Staunton, October 18 – Speaking at a small anti-war meeting in Moscow October 17, Lev Ponomaryev, head of the For Human Rights Movement, said that Russians must protest against Putin’s wars in Ukraine and Syria as Americans did about Vietnam and stop them or they will face even more aggressive wars in the future.
The meeting, organized jointly by the Solidarity Movement and the Party of December 5, attracted several hundred participants, a few counter-demonstrators who attempted to disrupt it, and the attentions of the Russian police and OMON who seized several placards with any mention of Syria.
Solidarity’s Sergey Davidis acknowledged that “today there are not too many of us” but said “this is understandable: the meeting arose more as a call from the heart than by plan.” Moreover, he said, “it seemed to us that the authorities simply would not pay any attention to us.”
He said that he believes that “this is not the last [such] meeting; the next ones will be larger. By their internal logic, the consequences of the interference in Syria will only get worse and given the crisis [in Russia] they will attract greater attention.” But even now, it turns out, he says that the authorities “are afraid of even a quiet word of truth.”
Among those unwelcome truths that appeared on the placards of the protesters – as reported by Civitas, Kasparov.ru and Ekho Moskvy — were the following:
· Enough of Blood, Enough of Lies, Enough of Putin
· Putin is a murderer! Don’t Shame Russia!
· Putin is a Friend of Syria but an Enemy of Russia
· Syrians Won’t Benefit from Our Bombs
· Declare War on Corruption in Russia
· Wars in Ukraine and Syria are Costing Russia Its Authority and Self-Respect
· Fight for Peace against War
· Chekist Power Rests on Terror and War
· Declare War on Corruption in Russia
· You Bomb and We Wait for Our Pensions, Pay and Medicine