"STRATEGY 31," July 31, 2010

"31" 

Photograph © Gwendolyn Stewart 2010; All Rights Reserved 

BORIS NEMTSOV 

IN THE YELTSIN GOVERNMENT 

"Strategy 31" protestors in Russia today marked the first anniversary of their attempts to demonstrate in honor of the freedom of assembly promised by Article 31 of the Russian constitution.   Always the rallies are scheduled for the 31st of any month that has one.   The authorities seem to keep making the protestors' point that such demonstrations are needed by refusing to give permission for them, and, as today, by breaking them up. 

Prominent among those arrested in Moscow was Boris Nemtsov, one-time first deputy prime minister of Russia (see photograph above), and now head of Solidarity, the Russian version, which has the name but not the numbers of its Polish cousin.  AP reported that "An Associated Press reporter saw Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov dragged to a police car and driven away. The rally had barely started."  Others, according to the Wall Street Journal, shouted "Freedom!" and "Russia without Putin!" and held up "31" signs.