Defender of the Fatherland Day, like many official Russian holidays, saw protestors marshalled by the Communist Party (KPRF) hitting the streets of Moscow. Lyndon from Scraps of Moscow was there taking some great pictures and recording his impressions of the protestors:
This year, Tverskaya and other downtown streets were closed off not for the parade celebrating the military one might have expected but for numerous groups to come out and demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the government’s current course of reforms. I spent some time in the streets today with the disenchanted. Actually, since it was a sunny day, many people looked as if they were having a good time.
The elderly contingent was able to nostalgically remember the Soviet demonstrations of yore; and the many of the younger protesters - especially those demonstratively turned out by the Communists to counter claims that their support is strictly with the elderly population - did not seem to be taking things too seriously, chanting things like "Lenin! Stalin! Che Guevara!" as well as the old chestnut "Lenin! Partiia! Komsomol!" They cut closer to the quick with some other chants, though, such as "Rossia bez Putina!" ("Russia without Putin!") and "Putin vrag naroda!" ("Putin is an enemy of the people!").
The poster in the picture, by the way, reads "Is Putin a fool? No, he’s the enemy of Russia!"
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