Russian Slogans Increasingly Political and Anti-Putin

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 1 – Even before Aleksey Navalny’s planned demonstration on May 5, Russians across the country are taking part in protests and shouting increasingly political and anti-Putin slogans, one measure of the changing political environment in Russia since the March 18 presidential elections.

            Here is a selection of 10 that seem especially dramatic:

·         “In Russia, You Don’t Choose Your Parents or Your President.”

·         “We Stand Against the Horde.”

·         “I Don’t Want to Go Back to the Soviet Union.”

·         “We are Smarter than Our Parents.”

·         “Russia is Ever More an Extreme Form of North Korea.”

·         “Officials Want Freedom for Themselves, Slavery for the People.”

·         “The Putin Regime Struggles Against Those It Can’t Control.”

·         “The Tsar isn’t Real!”

·         “Down with Putin!”

·         “Putin Must Go!”

For these and additional slogans at the demonstrations yesterday and today, see charter97.org/ru/news/2018/5/1/288369/, meduza.io/feature/2018/04/30/my-umnee-svoih-roditeley,  znak.com/2018-04-30/miting_v_zachitu_telegram_i_svobodnogo_interneta_v_moskve_reportazh_znak_com, rusmonitor.com/v-peterburge-sostoyalsya-miting-protiv-blokirovki-telegram.html, rusmonitor.com/v-rossijjskikh-regionakh-prokhodili-zaderzhaniya-uchastnikov-pervomajjskogo-shestviya.html,  sibreal.org/a/29202549.html, sibreal.org/a/29200685.html, newsru.com/russia/01may2018/severneemonstr.html, and, for an appreciation of this trend, planeta.press/opinions/21448-ivan-yakovina-rossiyane-vyjdut-na-ulitsy-protiv-putina/).