According to Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alexeyeva, a Russian human rights activist, the Soviets played by the rules.
While Soviet dissidents could strategize to protect themselves — knowing, for example, that prosecutors needed at least two witnesses — their tricks are of no use in a post-Soviet justice system, where cases can be wholly fabricated, she said. “Now they do what they want,” she said. “There were rules then. They were idiotic rules, but there were rules, and if you knew them you could defend yourself.”
She is still out there, working for human rights.
A coalition of opposition groups organized the rally to defend their right to protest, as enshrined under Article 31 of the Russian constitution. Rallies are one of the few outlets for Russia's weak and fragmented opposition.
Police began to clear the protesters as soon as they arrived. A man dressed as Father Frost, Russia's equivalent of Santa Claus, was dragged through the snow to a waiting bus.
Alexeyeva, who was dressed as Snegurochka, Father Frost's female assistant, was escorted to a bus by riot police. "I don't know why I was detained... How could I possibly offer any resistance to anyone?" she said, quoted by Echo Moskvy radio.
The Reuters article has a photo of the Russian riot cops throwing Father Frost down onto a snowy street.
That reminds me of a comment by a Palestinian journalist about the difference between working under the Israeli government and under the Palestinian Authority. He said the Israelis had censorship and the Palestinians didn't.
ReplyDeleteSo every day he had submit every article to an Israeli censor. He was an okay guy, the reporter said, almost like an editor, and they would argue over each article and sometimes over words until the censor was satisfied and he would be allowed to publish the article. One editor managed to keep his newspaper going for a whole year even though he was under house arrest. The censor would come to his house, I guess.
Under the Palestinian Authority there was no more censorship and no more censors. But if you published something the PA didn't like, they sent a couple of thugs over to your house to break your legs. The resulting self-censorship was far more severe than anything the Israelis ever imposed.
Strict Legalism is one of the small virtues of an authoritarian state. It's what makes it bearable. A government that tolerates chaos in its own interest may soon get more chaos than it wants. A government can survive anything but the contempt of its people, as the breakdown of the Palestinian Authority has shown.