Instructions for provocateurs

St. Petersburg December 12th 2011

A provocateur in this context is a person who appears to be a part of a protest, but is in fact covertly trying to sabotage it. He is employed by the police.

The below article has been copied off the web page of the magazine/newspaper Независимая (independent) газета. According to the paper, the provocateurs have been given instructions on how to operate during the protests. Following is a list of some of the instructions [with commentary in brackets].

The document contains detailed instructions on what to do in different situations.

It is of great importance that provocateurs manage to lead the protesters into the back streets. The goal is to bring the rally to a halt so that the people who are carrying plaques (“Down with the thieves and scoundrels of the Party”, “No foul play”, “Off with Putin”) can be “extracted” from the crowd. [The meaning of the term “to extract” is ambiguous here. It could be interpreted to mean getting rid of them, one way or another.] Another goal is to try to prevent the people from reaching the actual rally site.

Provocateurs must frequently call the offices of the opposition party while posing as a representative or a member of the opposition. The goal is to instigate fights and arguments. The most active and vocal members must be tipped off to the police.

According to one instructional, fights should be provoked between members of the opposition and the police. When OMON shows up, it's time for the provocateur to exit the scene. The necessary [the most active?] groups of activists must be crowded into a spot where it is easy to:
shoot them with rubber bullets
shoot them with water cannons
hit them with batons
throw tear gas grenades at them.
[Exiting = good advice, would suck to get hit with a rubber bullet due to miscommunication.]

Fulfill our demands NOW! Soon it will be too late!

Provocateurs must do everything in their power to ensure that the protest is ruined. They must destroy all demonstration material (placards, banners, leaflets) that they can, hand out fake booklets [say what?] and use Photoshop [only the best in photo manipulation/sabotage is good enough!] to edit pictures of the protests. [What does this mean in practice? Removing people from the image to make it appear that there were fewer participants?]

Provocateurs must inform the police of the most active participants and report everything they hear to the police. To neutralize the apprehended persons, they may be given harmless laxatives or heavy sedatives. [This I don't understand. If “apprehended persons” refers to the people that are being held captive, then what good does it do to make them shit their pants? The sedatives I could somehow understand. Are handcuffs really not enough to restrain them?]

With reporters you must act as follows. During the apprehension process, you must prevent reporters from leaving the scene [to make it easier to catch them]. Same goes for people who could have received films, cameras and memory cards from the reporters.

A couple of notes regarding the article. My translation is not perfect, and the article is probably a hastily written summary of a real set of provocateur instructions. Therefore it may appear unclear and vague. I haven't really taken part in the protests and rallies, so I can't say if there is any truth to these allegations. Maybe somebody with some experience in the matter could shed some light on this? Could it be possible that the “instructional” is just disinformation propagated by the opposition?

Army - also people ! That you can not buy!

Demonstration in St. Petersburg

I heard that there was going to be a protest in St. Petersburg against electoral fraud in the ongoing parliamentary elections. The Finnish Consulate has adivced people to avoid these places. That's where I'm headed.

  Nevsky Prospekt in the morning

10 a.m. Coffeeshop Nevski:
Rumour has it that people would start gathering at 11 a.m. in front of Gostiniy Dvor. Nothing to be seen yet.


10.30 a.m.
Received new information: time and place have been changed to 2 p.m. at Vostania (near the Stockmann department store).

11.30 a.m.
Ministry of internal affairs police troops (OMON) have started to gather at Vostania.

2 p.m.
The permission to set up a demonstration at Vostania has been denied, but another location at Pushkinskaya has been approved. The square appears to be practically empty. Three men are building a platform and close to twenty policemen are patrolling the area. I guess this is the right place?

2.40 p.m.
People are starting to show up. Approximately ten policemen in full riot gear have taken up positions.

3.30 p.m.
The square is full of people. Political rants can be heard. A recurring theme emerges from the slogans and catch phrases:
- Our country is free!
- We are free!



Riot control is well organized.

 Nothing is left at chance. Uniformed servicemen are brought in by the carload.

The black visor gives the policemen an ominous look.
I guess that's the point.

Young policemen anxiously fondling their weapons. With excited eyes they scan the crowd for instigators. What a pity if a good chance to put to use their riot training was wasted!



The event was over at about 5 o'clock. I was a bit surprised when it ended. I was warming up at a nearby theater, and when I came back, the speeches were over and people were rolling up banners. I asked a nearby group of youngsters if that was it. One of them told me that event was indeed over, but if I wanted to see a brawl I should stick around. I was starting to get a bit tired at that point, but since the action was going to pick up, I might as well stay for a while. I waited for an hour, but nothing happened. All the policemen in riot gear had exited their vehicles, and there was a lot of them.


The event was much more peaceful than I had expected. Images of policemen battering and dragging protesters did not become reality that day. I have to keep an eye on Finnish news broadcasts to see if anything interesting happens later tonight.

Screenshot from Finnish TV1 News

  8.20 p.m.
Dammit!
I just watched the Finnish news and apparently there had been a real hassle at Vostania. Should have stayed there instead of going to Pushkinskaya.



More pictures from the protest at Vostania courtesy of www.newsru.com.
Pic1
Pic2
Pic3
Pic4

Kommunalka

A kommunalka is an interesting phenomenon from our point of view. This type of living is still very “popular” in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In a kommunalka there live many families in one flat. The kitchen, bathroom, WC, corridors are shared.


First a 5 minutes video about kommunalka.




Taking care of common facilities
On the wall there is list of duties.
E.g. On the 1 st. week family Ivanov cleans the common facilities, on the 2nd week family Petyhov , on the 3rd week family Popov….

A corridor of a kommunalka
Sometimes the common space is used for storing things. At the end of a corridor there is a common phone.

A phone
A kommunalka has a common phone. Phone costs are divated according to number of residents. Long distance calls are exeption. They are charged according to use. The situation is changing because of mobilephones.

A kitchen
In a kommunalka there is usually one kitchen and because there are living many families one have to remember this when it is time to cook. In a kitchen there is one cooker (sometimes more). The space of the room is shared between the families. The whole cupboard on the left belongs to family Ivanov, the table on the right and the cupboard above it belong to family Popov, the cupboard above the sink and the nail beside it belong to family Petyhov as well as the space in front of the window….
Fridges and freezers are also kept in living rooms and corridors. The place depends on who is the neighbour.
Meals are cooked in the kitchen and eaten in the living room.

WC

Hopefully there are not many people who have stomach problems at the same time.
Every family has their own toilet paper, so before you are going use the toilet it is a good idea to ask which toilet paper is your host’s.

The bath room
The space in the bathroom is also shared between the residents. It is easy to imagine how easy it is to find time for a bath if there are living many people in a kommunalka. Usually the pipes are very bad and the pressure of the water is too low on mornings and on evenings.
It is very common that relationships between residents are bad. Think about the situation that one of the residents is an alcoholic or a drug dealer.
If somebody is not happy living in Finland it would be a good idea to try living for a while in a kommunalka:)

Here is a very good video clip.






Below some photos of a typical house and its neighbourhood in the center of St.P.