For the Kremlin it has become something of an embarrassment. On the 31st of the month, a group of noisy protesters gather in downtown Moscow's Triumfalnaya Square. They shout slogans against Vladimir Putin and his regime. The 31ers, as they are known, are seeking to defend Russia's much-abused constitution and in particular article 31 — meant to guarantee freedom of assembly. Over this year Moscow's city government has devised various tactics to stop these rallies, ranging from the brutal to the surreal — the campaign is beginning to look like a convoluted game of chess for control of the square. The authorities have turned down all applications to stage the “Strategy-31” gatherings.
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has sent in the goons, with riot police deployed on every occasion to arrest protesters and chuck them in the back of police vans. In May police broke a journalist's arm; in July officials came up with a rival event in the square — a car rally. These tactics have reached a new level of ridiculousness. The government last week announced it was building an underground car park underneath the square and fenced off the whole area. Two workmen could be seen slowly digging a small hole next to a statue of Russian futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. It is clear that nobody is in any hurry to get the work completed, which could now drag on for years.
In retaliation, they have decided to take their protest to London, New York, Helsinki, Berlin and Tel Aviv. In the eight months since the rallies started, protesters have included elderly dissidents who fought against the Soviet Union and teenagers who were born in the 1990s, well after the collapse of communism. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010
