A 68-year-old veteran opposition activist was arrested after displaying a sign reading "PUTIN HITLER" from the side of a prominent bridge over the Moskva River in the center of the Russian capital May 6. Grigory Saksonov, also known as Uncle Grisha, climbed over the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge holding the sign and clad in wetsuit before lowering himself into the water below with a rope. He was pulled out of the river by police and taken away in an ambulance. Saksonov, who has been arrested before in actions in support of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny [10] and had maintained a citizen's memorial on the bridge for slain opposition politician Boris [11]Nemtsov [11], faces charges of "taking part in an unauthorized action" and "disobeying a police officer." (Novaya Gazeta [9])
Saksonov's action came three days before Vladimir Putin presided over the 80th anniversary Victory Day parade in Red Square, a massive spectacle marking the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, attended by the leaders of several of Russia's allied states. (The Moscow Times [12], TMT [13])
In Warsaw, Russian ambassador Sergei Andreyev was met with protesters on Victory Day as he made his way to lay wreaths at a monument for slain Soviet soldiers. Some two dozen protesters wrapped in white sheets, their clothes and faces splattered with a red substance representing blood, lay at the foot of the monument, blocking his path. Many of the participants were Ukrainian refugees. (AFP [14]) A group of Russian counter-protesters was also on hand, wearing St. George's ribbons [15], and chanting "Glory to Russia!" (EuroMaidan [16])
See our last reports on on resistance and repression [17] in Russia, and the propaganda device of fascist pseudo-anti-fascism [18].
