Russia: Listening In On the Police; St. Pete Rally · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Marina Litvinovich – LJ user abstract2001, Garry Kasparov's aide and PravdaBeslana.ru founder – has posted recordings of the walkie-talkie conversations of riot police officers deployed for the opposition's Dissenters’ Marches in Moscow (RUS) on April 14 and in St. Petersburg (RUS) on April 15. Radio Echo of Moscow has been playing one of these clips (RUS) all day long today, an edited copy, with beeps instead of the curses.
Here is one of abstract2001‘s summaries (RUS):
[…] There are some really interesting parts that could be combined with the video from the March. “Detain them all!”, “About 30 pensioners are standing there, what should we do with them, should we detain them?”, “About 50 people are moving toward Triumfalnaya Square and Kasparov is with them,” “Detain them all, with Kasparov!”, “Make sure that Kasparov doesn't leave, take him,” “Get us more [trucks for prisoners]!”, […] “Take them all and load them on!”, “Order them to detain Kasyanov! Take them and put them on the buses! Do you need more men?”, “They've fought Kasyanov off, he's walking along the boulevard!”, “What do you mean, they let Kasyanov go? Who's responsible for Kasyanov?” et cetera…………………… […]
There is also this thread (RUS) on RadioScanner.ru forum, whose users were listening in on the police during the Moscow rally:
Ivanov, April 14, 2007, 13:02:27 -
A quote: “There's no one on Rozhdestvenskiy Boulevard! Not a single person, only OMON. Who are we supposed to detain, damn it?!”
Ivanov, April 14, 2007, 13:03:21 -
And in reply – “Detain everyone – with or without [flags, posters, etc.] – detain them all!”
They'll have to detain the OMON guys :)))
***
Below are a few photo posts and reports from bloggers who attended the opposition's rally in St. Petersburg on April 15.
(Warning: as with the previous two installments – here and here – some links lead to blogs with bandwidth-intensive content.)
- Forty-eight pages of photographs from the Dissenters’ March in St. Petersburg this past Sunday – available for download in .pdf format here – by LJ user studio204 (St. Petersburg-based Russian photographer Dmitry Shubin). Two separate posts with these photos are here and here.
- LJ user gangleon (photos and text):
[…] Some 200 people were pushed with shields towards the Vitebsk Train Station. OMON used force against the people gathered there, despite the fact that they were not trying to do anything unlawful (well, except for attempting to break through the cordons). The other group was pushed towards Zagorodnyi Prospekt. OMON also cut off a group of journalists and also started beating them (not sure about this, didn't see it), breaking their cameras and other equipment. The newly-arrived reinforcement, yelling and doing the beat with their shields,  moved toward the last, numerous, group, of which I was part. As a result of the law enforcement's actions, many participants of the rally were wounded. One pensioner had his leg broken, for example.
The rally's organizers were not calling the participants to march. [One party leader] asked everyone to go home when the rally was over, and if some intended to walk to Smolny, they had to do it on their own. Nevertheless, people were not allowed to freely leave the square. […]
- LJ user miiir (text):
Soundproof
- We came here so that our voice was hea…
The microphone breaks off.
- …rd by all genuine citizens of the City, – the speaker continues without the amplifier.
All sounds drown in the hum of the helicopter hanging above the square, with the word MILITIA written on its door. The helicopter's door is open, so the word reads as MILIA.
- LJ user zirkov (photos);
- LJ user flilm (photos – here and here);
- LJ user near_bird (photos – here and here).