protests in russia, 9.09.2018
sorry for the long post, but i won’t hide it under read more, you’ll have to see this, boo hoo.
@ rich educated students living in europe or america, studying “russian culture” in their universities and wishing you lived here, or Woke ppl thinking all russians support their government’s actions and do nothing to stop them,
i cannot believe how lucky, privileged and naive yall are.
protests against retirement pension age reforms took place all over russia yesterday. they were unsanctioned, because in russia you’re supposed to apply for the authorities to let you host a protest; otherwise everyone is arrested and beaten up. which is what happened yesterday. these people were out on the streets protesting the recent change in retirement age (it was moved forward, thus making the chance of the government just keeping your money if you die before reaching the retirement age, which happens very often here as russians in general don’t have a long life span thanks to atrocious medical care system and the lack of resources)
stats: more than a 1000 people arrested, including old people, teenagers and children; people beaten up, some of them wounded or with broken limbs, some old people requiring urgent medical care; most of community organisers and opposition leaders detained before the start of the protests. (https://tvrain.ru/news/ovd_info-471172/)
all for a peaceful protest. some of these people knew what to expect, because this is how most of protests end here. some didn’t, and were old and frail, or young, and just wanted to express their discontent. they were treated violently, ruthlessly and cruelly. this is what my country is today.
i am enraged. i am grieving. i HATE that the rest of the world doesn’t care, that the west make all russian developments about themselves and the western media only reports russian news connected to the american elections. i hate that no one ever mentions or notices the suffering of the people, the people arrested and jailed for nothing, the people tortured to death in prisons, oleg sentsov’s hunger strike going on for over 100 days and counting, the murdered journalists, the unbelievably widespread and obvious corruption, the spread of religious propaganda in all civil affairs including education and medicine. nothing changes, nothing ever will. i hate this.
and this post won’t get more than like, 15 notes, most of them likes from my fellow russians. people i know in europe tell me to my fucking face that they consider putin’s regime “strong and powerful”, american commies post memes about stalin and lecture ME, A CRIMEAN TATAR, on how the soviet union was beneficial for the people. i can’t express the kind of despair i feel every day.
picture sources 1, 2, также фотограф: давид френкель, tvrain channel
