Global Voices Online

Marsh Nesoglasnykh (”The Dissenters' March” or “The March of Those Who Disagree”) - screenshot from the rally's website, www.namarsh.ru

According to news reports, over 2,000 people showed up at a “rare” anti-government rally in Moscow today.

LJ user rifleman_sa has posted a photo report (RUS) from the Marsh Nesoglasnykh (”The Dissenters' March” or “The March of Those Who Disagree”):

[…] By my estimates, there were 2,000-2,500 people. I started counting cops' cars and buses, reached 60 and gave up - there were many more of them. I have mixed feelings about the rally - but the conclusion that's obvious is that the regime is definitely [scared]. [Scared] of any political activity, regardless of which flank it is coming from.

2007-2008 promise to be interesting.

Below are another blogger's quick thoughts on the rally (LJ user sapojnik, RUS):

“The Misanthropes' March”

A strange action has taken place, really. What does “those who disagree” mean? Disagree with what? Quite a lot of people gathered - if you, of course, measure by today's frail standards, not by the million-strong demonstrations of the late 1980s. But now, 2,500 people is a lot. It means that at least 2,000 people came on their own, without having been paid in any way. With money, it's possible to gather 300-400 people at most, and all the Kremlin media tales, according to which, for example, [the Maidan in Ukraine] had been “bought,” are absolute nonsense.

But - all the worse. Slogans have to be coherent and specific: these are the basics of public politics. So here's the question: why didn't they find anything coherent? “They are sawing Russia.” Who are these “they”?? Why didn't they reveal their last names? It ended up being “the march against bad weather” [it was sunny in Moscow today] […]. […]

Such rallies are actually turning NORMAL people away from public protest, and, on the other hand, they envigorate the “jerks.” If this is a protest “in general” - then why not blow up bombs? Wouldn't that, too, be “protest”?