literally, five minutes before, they poured liquid over my helmet, my visor was still fogged over. I swear to you, when I understood what happened, I was in shock, it's a tragedy"https://twitter.com/ValLisitsa/status/1353382054050869253
-or the scene of Russian police beating protesters with batons, where, if you slow down the footage as I did you can see protesters (or provocateurs) attacking the police first:
https://www.facebook.com/EvaBoBeeva/posts/3941931362483495
What I've seen at 3 different protests in Moscow is considerable police restraint, & crowd control tactics NOT involving: water canons, tear gas, pepper spray, stun grenades, or any of the violent methods employed by France.
*Related Reading:
https://off-guardian.org/2021/01/22/russia-baiting-biden-brings-back-business-as-usual/
https://off-guardian.org/2020/09/25/the-false-flag-poisoning-of-alexei-navalny/
*Thumbnail image is still from RT coverage.
