This is a cross-post from Paul Canning’s blog
Reblogged with permission. Russia’s ‘justice’ system is bringing new meaning to the term Kafkaesque in the legal assault on one brave pensioner protester. In the UK for years a similarly aged, anti-war lone protester literally camped opposite the Houses of Parliament. In Russia, one man holding up a sign is a huge threat to the system. Which is odd given the President’s huge poll ratings is it not? His treatment also shows the impunity for those seen to be defending the Kremlin’s interests, even when thuggishly.
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By Halya Colynash
The members of two pro-Kremlin organizations [NOD and SERB] who attacked an elderly pensioner holding a single-person picket outside the History Museum in Moscow on Oct 24 threatened to do the same to “all those who insult Putin, insult Russia”.
75-year-old Vladimir Ionov was standing alone with a placard reading “We have Putin, no need for a mind” when he was approached by Igor Beketov [who calls himself Gosha Tarasevich] from SERB who demanded to know why Ionov was insulting people who had voted for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Tarasevich claimed also that the words on the placard fall under Article 319 of the Criminal Code (insulting a representative of the authorities).
Seconds later Ionov was doused first in green paint, then with some kind of chemical cleaning substance which got into and burned his eye. The assailants must have been aware they were attacking somebody old enough to be their grandfather.
All of this was recorded on a video by Alexandra Ageeva. You can see activist Maria Ryabikova leaping in to defend Ionov, and being pushed away. They move away as the banner is grabbed and ripped to pieces, while others take photos with their phones.
No police officers came even close. It is quite likely, however, that they would have been there immediately had any other people tried to defend Ionov, since that would have provided an excuse to accuse Ionov and others of holding an ‘unauthorized gathering’.
Do read the full post (which includes a video of Ionov being attacked) here.
