Strategy-31
Lyudmila Alekseeva Konstantin Kosjakin Eduard Limonov
Strategy 31 (Russian Стратегия -31, scientific transliteration Strategija -31) is an institutionalized peaceful street protest in memory of the paragraph 31 of the Russian Constitution, which grants the freedom of assembly and demonstration. The protest has applied since July 31, 2009 on 31 of the month in Moscow on Triumfalnaja ploschtschad ( Triumph Square ) as well as in other Russian cities.
Objectives
The name strategy refers to the 31 Article 31 of the Russian Constitution. It is the citizens granted the right to freedom of peaceful and unarmed participate in meetings and demonstrations.
History
Founded strategy 31 from writer and politician Eduard Limonov Weniaminowitsch, a dazzling figure in Russian literature and the Russian opposition movement known as a leader of the radical National Bolshevik Party.
Since then, strategy 31 is supported by various Russian human rights organizations and political movements, especially of the Moscow Helsinki Group and the Memorial Human Rights Center.
Protests
So far, not a single protest of strategy 31 on the Triumfalnaja ploschtschad ( Triumph Square ) was approved by the authorities. The rejections were each on the grounds that other activities had been filed in the same place before. Including a youth sports festival (August 31, 2009), a military sports festival (31 October 2009) and a motor sport event (31 July 2010).
The actions of Strategy 31 were each time broken up by the riot police, which also each have a large number of participants and passersby arrested.
Since January 2010, the idea of strategy 31 spread beyond Moscow in about twenty other Russian cities from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok.
Rallies and vigils of solidarity in support of strategy 31 are held abroad, eg in Berlin, Brussels, Helsinki, Kiev, Prague and Tel Aviv.
The first demonstration of the strategy 31 was on the Triumph Square in Moscow on July 31, 2009.
For international attention the protest made on December 31, 2009, when, among other things, the then 84 -year-old Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alekseeva was arrested, known as chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group. The New York Times reported this arrest even on its front page.
The largest protest of strategy 31 took place on 31 May 2010, when around 1,000 participants gathered at the ploschtschad Triumfalnaja what the riot police responded with extraordinary hardness and over 100 arrests.
The timely filed with the city administration application for rally permit was rejected, as always, a motorsport event was instead on the Triumfalnaja ploschtschad in Moscow granted. Around 200 to 500 participants ( depending on the source ) was one of the protest action of 31 July 2010. Among them, the former Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal politician Boris Nemtsov. When Nemtsov entered without posters or other signs and implied the triumph Square, he was together with 35 to 70 other people arrested (Video of RIA Novosti ). You will be accused of disobedience to the police, what with up to 15 days of imprisonment may be imposed.
The rally in Moscow once again received no authorization. According to Ekho Moskvy the approximately 100 demonstrators were offset by over 1,000 policemen to prevent the opposition rally. According to police, around 70 protesters were arrested. Among them, the writer and politician Eduard Limonov and the former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov were. Similar actions took place, each with 20 to 100 participants in Yekaterinburg ( Urals ), Tomsk ( Siberia) and Krasnodar ( southern Russia ). These demonstrations were allowed by local authorities and therefore overshadowed by no arrests.
Depending on the source 800 to 2,000 government critics and human rights activists took part in the first demonstration of approved strategy 31 in Moscow, for which the authorities had set a limit of 1,000 participants. The protests on the Triumfalnaja ploschtschad had previously been always forbidden and often violently broken up or prevented. The head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alekseeva, thanked the authorities for their " prudent behavior ".
In addition to the unsanctioned rally without permission also demonstrated other opposition activists who criticized Alexejewas agreement with the Moscow City Government. The security forces arrested a number of counter-demonstrators, including the dissident writer Eduard Limonov as the initiator of the counter-event.
In St. Petersburg, an unauthorized demonstration took place in front of the Gostiny Dvor. Police arrested several protesters.
On December 31, 2010 by 18 clock Eduard Limonov was arrested outside his home and sentenced to 15 days in jail.
Organizing Committee
- Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alekseeva
- Konstantin Kosjakin
- Eduard Limonov Weniaminowitsch
See also
- March of the malcontents