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Sergei Udaltsov, head of a radical socialist group, Left Front, flashes a victory sign as he is detained by Russian police in Moscow on March 18.
WHILE debonair demonstrators in mink coats and designer jeans have until now defined Russia’s budding opposition movement against the Kremlin, protest leaders have deemed it best to keep Sergei Udaltsov on a tight leash. With his black sweaters, buzz cut and intense ravenlike eyes, he often appeared feral, somewhat unhinged and possibly dangerous.
But as the rocks flew, smoke bombs burst and police truncheons thwacked in a shocking eruption of violence here last Sunday, Mr. Udaltsov finally broke loose.
With the riot police closing in, he jumped on a stage set up for the protest, two megaphones in hand, and rallied thousands of supporters for a last stand.
“We will not leave this place until our comrades are free,” he bellowed. “We are the power here. We are the power.”
Six police officers, some in helmets and flak jackets, quickly pulled him away, as yells of “Shame” and “Fascists” emanated from an increasingly unruly crowd of not just the usual assortment of hipsters and anarchists but also older female Communists who an hour earlier were lining up to hug Mr. Udaltsov.
As Vladimir V. Putin begins his third term as Russia’s president, it is clear, at least in Moscow, that something in the political atmosphere has changed. Russia’s protest movement appears to have entered a new and unpredictable stage, and Mr. Udaltsov, one of its most prominent leaders, is at the center of a debate about its future.
Over the last half year, Russia’s intelligentsia and Western journalists have been fixated on the young bloggers, office managers and advertising gurus whose recent foray into street politics has been defined mostly by carnival antics tailor-made to accumulate “likes” on Facebook.
Mr. Udaltsov, 35, is different. A self-professed professional revolutionary and the great-grandson of a prominent Bolshevik, he is blunt, aggressive and prefers to fight his political battles in the street. He admits to provoking the police, and he is often in jail, on hunger strikes or both. A fan of Lenin and, to a lesser extent, Stalin — whose picture he wore on a T-shirt on his wedding day — he talks about leading a social-democratic revolution to remake the Russian state and dislodge the current leadership, which he dismisses as hopelessly corrupt.
After nearly a decade and a half of political activism, mostly as the head of a radical socialist group, Left Front, Mr. Udaltsov is seeking to weave together a following that extends across a broad section of Russian society to the left of center, politically. Perhaps most important, he has become a darling of the Communist Party, by far Russia’s largest opposition group and not a force Mr. Putin can dismiss as an elitist fringe.
Gennadi A. Zyuganov, the party’s aging leader, has spoken fondly of Mr. Udaltsov, fueling rumors that a transfer of power could be in the works. Mr. Udaltsov has denied the rumors, but he did serve as one of Mr. Zyuganov’s campaign managers for the March presidential election.
With his leftist politics, revolutionary swagger and Communist pedigree, Mr. Udaltsov has a tendency to make the party’s babushkas swoon.
“There is no other like him,” said Kapitalina I. Bundina-Komarova, a 73-year-old lifelong Communist, looking glamorous in a red dress and lace gloves for a parade this week commemorating the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II. “He is taking our example and leading the youth, and we support him.”
Mr. Udaltsov’s increasingly visible role in the protest movement has raised concerns among some liberal opposition leaders that he and his followers could take control, leading to a darker future.
Some have joined the authorities in blaming Mr. Udaltsov and his followers for inciting Sunday’s confrontation. Though the details remain fuzzy, it is clear that a sizable group of protesters tried to break through a police cordon in an attempt to march on the Kremlin. Others, including Mr. Udaltsov, declared a sit-in after accusing the police of blocking access to the site designated for the protest.
“We need to realize that if the organizers of a protest intentionally strive for it to be forcefully dispersed and from the beginning plan to erect tents and hold sit-ins — i.e., consciously seek the escalation of violence — then there will always be a forceful response,” Grigory A. Yavlinsky, a founder of the liberal Yabloko party, said in a statement. “Do they really think that you can achieve something through head-on collisions and civil war?”
Mr. Udaltsov seems to believe that he can. Though he has called for protests to remain nonviolent and says a European social democratic model is optimal for Russia, he clearly enjoys getting into the occasional dust-up with the police and certainly would not mind leading another Russian Revolution.
“The harder they resist us, the tougher will be our response,” he said in an interview on Tuesday while leading a small demonstration in central Moscow. “We will defend ourselves, and we have full rights to do so. If the authorities try to destroy us, we have the right to rise up. Sooner or later this will happen.”
Ellen Barry and Andrew Roth contributed reporting.
(Page 2 of 2)
The question is whether people will follow him down a more radical path. The fallout from Sunday’s violent protest is still settling, and it is unclear whether Russia’s opposition has been emboldened or demoralized by the police crackdown that followed.
OVER the last week, scattered groups of protesters, probing the limits of dissent through seemingly innocuous actions like singing or silently walking in a group, have faced arrest and near-constant police surveillance. If such strong-arm tactics continue, some fear that radicalization, at least among a small group of dissenters, could be unavoidable.
“The people are no longer afraid of arrests and the nightsticks of riot police,” Dmitry Gudkov, a member of Parliament from the opposition Just Russia party, wrote on his blog. “The actions of the police are merely pouring oil on the fire and angering people. Very soon, the already disgruntled population will become enraged, and then the point of no return will have been passed.”
Yet, calls this week for further protests have drawn only a few hundred people. (At least 20,000 attended Sunday’s rally, which was permitted by the authorities.) After his release from prison on Monday, Mr. Udaltsov was arrested again at the central Moscow demonstration. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 15 days in prison for disobeying a police order.
By Friday, only a paltry few, some sleeping on yoga mats, others playing guitars, were left at was had been billed as a round-the-clock demonstration against Mr. Putin in a Moscow park. Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, said in an interview with Afisha magazine that the police would soon move in to expel the remaining protesters.
At the same time, opposition parties in Parliament, which have kept their distance from the protest movement, have started to offer cautious support. Mr. Zyuganov, the Communist leader, strongly condemned Sunday’s violence and has vowed to open a parliamentary inquiry into accusations of police abuse.
“We support the rights of all the opposition, not just on the left, to engage in legal democratic protests,” said Leonid N. Dobrokhotov, an adviser to Mr. Zyuganov.
“As for Udaltsov,” he said, “he is an ally, and his constitutional rights and freedoms are being constrained.”
Ellen Barry and Andrew Roth contributed reporting.
Sergei Udaltsov, head of a radical socialist group, Left Front, flashes a victory sign as he is detained by Russian police in Moscow on March 18.
WHILE debonair demonstrators in mink coats and designer jeans have until now defined Russia’s budding opposition movement against the Kremlin, protest leaders have deemed it best to keep Sergei Udaltsov on a tight leash. With his black sweaters, buzz cut and intense ravenlike eyes, he often appeared feral, somewhat unhinged and possibly dangerous.
But as the rocks flew, smoke bombs burst and police truncheons thwacked in a shocking eruption of violence here last Sunday, Mr. Udaltsov finally broke loose.
With the riot police closing in, he jumped on a stage set up for the protest, two megaphones in hand, and rallied thousands of supporters for a last stand.
“We will not leave this place until our comrades are free,” he bellowed. “We are the power here. We are the power.”
Six police officers, some in helmets and flak jackets, quickly pulled him away, as yells of “Shame” and “Fascists” emanated from an increasingly unruly crowd of not just the usual assortment of hipsters and anarchists but also older female Communists who an hour earlier were lining up to hug Mr. Udaltsov.
As Vladimir V. Putin begins his third term as Russia’s president, it is clear, at least in Moscow, that something in the political atmosphere has changed. Russia’s protest movement appears to have entered a new and unpredictable stage, and Mr. Udaltsov, one of its most prominent leaders, is at the center of a debate about its future.
Over the last half year, Russia’s intelligentsia and Western journalists have been fixated on the young bloggers, office managers and advertising gurus whose recent foray into street politics has been defined mostly by carnival antics tailor-made to accumulate “likes” on Facebook.
Mr. Udaltsov, 35, is different. A self-professed professional revolutionary and the great-grandson of a prominent Bolshevik, he is blunt, aggressive and prefers to fight his political battles in the street. He admits to provoking the police, and he is often in jail, on hunger strikes or both. A fan of Lenin and, to a lesser extent, Stalin — whose picture he wore on a T-shirt on his wedding day — he talks about leading a social-democratic revolution to remake the Russian state and dislodge the current leadership, which he dismisses as hopelessly corrupt.
After nearly a decade and a half of political activism, mostly as the head of a radical socialist group, Left Front, Mr. Udaltsov is seeking to weave together a following that extends across a broad section of Russian society to the left of center, politically. Perhaps most important, he has become a darling of the Communist Party, by far Russia’s largest opposition group and not a force Mr. Putin can dismiss as an elitist fringe.
Gennadi A. Zyuganov, the party’s aging leader, has spoken fondly of Mr. Udaltsov, fueling rumors that a transfer of power could be in the works. Mr. Udaltsov has denied the rumors, but he did serve as one of Mr. Zyuganov’s campaign managers for the March presidential election.
With his leftist politics, revolutionary swagger and Communist pedigree, Mr. Udaltsov has a tendency to make the party’s babushkas swoon.
“There is no other like him,” said Kapitalina I. Bundina-Komarova, a 73-year-old lifelong Communist, looking glamorous in a red dress and lace gloves for a parade this week commemorating the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II. “He is taking our example and leading the youth, and we support him.”
Mr. Udaltsov’s increasingly visible role in the protest movement has raised concerns among some liberal opposition leaders that he and his followers could take control, leading to a darker future.
Some have joined the authorities in blaming Mr. Udaltsov and his followers for inciting Sunday’s confrontation. Though the details remain fuzzy, it is clear that a sizable group of protesters tried to break through a police cordon in an attempt to march on the Kremlin. Others, including Mr. Udaltsov, declared a sit-in after accusing the police of blocking access to the site designated for the protest.
“We need to realize that if the organizers of a protest intentionally strive for it to be forcefully dispersed and from the beginning plan to erect tents and hold sit-ins — i.e., consciously seek the escalation of violence — then there will always be a forceful response,” Grigory A. Yavlinsky, a founder of the liberal Yabloko party, said in a statement. “Do they really think that you can achieve something through head-on collisions and civil war?”
Mr. Udaltsov seems to believe that he can. Though he has called for protests to remain nonviolent and says a European social democratic model is optimal for Russia, he clearly enjoys getting into the occasional dust-up with the police and certainly would not mind leading another Russian Revolution.
“The harder they resist us, the tougher will be our response,” he said in an interview on Tuesday while leading a small demonstration in central Moscow. “We will defend ourselves, and we have full rights to do so. If the authorities try to destroy us, we have the right to rise up. Sooner or later this will happen.”
Ellen Barry and Andrew Roth contributed reporting.
(Page 2 of 2)
The question is whether people will follow him down a more radical path. The fallout from Sunday’s violent protest is still settling, and it is unclear whether Russia’s opposition has been emboldened or demoralized by the police crackdown that followed.
OVER the last week, scattered groups of protesters, probing the limits of dissent through seemingly innocuous actions like singing or silently walking in a group, have faced arrest and near-constant police surveillance. If such strong-arm tactics continue, some fear that radicalization, at least among a small group of dissenters, could be unavoidable.
“The people are no longer afraid of arrests and the nightsticks of riot police,” Dmitry Gudkov, a member of Parliament from the opposition Just Russia party, wrote on his blog. “The actions of the police are merely pouring oil on the fire and angering people. Very soon, the already disgruntled population will become enraged, and then the point of no return will have been passed.”
Yet, calls this week for further protests have drawn only a few hundred people. (At least 20,000 attended Sunday’s rally, which was permitted by the authorities.) After his release from prison on Monday, Mr. Udaltsov was arrested again at the central Moscow demonstration. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 15 days in prison for disobeying a police order.
By Friday, only a paltry few, some sleeping on yoga mats, others playing guitars, were left at was had been billed as a round-the-clock demonstration against Mr. Putin in a Moscow park. Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, said in an interview with Afisha magazine that the police would soon move in to expel the remaining protesters.
At the same time, opposition parties in Parliament, which have kept their distance from the protest movement, have started to offer cautious support. Mr. Zyuganov, the Communist leader, strongly condemned Sunday’s violence and has vowed to open a parliamentary inquiry into accusations of police abuse.
“We support the rights of all the opposition, not just on the left, to engage in legal democratic protests,” said Leonid N. Dobrokhotov, an adviser to Mr. Zyuganov.
“As for Udaltsov,” he said, “he is an ally, and his constitutional rights and freedoms are being constrained.”
Ellen Barry and Andrew Roth contributed reporting.
