[yt_dropcap type=”square” font=”” size=”14″ color=”#000″ background=”#fff” ] O [/yt_dropcap]n March 26th in Russia took place one of the biggest anti-corruption anti-government protest since the Boltnaya Square protests of 2012. Protests took place in more than 80 cities across Russia and more than 70,000 protesters expressed their dissatisfaction toward the corruption in Russia.
The number of protesters that were detained is the same impressive. More than 1,100 protesters were detained across Russia and even included high numbers of teenagers and women who were forced into police busses and taken to the police department.
It all started with an investigative movie made by the Foundation against Corruption created by opposition leader Alexey Navaliny. The movie investigates the links of PM Medvedev to an impressive number of residences, yachts and even two vineyards, both in Russia and abroad. All this was obtained in a massive corruption scheme.
The movie with the English subtitles you can see here.
What took people on the street wasn’t just the actual movie. What took people on the street was the lack of a reaction from the government, General Prosecutor’s Office, and the news agencies. The fact that while more than 12,000,000 people viewed the movie and millions shared it on twitter and on Odnoklassniki (Russian version of Facebook) not a single federal news agency even mentioned the existence of the movie.
Then Navaliny decide to ask people to get on the street to pressure the authorities to investigate the corruption allegations.
Photo: Ðœaxim Kimerling / Kommersant
P.S. After seeing the pictures of course some will ask what’s going on with the duck and the sport shoes? Well, in another video where it shows the extravagant villa where Prime Minister Medvedev likes to spend his time besides the luxurious building, helicopter parking and others, there is a small lake with a little house for some ducks. That little house inspired the millennia’s to conclude that even the ducks have a little house when in the meantime the country’s economy isn’t doing well.
The shoes are another symbolic action that was taken from the investigative movie. As per Navaliny: He linked the shoes that Medvedev ordered from his email account which was hacked in 2012 and they linked the destination where this shoes were shipped. The orders were shipped to a specific address in which some businesses are registered but they were not just ordinary business. Later he discovered that the businesses were providing services for the estate where Medvedev likes to spend his free time and that’s how the chain that links Medvedev with some luxurious estates started. The rest you can see in the Movie “He is not Dimon” by The Foundation against Corruption.
