Russians Protest Putin’s Stance on Ukraine

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/world/europe/russians-protest-putins-stance-on-ukraine.html

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MOSCOW — Thousands of Russians marched through Moscow on Sunday in an antigovernment demonstration criticizing President Vladimir V. Putin for what they saw as his warmongering in Ukraine.

It was the first large-scale public demonstration against Mr. Putin since March, and one that brought out a sizable but often silent minority of Mr. Putin’s critics despite the patriotic fervor that has seized Russia since his annexation of Crimea in March.

“I am disturbed that Russia is fueling a war in Ukraine,” said Sergey Arefov, a lawyer who had attended opposition rallies here before. “I believe it is very dangerous for us and for Europe.”

In his hand he held a small Ukrainian flag, though he said he was nervous to ride with it on the subway. “I hid the flag,” he said sheepishly. “A year ago, I could never have imagined it would come to this.”

The grinding conflict in eastern Ukraine between the government in Kiev and several separatist republics has left more than 3,000 people dead since March. The West has accused Russia of supplying arms and soldiers to the separatists, a charge that Mr. Putin has denied.

In Russia, the conflict has driven a wave of nationalism. State-run television channels have hounded Russian opposition politicians and celebrities who have spoken publicly in support of Ukraine, and Mr. Putin warned in a recent speech of “national traitors” who could bring down Russia from within.

Mr. Putin probably had in mind some of those who protested on Sunday, many of whom were veterans of the opposition rallies against him in 2011, when more than 100,000 people protested electoral fraud. No one could say exactly why the city government allowed the march to take place, thought it might have been to gauge public opinion.

“I came here just to convince myself that I wasn’t alone,” said Tatyana Nestretsova, an accountant.

In what has become a familiar ritual, the city police underestimated the number of demonstrators at 5,000, while several march leaders overestimated it at more than 100,000. Sonar, a Russian volunteer organization that monitors public demonstrations, said it counted 26,100 attendees.

Ilya Yashin, a leader of previous protests who was at Sunday’s march, said that the people were still the same — “city dweller, middle class” — but that “the agenda has changed.”

“Back then we were protesting against stolen elections; it was a local problem,” he said. “Now Putin has created a global problem.”

One new protester was Regina Shemoyeva, an architect who said she had last demonstrated in 1991 during a failed coup. She said she had never voted for Mr. Putin, but had been glad for the growing stability in Russia. “There was a lot that was good,” she said. “But six months ago our politics took a sharp turn in a bad direction. Now it is just unbearable. I don’t like Russia’s politics in Ukraine. I don’t like what’s happening with the press.”

For a moment on Sunday, a spectacular, crisp fall afternoon, the protest regained an element of optimism and carnival that had melted away since a series of arrests and investigations that put the opposition on its heels.

Dozens of political parties and social movements, many of them marginal and united only in their dislike for Mr. Putin, suddenly reappeared.

“Glory to Kievan Rus’!” a pack of antifascists wearing black clothing and sunglasses chanted in support of the Kiev government. Later, organizers would have to separate them from a column of monarchist nationalists, also opposed to war, who began chanting, “White power.”

Another move toward political resurrection was announced by Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the former oil tycoon and rival of Mr. Putin who was released last December after 10 years in prison. Mr. Khodorkovsky, 51, said he was restarting his foundation, Open Russia, and would use it to support opposition candidates in parliamentary elections in 2016.

Mr. Khodorkovsky, who lives in Switzerland, said in an interview published Sunday in Le Monde that he was ready to serve as president of Russia if called upon.

At the rally in Moscow, Yuri Shulipa, a lawyer, carried a navy blue flag bearing the emblem of NATO, which many here believe is behind the violence in Ukraine. “We wanted to say that NATO has friends here,” he said.

A moment later, a man with his face covered snatched the flag out of Mr. Shulipa’s hands and disappeared down an alley.

More than 100 supporters of the separatists were at the rally, and several scuffles broke out.

Yelena Fyodorova, a native of the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk, banged a drum and chanted, “No-vo-ros-si-ya,” as the separatists refer to their regions. She was among those who later pelted the pro-Ukraine protesters with eggs and tomatoes.

The march ended on a boulevard named for the Soviet dissident Andrey Sakharov, where a police van blared a recorded message: “Dear citizens. This event is over. Please make your way toward the metro.”

They did.