Putin must go
Encyclopedia
"Putin must go" is a website and a public campaign of the same name organised for the collection of signatures under an open letter demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister of Russia
Vladimir Putin
. The campaign was started on the Internet on 10 March 2010 by Russian opposition activists and several Russian artists.
The petition lists Putin's failed reforms ("everything that could be ruined has been ruined") and alleged crimes, such as the Second Chechen War
and the Russian apartment bombings
.
The petition also criticises the late president Boris Yeltsin
and the circle of his advisers and relatives ("the Family"), who promoted Putin to the presidency in order to guarantee their own security. The petition calls the current president Dmitry Medvedev
"an obedient placeholder", "a modern Simeon Bekbulatovich
".
The authors appeal to law enforcement and security agency officers not to stand against their nation and not to carry out criminal orders.
The actual author of the text was not named, but according to early sources it was a group headed by Garry Kasparov. Later Kasparov said about the work on the text of the petition:
The main part of the text was written by Andrei Piontkovsky. He mentioned his authorship during an interview with Radio Liberty on 7 June 2010:
, Vladimir Bukovsky
and Lev Ponomarev, politicians Garry Kasparov
and Boris Nemtsov
, popular conspiracy theorist Yury Mukhin
, economist Andrey Illarionov
, writers Zakhar Prilepin and Victor Shenderovich
, musician Mikhail Borzykin, political thinker Geydar Dzhemal and others. Many of them are members of the opposition organisation, the National Assembly of the Russian Federation.
Opposition politicians Mikhail Kasyanov
, Vladimir Ryzhkov
and Eduard Limonov
have supported the campaign, even though they have not signed the petition.
During the first day of the campaign no e-mail confirmation was required by Ezhednevnyi Zhurnal. The site PutinaVotstavku did require a confirmation, but signatures were added automatically. This was used by ill-wishers, who left a large number of fake signatures, calling themselves Obama, Timoshenko, Medvedev, Putin etc. On 11 March these "signatures" were deleted and the process of adding new signatures became moderated.
On 17 March the United Civil Front
started to hold pickets in Moscow in support of the campaign. Since May 2010 several organisers of the campaign have held meetings with supporters in a number of Russian cities. On 23 October, 12 December 2010 and 19 February 2011 rallies were held in central Moscow for Putin's dismissal.
Valeria Novodvorskaya
's signature was added only a week later, after her two video-addresses to the organisers. In them she expressed her displeasure with the delay and supposed that organisers did want to include her and Konstantin Borovoi's signatures.
Konstantin Borovoi's signature was added only on 5 April. In his blog entry of 16 March the politician attributed this delay to the fact that he and Novodvorskaya were not allowed to join the Solidarity
movement. He expressed a hope that it was a misunderstanding and asked Garry Kasparov and Boris Nemtsov to settle the issue with the Solidarity membership.
Starting on 17 March, members of the United Civil Front
held pickets in Moscow, some of them in dormitory districts, to collect signatures for the petition.
Paper signatures were also collected during the protest actions on 20 March 2010 (the "Day of Wrath"). In particular, members of the Solidarity
collected signatures at rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg..
On 22 March organisers announced the creation of two online communities for those who signed the petition — on LiveJournal (putinvotstavku.livejournal.com) and Twitter (twitter.com/putinavotstavku/). They also proposed to discuss the creation of a separate social network in which every signatory would automatically get an account.
On 26 March, during a press-conference organized by the site's editorial board, Garry Kasparov announced that the petition had been signed by about 30 thousand people - with 19 thousand having been approved by the moderators.
During that March the website developed rapidly with the creation of a campaign banner (with a counter), banners of media partners (Grani.ru, Novaya Gazeta
, Kasparov.ru, etc.), links to campaign communities in social networks, as well as a form for filling in signatures offline.. The sections News, Publications, Selected (signatures), Video and FAQ were added as well.
group was added.
On 13 April the signatories received an e-mail message in which the organisers informed them about the creation of a social network. The message contained a web link to receive a newsletter and join the internet community, “Putin must go."
On 28 April the organisers announced that 1/3 of the signatories had confirmed interest in joining the social network. They also discussed the plan of creating groups of participants on the site and to also then visit cities in which a certain number of participants are located.
On 12 May the first meeting of signatories took place in Moscow, attended by about 70 people. Several leaders of Solidarnost, including Garry Kasparov, were also present.
Advertising of the site Putinavotstavku using Google
was started and account numbers for donations were published on the main page of the site.
On 15 June the website of the report, as well as personal websites Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov were subjected to DDoS attacks.
On 16 June the St. Petersburg police detained a truck with 100,000 copies of the report. On the next day secret service officers seized 100,000 more copies at the printing plant and blocked further printing. On 18 June in St. Petersburg five activists of the United Civil Front were detained, when they attempted to distribute the report to participants of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum
.
On 25 June the authorities reported that extremism in the report had not been found, but activists could not get the report back, because the power of attorney had expired.
The UCF held pickets "Putin must go" in Moscow on 8 and 22 June., During the picket on 22 June activists handed out both the text of the petition "Putin must go" and the report "Putin. Results. 10 years”. According to the head of the UCF Moscow branch Lolita Tsaria, policemen tried to impede the distribution of materials.
The website "No to the mandarin", created with the support of the campaign "Putin must go", appeared on the Internet. It collects signatures of citizens against the appointment of the Kaliningrad
region governor Georgy Boos
for the second term and for general elections of governors and heads of municipalities.
, threatened to murder the founder of an Altai newspaper Listok Sergei Mikhailov, because of the content of the newspaper and the fact that the counter of the campaign "Putin must go" had been placed on the newspaper website.
On 6 July 100,000 brochures of the report "Putin. Results. 10 years" (out of the 300,000 that were seized) were returned to the opposition. On 8 July Boris Nemtsov presented the report in the town of Vladimir
.
On 11 July in Novosibirsk
, on 12 July in Tomsk
and on 28 July in Nizhny Novgorod
meetings took place of supporters of the campaign "Putin must go" with the executive director of the Solidarity movement Denis Bilunov.
A new subsection "Blogs" (in the section "Publications") appeared on the site of the campaign.
held pickets in Moscow for Putin's dismissal.,
held a banner "Putin, go away!" on the fence of the White House
in Moscow and on the roof of an auxiliary building next to it.
Members of the committee took part in several protest actions in Moscow. They also submitted an application to Moscow mayor's office for holding a rally for Putin's dismissal. Their application was approved.,
The rally, held on 23 October on Pushkin square
, was attended by about thousand people. Among the speakers were the UCF
leader Garry Kasparov
, the Left Front coordinator Sergei Udaltsov, leader of the movement "For Human Rights" Lev Ponomarev and others.
in Moscow a series of single pickets was held by activists of Solidarity and the Committee of Five Demands. The first picket was held by Ilya Yashin
, but he was beaten and detained by agents of the Federal Protective Service. Journalists were obliged to delete their photo and video recordings. Yashin was sentenced to a fine of 1000 roubles for "coarse language in a public place". Other pickets went without incidents.,
The mayor's office sanctioned this rally but refused to sanction the action "Day of Wrath" against the Moscow government, which was to be held on a neighbouring square immediately after the anti-Putin rally.
The organiser was again the Committee of Five Demands. According to various sources, the rally was attended by 1500 - 2500 people., Among the speakers were Boris Nemtsov
, Garry Kasparov
, Ilya Yashin
, Andrei Piontkovsky, Vladimir Ryzhkov
, Sergei Udaltsov, leader of the Khimki forest
defence movement Yevgenia Chirikova and other prominent public figures.
At 6 p.m. the action "Day of Wrath" was to be held near the Moscow mayor's office. However after an appeal of the Left Front coordinator Sergei Udaltsov to the participants to go without slogans and banners to the mayor's office in order to hang on its wall the list of demands, the police stated to push off the crowd and seized Udaltsov. Among the aggrieved was a photographer of Izvestia, whose clavicle was broken. The indignant participants went to the mayor's house on their own, where they held an unsanctioned protest action.
Udaltsov was sentenced to 15 days of arrest "for hooliganism and disobedience to police officers".,
The next rally for Putin's dismissal was planned for 19 February 2011.
a rally was held for the dismissal of Putin's government. Among the speakers was a leader of Solidarity Ilya Yashin
.
On 26 December, a few days before passing a new sentence to the imprisoned Mikhail Khodorkovsky
and Platon Lebedev
, activists of Oborona
unrolled near the White House
a banner "Freedom to Khodorkovsky! Put Putin on bread and water!". One of the participants bore Putin's mask and was held in a mock cage. After a few minutes agents of Federal Protective Service detained several journalists and photo correspondents.
. On the start page of the old address the organisers published a message, containing a link to the new address. In the message they state that at the new address they are going to open a web community for the supporters.
On 18 February three activists handing out leaflets with an invitation to the rally were detained; the reasons for their detention were not explained.
The Moscow rally was attended by 400-600 people. Among them were representatives of "Solidarity", the United Civil Front, the Left Front, the "Other Russia" and other opposition movements. The decline in attendance compared with previous rallies was partly due to a severe frost.,
Among the speakers were the leader of the United Civil Front Garry Kasparov, activists of the Solidarity movement, as well as a representative of the movement of defrauded real estate investors. Over 13,000 roubles were collected in favour of political prisoners. The date of next rally was not announced.
At the same time a similar rally was held in Kaliningrad. It was organised by self-nominated candidates who had not been admitted to the March elections.
A picket for Putin’s dismissal was also held in Voronezh.
On 20 February activists of the movement "We" stretched a banner with the slogan "It's time to change" on a bridge near the Kremlin. On the one side the banner depicted Mikhail Khodorkovsky, on the other - Vladimir Putin behind bars. After a half an hour the banner was removed by guards of the Baltschug hotel.
On 26 March 2011 the Solidarity movement held an event to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the election of Vladimir Putin as president of the country. The activists handed out ballots with the question to people whether they would vote for or against Vladimir Putin. Polls were held in Moscow and 10 other cities. In total 1,563 people participated and 76.6 percent of them voted against the prime minister. In addition, the activists handed out the report "Putin. Results. 10 years”, while in Moscow they also held a contest of anti-Putin posters.
The network has been created at http://sos.putinavotstavku.org/. Its testing began in late December 2010. In February information about a beta version was distributed to the signatories living in Moscow and the Krasnodar Territory.
On 11 March 2011 information about the creation of the network was sent to all signatories. Within one day, about 1700 people registered for the network. Then registration of new members slowed down. In April, only 48 people joined the network, and by May 2011 the network had 2,098 participants.
Well-known opposition politicians, such as Garry Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov and Ilya Yashin, began to publish records from their blogs. Participants also post messages in thematic communities, their own blogs, and take part in polls. However, the activity in the network remains low.
According to sociologist Igor Eidman, who has proposed the idea of the network, the project remains unfinished. Eidman wonders what prevents the organisers (and specifically, the group led by Kasparov) to develop the project in accordance with the specifications which he has provided. In case of lack of funds, Eidman proposes to organize fundraising from the signatories.
On 11 March Radio Liberty published an English translation of the entire text of the petition.
published a statistical analysis of signatories according to their places of residence and professions, concluding that the petition was signed mostly by the middle class.
On 22 March the magazine published its second analysis, on a larger base of signatures (7500). The article said that signatures had come from all over the country. The exceptions were ethnic republics, especially in the North Caucasus
. The most active were Moscow
28.8% and St. Petersburg 11.3%. A relatively large number of signatures had been provided by residents of Siberian
and Urals
federal districts, where the recession-hit industries concentrated. The Russian diaspora
had given 11%. As to signatories' professions, the leading segment are white collars (jurists, economists, IT-specialist, managers) — 21%. Most of the signatories were men — 83%.
Two months later the magazine published the third analysis, which used 35,018 signatures received on the site since the second analysis. Significant changes in statistics were found. In April compared with March, the number of those who revealed their places of residence had doubled. The proportion of women increased from 17% to 21% and the proportion of blue-collar workers increased from 15% to 23%. Among the regions, Moscow (and its region) and St. Petersburg (with the Leningrad region) continued to occupy leading positions: their share was nearly half (45%) of the total number of signatures. However, the fastest growing was the Volga Federal District, showing an increase of 6.9 times.
organized a vote in the Internet with a plea that Putin must stay. He motivated his move with the suggestion that everybody must have a choice, while the website "Putin must go" did not provide an option to vote for Putin's staying. Starikov's website "Putin must not go" gathered 6,616 signatures in five days (1,648 more could not be confirmed because of technical troubles). After that, that website was hacked and defaced by unknown hackers.
At the "Putin must not go" website Starikov explained:
Prime Minister of Russia
The Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation The use of the term "Prime Minister" is strictly informal and is not allowed for by the Russian Constitution and other laws....
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
. The campaign was started on the Internet on 10 March 2010 by Russian opposition activists and several Russian artists.
Contents of the petition
The text of the petition, addressed to the “citizens of Russia”, contains a sharply negative assessment of Vladimir Putin's activity. It says in part:The petition lists Putin's failed reforms ("everything that could be ruined has been ruined") and alleged crimes, such as the Second Chechen War
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....
and the Russian apartment bombings
Russian apartment bombings
The Russian apartment bombings were a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing 293 people and injuring 651. The explosions occurred in Buynaksk on 4 September, Moscow on 9 and 13 September, and...
.
The petition also criticises the late president Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
and the circle of his advisers and relatives ("the Family"), who promoted Putin to the presidency in order to guarantee their own security. The petition calls the current president Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is the third President of the Russian Federation.Born to a family of academics, Medvedev graduated from the Law Department of Leningrad State University in 1987. He defended his dissertation in 1990 and worked as a docent at his alma mater, now renamed to Saint...
"an obedient placeholder", "a modern Simeon Bekbulatovich
Simeon Bekbulatovich
Simeon Bekbulatovich was a khan of the Khanate of Qasim. After the period of the Oprichnina , Ivan the Terrible named Simeon Grand Prince of All Rus' . He participated in the Livonian war as a commander of the main regiment of the Muscovite army. Subsequently, he was named Grand Prince of Tver'...
".
The authors appeal to law enforcement and security agency officers not to stand against their nation and not to carry out criminal orders.
The actual author of the text was not named, but according to early sources it was a group headed by Garry Kasparov. Later Kasparov said about the work on the text of the petition:
The main part of the text was written by Andrei Piontkovsky. He mentioned his authorship during an interview with Radio Liberty on 7 June 2010:
Signatories
At the time of the publication, the petition was signed by 34 prominent public figures of various ideological orientations: activists Yelena BonnerYelena Bonner
Yelena Bonner was a human rights activist in the former Soviet Union and wife of the noted physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov. During her decades as a dissident, Bonner was noted for her characteristic blunt honesty and courage.-Youth:...
, Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky is a leading member of the dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist....
and Lev Ponomarev, politicians Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
and Boris Nemtsov
Boris Nemtsov
Boris Efimovich Nemtsov is a Russian politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 1997 to 1998. He was a co-founder of the Russian political party Union of Right Forces and is an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin.-Early life:...
, popular conspiracy theorist Yury Mukhin
Yury Ignatyevich Mukhin
Yury Mukhin is a Russian conspiracy theorist. He graduated from Dnipropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute in 1973.In 1995–2009 he was editor in chief of the Russian newspaper Duel. Mukhin is the main proponent of the denial of the Soviet responsibility for the Katyn massacre in Russia. He has also...
, economist Andrey Illarionov
Andrey Illarionov
Andrey Nikolayevich Illarionov is a Russian libertarian economist and former economic policy advisor to the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin...
, writers Zakhar Prilepin and Victor Shenderovich
Victor Shenderovich
Victor Anatolievich Shenderovich is a popular Russian satirist, writer and scriptwriter. In 1980, Shenderovich graduated from the Moscow State Art and Cultural University, specialising in "direction of volunteer theatrical groups"...
, musician Mikhail Borzykin, political thinker Geydar Dzhemal and others. Many of them are members of the opposition organisation, the National Assembly of the Russian Federation.
Opposition politicians Mikhail Kasyanov
Mikhail Kasyanov
Mikhail Mikhailovich Kasyanov - was the Prime Minister of Russia from May 2000 to February 2004.He is the leader of the People's Democratic Union and an ex-member of the opposition coalition "The Other Russia".-Political career:...
, Vladimir Ryzhkov
Vladimir Ryzhkov
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Ryzhkov is a Russian Professor of the Higher School of Economics , Russian independent politician, Russian State Duma member ....
and Eduard Limonov
Eduard Limonov
Eduard Limonov is Russian writer and political dissident, and is the founder and leader of radical National Bolshevik Party. An opponent of Vladimir Putin, Limonov is one of leaders of Other Russia political bloc.-Early life:...
have supported the campaign, even though they have not signed the petition.
Publication of the petition
On 10 March 2010 the petition appeared in the online magazine Ezhednevnyi Zhurnal and the collecting of signatures started. On the same day the Ezhednevny Zhurnal website was attacked by hackers Later on 10 March the collecting of signatures was transferred to the specially created website PutinaVotstavku.ru (in January 2011 it was moved to PutinaVotstavku.org). On 10 March the petition was re-published by online publications Grani.ru and Kasparov.ru. Then it was mentioned by several other liberal mass media: the radio Echo Moskvy, the news website Newsru.com etc.During the first day of the campaign no e-mail confirmation was required by Ezhednevnyi Zhurnal. The site PutinaVotstavku did require a confirmation, but signatures were added automatically. This was used by ill-wishers, who left a large number of fake signatures, calling themselves Obama, Timoshenko, Medvedev, Putin etc. On 11 March these "signatures" were deleted and the process of adding new signatures became moderated.
Course of the campaign
During the first month of the campaign the number of signatures grew at the average rate of about 1000 per day. In late summer the speed of signature collection dropped to about 2000 per month. In December 2010 it increased to about 4000.- 16 March 2010: 10,000
- 27 March: 20,000
- 9 April: 30,000
- 28 April: 40,000
- 14 June: 50,000
- 1 October: 60,000
- 6 January 2011: 70,000
- 12 March: 70,000
- 6 June: 90,000
On 17 March the United Civil Front
United Civil Front
United Civil Front is a social movement in Russia founded and led by chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. It is part of The Other Russia, an opposition coalition active in Moscow...
started to hold pickets in Moscow in support of the campaign. Since May 2010 several organisers of the campaign have held meetings with supporters in a number of Russian cities. On 23 October, 12 December 2010 and 19 February 2011 rallies were held in central Moscow for Putin's dismissal.
March 2010
On 15 March the site PutinaVotstavku started giving updates on the progress of the campaign. The first message said that the number of signatures could have been larger, if confirmations from the site had not been blocked by some popular e-mail services. However, the organisers expressed a belief that no counteraction would stop people and the appeal would be signed by millions of citizens.Valeria Novodvorskaya
Valeria Novodvorskaya
Valeriya Ilyinichna Novodvorskaya is a liberal Russian politician, Soviet dissident, the founder and the chairwoman of the "Democratic Union" party, and a member of the editorial board of The New Times...
's signature was added only a week later, after her two video-addresses to the organisers. In them she expressed her displeasure with the delay and supposed that organisers did want to include her and Konstantin Borovoi's signatures.
Konstantin Borovoi's signature was added only on 5 April. In his blog entry of 16 March the politician attributed this delay to the fact that he and Novodvorskaya were not allowed to join the Solidarity
Solidarnost
Solidarnost is a Russian liberal democratic political movement founded on 13 December 2008 by a number of well-known members of the liberal democratic opposition, including Garry Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov and others from the Yabloko and Union of Right Forces Solidarnost (Солидарность, Russian for...
movement. He expressed a hope that it was a misunderstanding and asked Garry Kasparov and Boris Nemtsov to settle the issue with the Solidarity membership.
Starting on 17 March, members of the United Civil Front
United Civil Front
United Civil Front is a social movement in Russia founded and led by chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. It is part of The Other Russia, an opposition coalition active in Moscow...
held pickets in Moscow, some of them in dormitory districts, to collect signatures for the petition.
Paper signatures were also collected during the protest actions on 20 March 2010 (the "Day of Wrath"). In particular, members of the Solidarity
Solidarnost
Solidarnost is a Russian liberal democratic political movement founded on 13 December 2008 by a number of well-known members of the liberal democratic opposition, including Garry Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov and others from the Yabloko and Union of Right Forces Solidarnost (Солидарность, Russian for...
collected signatures at rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg..
On 22 March organisers announced the creation of two online communities for those who signed the petition — on LiveJournal (putinvotstavku.livejournal.com) and Twitter (twitter.com/putinavotstavku/). They also proposed to discuss the creation of a separate social network in which every signatory would automatically get an account.
On 26 March, during a press-conference organized by the site's editorial board, Garry Kasparov announced that the petition had been signed by about 30 thousand people - with 19 thousand having been approved by the moderators.
During that March the website developed rapidly with the creation of a campaign banner (with a counter), banners of media partners (Grani.ru, Novaya Gazeta
Novaya Gazeta
Novaya Gazeta is a Russian newspaper well known in the country for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs....
, Kasparov.ru, etc.), links to campaign communities in social networks, as well as a form for filling in signatures offline.. The sections News, Publications, Selected (signatures), Video and FAQ were added as well.
April 2010
In April the already created sections of the site were being filled in. Also a FacebookFacebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
group was added.
On 13 April the signatories received an e-mail message in which the organisers informed them about the creation of a social network. The message contained a web link to receive a newsletter and join the internet community, “Putin must go."
On 28 April the organisers announced that 1/3 of the signatories had confirmed interest in joining the social network. They also discussed the plan of creating groups of participants on the site and to also then visit cities in which a certain number of participants are located.
May 2010
At the May Day rally in Moscow Garry Kasparov declared that the campaign would go on until Putin leaves and Russia becomes free.On 12 May the first meeting of signatories took place in Moscow, attended by about 70 people. Several leaders of Solidarnost, including Garry Kasparov, were also present.
Advertising of the site Putinavotstavku using Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
was started and account numbers for donations were published on the main page of the site.
June 2010
On 14 June Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov presented their report "Putin. Results. 10 years", which was published with the total print run of 1 million copies. On its last page it provided information about the campaign "Putin must go". They were distributed the same day near Moscow’s metro stations.On 15 June the website of the report, as well as personal websites Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov were subjected to DDoS attacks.
On 16 June the St. Petersburg police detained a truck with 100,000 copies of the report. On the next day secret service officers seized 100,000 more copies at the printing plant and blocked further printing. On 18 June in St. Petersburg five activists of the United Civil Front were detained, when they attempted to distribute the report to participants of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum
St. Petersburg International Economic Forum
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is the main annual international economic and business forum convened in Russia. The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum was established in 1997. Since 2006 SPIEF is held under the patronage of the President of the Russian Federation. The...
.
On 25 June the authorities reported that extremism in the report had not been found, but activists could not get the report back, because the power of attorney had expired.
The UCF held pickets "Putin must go" in Moscow on 8 and 22 June., During the picket on 22 June activists handed out both the text of the petition "Putin must go" and the report "Putin. Results. 10 years”. According to the head of the UCF Moscow branch Lolita Tsaria, policemen tried to impede the distribution of materials.
The website "No to the mandarin", created with the support of the campaign "Putin must go", appeared on the Internet. It collects signatures of citizens against the appointment of the Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad is a seaport and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea...
region governor Georgy Boos
Georgy Boos
Georgy Valentinovich Boos is a Russian businessman and politician, and was the governor of Kaliningrad Oblast.Boos was born in Moscow into a Crimean German family. His parents were both engineers...
for the second term and for general elections of governors and heads of municipalities.
July 2010
On 5 July it became known that Pavel Pakhayev, assistant head of the Altai RepublicAltai Republic
Altai Republic is a federal subject of Russia . Its capital is the town of Gorno-Altaysk. The area of the republic is . Population: -Geography:...
, threatened to murder the founder of an Altai newspaper Listok Sergei Mikhailov, because of the content of the newspaper and the fact that the counter of the campaign "Putin must go" had been placed on the newspaper website.
On 6 July 100,000 brochures of the report "Putin. Results. 10 years" (out of the 300,000 that were seized) were returned to the opposition. On 8 July Boris Nemtsov presented the report in the town of Vladimir
Vladimir
Vladimir is a city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River, to the east of Moscow along the M7 motorway. Population:...
.
On 11 July in Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is the third-largest city in Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia, with a population of 1,473,737 . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...
, on 12 July in Tomsk
Tomsk
Tomsk is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Tom River. One of the oldest towns in Siberia, Tomsk celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2004...
and on 28 July in Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
meetings took place of supporters of the campaign "Putin must go" with the executive director of the Solidarity movement Denis Bilunov.
A new subsection "Blogs" (in the section "Publications") appeared on the site of the campaign.
August 2010
In August the distribution of the report "Putin. Results. 10 Years" continued. About 1/3 of the published 400,000 copies were distributed by the end of the month.. There were no other significant events.September 2010
On 7 and 21 September United Civil FrontUnited Civil Front
United Civil Front is a social movement in Russia founded and led by chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. It is part of The Other Russia, an opposition coalition active in Moscow...
held pickets in Moscow for Putin's dismissal.,
October 2010
15 October activists of the youth movement OboronaOborona
Oborona is a non-partisan civic youth movement in Russia. Its name means "Defense [from]" in Russian. The movement was established in 2005 and has no leader or centralized structure. Instead, it is based on the network principle and mostly horizontal relations.The movement opposes what they call...
held a banner "Putin, go away!" on the fence of the White House
White House, Moscow
The White House , also known as the Russian White House, is a government building in Moscow. It stands on Krasnopresnenskaya embankment. Construction started in 1965 and ended in 1981. Originally called The House of Soviets, it was designed by the architects Dmitry Chechulin and P. Shteller...
in Moscow and on the roof of an auxiliary building next to it.
The Committee of Five Demands and the rally of 23 October
In the beginning of October activists of UCF, Solidarity and other opposition organisations created the Committee of Five Demands. The committee put forward the following demands:Members of the committee took part in several protest actions in Moscow. They also submitted an application to Moscow mayor's office for holding a rally for Putin's dismissal. Their application was approved.,
The rally, held on 23 October on Pushkin square
Pushkin Square
Pushkinskaya Square or Pushkin Square in Moscow, historically known as Strastnaya Square and renamed for Alexander Pushkin in 1937, is located at the junction of the Boulevard Ring and Tverskaya Street, 2 km northwest of the Kremlin...
, was attended by about thousand people. Among the speakers were the UCF
United Civil Front
United Civil Front is a social movement in Russia founded and led by chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. It is part of The Other Russia, an opposition coalition active in Moscow...
leader Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
, the Left Front coordinator Sergei Udaltsov, leader of the movement "For Human Rights" Lev Ponomarev and others.
November 2010
18-19 November in front of the White HouseWhite House, Moscow
The White House , also known as the Russian White House, is a government building in Moscow. It stands on Krasnopresnenskaya embankment. Construction started in 1965 and ended in 1981. Originally called The House of Soviets, it was designed by the architects Dmitry Chechulin and P. Shteller...
in Moscow a series of single pickets was held by activists of Solidarity and the Committee of Five Demands. The first picket was held by Ilya Yashin
Ilya Yashin
Ilya Yashin is one of the key leaders of the Russian political movement Solidarnost. He is also the leader of the Moscow branch of the People's Freedom Party, in which the Solidarnost participates....
, but he was beaten and detained by agents of the Federal Protective Service. Journalists were obliged to delete their photo and video recordings. Yashin was sentenced to a fine of 1000 roubles for "coarse language in a public place". Other pickets went without incidents.,
The rally of 12 December
The second Moscow rally for Putin's resignation was held under the motto "I am for Russia without Putin!" on 12 December on the same place — Pushkin square.The mayor's office sanctioned this rally but refused to sanction the action "Day of Wrath" against the Moscow government, which was to be held on a neighbouring square immediately after the anti-Putin rally.
The organiser was again the Committee of Five Demands. According to various sources, the rally was attended by 1500 - 2500 people., Among the speakers were Boris Nemtsov
Boris Nemtsov
Boris Efimovich Nemtsov is a Russian politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 1997 to 1998. He was a co-founder of the Russian political party Union of Right Forces and is an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin.-Early life:...
, Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
, Ilya Yashin
Ilya Yashin
Ilya Yashin is one of the key leaders of the Russian political movement Solidarnost. He is also the leader of the Moscow branch of the People's Freedom Party, in which the Solidarnost participates....
, Andrei Piontkovsky, Vladimir Ryzhkov
Vladimir Ryzhkov
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Ryzhkov is a Russian Professor of the Higher School of Economics , Russian independent politician, Russian State Duma member ....
, Sergei Udaltsov, leader of the Khimki forest
Khimki Forest
Khimki Forest is a birch tree forest in the Russian city of Moscow covering about 1000 hectares. It is part of the so-called "Green Belt" around Moscow. An $8 billion dollar high speed road has been proposed to go through the forest to connect Moscow and Saint Petersburg. For this purpose, part of...
defence movement Yevgenia Chirikova and other prominent public figures.
At 6 p.m. the action "Day of Wrath" was to be held near the Moscow mayor's office. However after an appeal of the Left Front coordinator Sergei Udaltsov to the participants to go without slogans and banners to the mayor's office in order to hang on its wall the list of demands, the police stated to push off the crowd and seized Udaltsov. Among the aggrieved was a photographer of Izvestia, whose clavicle was broken. The indignant participants went to the mayor's house on their own, where they held an unsanctioned protest action.
Udaltsov was sentenced to 15 days of arrest "for hooliganism and disobedience to police officers".,
The next rally for Putin's dismissal was planned for 19 February 2011.
Other events
On 18 December in VoronezhVoronezh
Voronezh is a city in southwestern Russia, the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast. It is located on both sides of the Voronezh River, away from where it flows into the Don. It is an operating center of the Southeastern Railway , as well as the center of the Don Highway...
a rally was held for the dismissal of Putin's government. Among the speakers was a leader of Solidarity Ilya Yashin
Ilya Yashin
Ilya Yashin is one of the key leaders of the Russian political movement Solidarnost. He is also the leader of the Moscow branch of the People's Freedom Party, in which the Solidarnost participates....
.
On 26 December, a few days before passing a new sentence to the imprisoned Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky is a Russian prisoner, considered by some - such as Amnesty International - to have been imprisoned for political reasons, jailed until 2016 and a former Russian oligarch and businessman...
and Platon Lebedev
Platon Lebedev
Platon Leonidovich Lebedev is a former CEO of Group Menatep, currently imprisoned in Russia, and is best known as a close associate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.-Conviction:...
, activists of Oborona
Oborona
Oborona is a non-partisan civic youth movement in Russia. Its name means "Defense [from]" in Russian. The movement was established in 2005 and has no leader or centralized structure. Instead, it is based on the network principle and mostly horizontal relations.The movement opposes what they call...
unrolled near the White House
White House, Moscow
The White House , also known as the Russian White House, is a government building in Moscow. It stands on Krasnopresnenskaya embankment. Construction started in 1965 and ended in 1981. Originally called The House of Soviets, it was designed by the architects Dmitry Chechulin and P. Shteller...
a banner "Freedom to Khodorkovsky! Put Putin on bread and water!". One of the participants bore Putin's mask and was held in a mock cage. After a few minutes agents of Federal Protective Service detained several journalists and photo correspondents.
January 2011
On 11 January 2011 the website was completely moved to the domain .org.org
The domain name org is a generic top-level domain of the Domain Name System used in the Internet. The name is derived from organization....
. On the start page of the old address the organisers published a message, containing a link to the new address. In the message they state that at the new address they are going to open a web community for the supporters.
The rallies of 19 February
The Moscow authorities approved the application of the Committee of Five Demands to hold a rally "I'm for Russia without Putin!" on 19 February on Pushkin Square in Moscow.On 18 February three activists handing out leaflets with an invitation to the rally were detained; the reasons for their detention were not explained.
The Moscow rally was attended by 400-600 people. Among them were representatives of "Solidarity", the United Civil Front, the Left Front, the "Other Russia" and other opposition movements. The decline in attendance compared with previous rallies was partly due to a severe frost.,
Among the speakers were the leader of the United Civil Front Garry Kasparov, activists of the Solidarity movement, as well as a representative of the movement of defrauded real estate investors. Over 13,000 roubles were collected in favour of political prisoners. The date of next rally was not announced.
At the same time a similar rally was held in Kaliningrad. It was organised by self-nominated candidates who had not been admitted to the March elections.
A picket for Putin’s dismissal was also held in Voronezh.
Other events
In February a beta version of the Political network of direct electronic democracy was launched on the website. The information about the network was sent to the signatories in Moscow and the Krasnodar Territory.On 20 February activists of the movement "We" stretched a banner with the slogan "It's time to change" on a bridge near the Kremlin. On the one side the banner depicted Mikhail Khodorkovsky, on the other - Vladimir Putin behind bars. After a half an hour the banner was removed by guards of the Baltschug hotel.
March 2011
On 11 March, the first anniversary of the start of the campaign, the organizers sent a new message to all signatories informing about the opening of the direct electronic democracy network and urging them to join.On 26 March 2011 the Solidarity movement held an event to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the election of Vladimir Putin as president of the country. The activists handed out ballots with the question to people whether they would vote for or against Vladimir Putin. Polls were held in Moscow and 10 other cities. In total 1,563 people participated and 76.6 percent of them voted against the prime minister. In addition, the activists handed out the report "Putin. Results. 10 years”, while in Moscow they also held a contest of anti-Putin posters.
Political network of direct electronic democracy
The creation of an online community (social network) of signatories was suggested by the organisers early in the campaign - in their messages in March and April 2010. However, the project has been launched with a significant delay due to a number of technological challenges and its volunteer nature.The network has been created at http://sos.putinavotstavku.org/. Its testing began in late December 2010. In February information about a beta version was distributed to the signatories living in Moscow and the Krasnodar Territory.
On 11 March 2011 information about the creation of the network was sent to all signatories. Within one day, about 1700 people registered for the network. Then registration of new members slowed down. In April, only 48 people joined the network, and by May 2011 the network had 2,098 participants.
Well-known opposition politicians, such as Garry Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov and Ilya Yashin, began to publish records from their blogs. Participants also post messages in thematic communities, their own blogs, and take part in polls. However, the activity in the network remains low.
According to sociologist Igor Eidman, who has proposed the idea of the network, the project remains unfinished. Eidman wonders what prevents the organisers (and specifically, the group led by Kasparov) to develop the project in accordance with the specifications which he has provided. In case of lack of funds, Eidman proposes to organize fundraising from the signatories.
Media coverage
The campaign was covered in a number of Russian and foreign media, including- Russian media: Echo Moskvy, Novaya gazetaNovaya GazetaNovaya Gazeta is a Russian newspaper well known in the country for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs....
, Polit.ru, IzvestiaIzvestiaIzvestia is a long-running high-circulation daily newspaper in Russia. The word "izvestiya" in Russian means "delivered messages", derived from the verb izveshchat . In the context of newspapers it is usually translated as "news" or "reports".-Origin:The newspaper began as the News of the...
, Nezavisimaya GazetaNezavisimaya GazetaNezavisimaya Gazeta is a Russian daily newspaper. Published since December 21, 1990.Information ranging from a wide variety of sources, such as reporters, political scientists, historians, art historians, as well as critics are published in the newspaper...
, PravdaPravdaPravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
, Delovoy Petersburg, Sobesednik, ExpertExpert (magazine)Expert or Ekspert magazine is Russia's leading business weekly magazine, established in 1995 in Moscow by a group of editors and journalists who departed from Kommersant publishing house. It covers economics and finance, Russian business, international business, politics, science and technology,...
, The Moscow TimesThe Moscow TimesThe Moscow Times is an English-language daily newspaper published in Moscow, Russia since 1992. The circulation in 2008 stood at 35,000 copies and the newspaper is typically given out for free at places English-language "expats" attend, including hotels, cafés and restaurants, as well as by...
- foreign media: BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
(UK); Radio Liberty, American Thinker, The Weekly StandardThe Weekly StandardThe Weekly Standard is an American neoconservative opinion magazine published 48 times per year. Its founding publisher, News Corporation, debuted the title September 18, 1995. Currently edited by founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Standard has been described as a "redoubt of...
(USA); Deutsche WelleDeutsche WelleDeutsche Welle or DW, is Germany's international broadcaster. The service is aimed at the overseas market. It broadcasts news and information on shortwave, Internet and satellite radio on 98.7 DZFE in 30 languages . It has a satellite television service , that is available in four languages, and...
, Frankfurter RundschauFrankfurter RundschauThe Frankfurter Rundschau is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. It is published every day but Sunday as a city, two regional and one nationwide issues and offers an online edition as well as an e-paper...
(Germany); AFPAgence France-PresseAgence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...
, Courrier InternationalCourrier InternationalCourrier International is a Paris-based French weekly newspaper which translates and publishes excerpts of articles from over 900 international newspapers. It also has a Portuguese and a Japanese edition...
(France); First Caucasian (Georgia); Svenska DagbladetSvenska DagbladetSvenska Dagbladet is a daily newspaper in Sweden. The first issue appeared on 18 December 1884. Svenska Dagbladet is published in Stockholm and provides coverage of national and international news as well as local coverage of the Greater Stockholm region...
(Sweden); Ekstra BladetEkstra BladetEkstra Bladet is a Danish tabloid newspaper focusing on sensationalist stories. It gets a share of its income from sex ads. Since 1979 it has always had a partly or completely naked woman on page nine which is referred to as Side 9 Pigen , a Danish equivalent of the English Page Three girl...
, Dagbladet InformationDagbladet InformationInformation , full name: Dagbladet Information , is a Danish newspaper published Monday through Saturday.Originally established and edited by Børge Outze and published during the World War II by the Danish resistance movement. Information was illegal during the war as it was not regulated by the...
(Denmark); AdevarulAdevarulAdevărul is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic position, advocating land reform and universal suffrage...
(Romania); Libertópolis(Guatemala); L'Occidentale (Italy).
On 11 March Radio Liberty published an English translation of the entire text of the petition.
Statistical analyses of signatories
15 March 2010 the magazine NewTimes.ruThe New Times (Russia)
The New Times, or Novoye Vremya , is a Russian language magazine in Russia established in 1943 in the Soviet Union. It is a small, liberal, independent Russian weekly news magazine, publishing for Russia and Armenia. During the Soviet times it followed the official line...
published a statistical analysis of signatories according to their places of residence and professions, concluding that the petition was signed mostly by the middle class.
On 22 March the magazine published its second analysis, on a larger base of signatures (7500). The article said that signatures had come from all over the country. The exceptions were ethnic republics, especially in the North Caucasus
North Caucasus
The North Caucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas and within European Russia. The term is also used as a synonym for the North Caucasus economic region of Russia....
. The most active were Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
28.8% and St. Petersburg 11.3%. A relatively large number of signatures had been provided by residents of Siberian
Siberian Federal District
Siberian Federal District is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. Its population was 19,254,300 according to the 2010 Census, living on an area of...
and Urals
Urals Federal District
Ural Federal District is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. The district was established on 13 May 2000 by a decree of the President of Russia. The district is mostly located in the geographical region of Ural, but also includes some parts of the Volga Region; its extent is different...
federal districts, where the recession-hit industries concentrated. The Russian diaspora
Russian diaspora
The term Russian diaspora refers to the global community of ethnic Russians, usually more specifically those who maintain some kind of connection, even if ephemeral, to the land of their ancestors and maintain their feeling of Russian national identity within a local community.The term "Russian...
had given 11%. As to signatories' professions, the leading segment are white collars (jurists, economists, IT-specialist, managers) — 21%. Most of the signatories were men — 83%.
Two months later the magazine published the third analysis, which used 35,018 signatures received on the site since the second analysis. Significant changes in statistics were found. In April compared with March, the number of those who revealed their places of residence had doubled. The proportion of women increased from 17% to 21% and the proportion of blue-collar workers increased from 15% to 23%. Among the regions, Moscow (and its region) and St. Petersburg (with the Leningrad region) continued to occupy leading positions: their share was nearly half (45%) of the total number of signatures. However, the fastest growing was the Volga Federal District, showing an increase of 6.9 times.
A counter campaign "Putin must not go"
Russian writer and opinion journalist Nikolai StarikovNikolai Starikov
Starikov Nikolai Viktorovich — is a Russian writer and opinion journalist.The author describes the genre of his works as "historically political detective", a thrilling mix of geopolitics, economics, history of Russia and different countries. Nikolai Starikov is often referred to as an antipode of...
organized a vote in the Internet with a plea that Putin must stay. He motivated his move with the suggestion that everybody must have a choice, while the website "Putin must go" did not provide an option to vote for Putin's staying. Starikov's website "Putin must not go" gathered 6,616 signatures in five days (1,648 more could not be confirmed because of technical troubles). After that, that website was hacked and defaced by unknown hackers.
At the "Putin must not go" website Starikov explained: