In the course of the anti-government protests in Russia more than 2,000 people have been arrested in Moscow alone in the past three weekends – the authorities are investigating „mass riots“.
There are many videos circulating on YouTube that demonstrate the sometimes disproportionate police involvement in arrests. On Sunday, the Russian media authority spoke up – and warns Google.
The Internet giant was asked by Roskomnadzor – the Russian regulator for mass media, telecommunications and data protection – to delete videos of unauthorized protests on its platform YouTube. In a letter, the company is called upon to take measures to prevent the advertising of unauthorized demos.
The indiscriminate blundering of peaceful demonstrators documented in pictures and Internet videos had triggered international horror and criticism. Also from the last demonstration on Saturday, to which the organizers estimated that more than 50,000 people had come (the police spoke of 20,000), numerous videos circulated – but this demo had been approved.
„Reaction“ to „interference“ threatened
In concrete terms, the media authority complains about „structures“ that YouTube channels use to spread push messages about such actions. Andrej Klimow from the Russian Federation Council recently complained about this. People would be manipulated, Klimov was quoted by Russian media. „They received information from sources that they had never subscribed to without reason.“
Roskomnadzor went a step further and issued a threat to Google: If there is no reaction, Russia will regard this as hostile interference in the country’s internal affairs and in democratic elections. Then you reserve the right to respond „appropriately“ to it. Moscow had previously accused the US and Germany of „interference in internal affairs.“
Over 200 arrests on the weekend
The provisional final rally had been approved by the authorities, in contrast to the protests on the weekends before: Especially off the beaten track but there were countless arrests. Police in Moscow said that they had arrested more than 130 people. According to the non-governmental organization OVD-Info, 80 arrests were made in Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg.
„Freedom, freedom!“
On the Moscow-based Sakharov prospectus close to Moscow, slogans such as „Russia without Putin“ were chanted on Saturday with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in mind. The banners read: „Give Moscow back the elections“, „Here we vote“, „I have the right to vote“ and „I’m angry“. Well-known shouts such as „Russia without Putin“ and „Putin is a thief“ were heard. And – unusual for Russia – „freedom, freedom!“.
The initiators of the protests want to ensure that all candidates are admitted to the city council election in four weeks. Government critics are not allowed there for alleged formal errors in their registration applications. This concerns, for example, the Kremlin critic Ilja Yashin, who is also under arrest, as well as Alexei Nawalny, who organized the protests.
