On Wednesday, a march in support of political prisoners and the defendants of the criminal case over the uproar during an opposition rally on the Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012, will be held in Moscow. Radical oppositionists will go for a march without any illusions, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily affirms. Sociologists from Levada Centre presented the newspaper results of sociological surveys showing equivocal attitude of the Russians towards opposition slogans.
The march is to start at 13:00 Moscow time on Kaluzhskaya Square in Moscow and end traditionally on the Bolotnaya Square, the newspaper reports. The oppositionists acknowledge that they are bored with this route and would like to march closer to the Kremlin. However, it is worth participating in the protest march at least to morally support their associates behind the bars.
The march is timed to the launch of the trial over the criminal case on alleged uproar on the Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012. The protest action will be held under the common slogan “For our and your freedom”. More radical appeals to the resignation of President Vladimir Putin found no support among the organizers, who note the human rights focus of the protest action.
The public opinion Levada Centre found out ahead of an opposition action that the Russians know almost all radical slogans of the oppositionists, but most of them do not support them. 27% of respondents stated in support of the slogan “Freedom to the political prisoners”, 41% of pollsters opposed it. Over half of Russians heard the slogans “Russia without Putin” and “Putin should resign”, but only 20% of respondents admitted the support for them, meanwhile, 60% of respondents opposed these slogans. But 60% of Russians supported the semi-Socialistic slogan “Russia for millions, but not for the millionaires”.
The experts link the results of the sociological survey with the influence of the state propaganda, as most Russian citizens are unaware of the political prisoners in the country. “The state controls fully the media content and the news reports served up with different dressings,” Levada Centre expert Denis Volkov told the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily. The lack of alternative to the incumbent authorities and the passive attitude of the Russians play one of the key roles in the answers to the questions, the expert believes.
The activists of the opposition will go for a march with different feelings. But all of them believe that an opportunity of the dialogue with the authorities is lost.
Member of the scientific board of the Moscow Carnegie Centre Nikolai Petrov noted that it is not needed to believe that the authorities obtained a success in the suppression of the protest, “The public cup is filled up to capacity and in case of some clumsy actions of the incumbent authorities we will witness a new wave of protests. It will be tougher than before, because people lost their illusions and realized that the incumbent authorities are not capable to come to terms with.”