Tens of Thousands March on US Embassy In Moscow: Largest Protest In Russia So Far

Tens of Thousands March on Embassy

By Oksana Yablokova
Staff Writer

Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP

A column of people marching toward the U.S. Embassy to protest the war Wednesday.


Tens of thousands of people rallied outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on Wednesday in the biggest Russian protest yet against the war in Iraq.

Police detained several protesters who threw plastic bottles at the embassy, and several people burned dollar bills and a U.S. flag. Demonstrators later set fire to the protest banners they were carrying. Aside from those incidents, passions appeared low.

Rally organizers -- the pro-Kremlin United Russia party and the Moscow Federation of Trade Unions -- said the demonstration was prompted by an attack on a Russian diplomatic convoy outside Baghdad. Russia's ambassador to Iraq has accused U.S. troops of intentionally firing on his convoy Sunday.

"Declaring your citizens' position is more important than a lecture," Vladimir Medinsky, head of United Russia's Moscow branch and a professor at the Moscow Institute of Foreign Relations, told TVS television Wednesday night.

Protesters complained, however, that the rally appeared to be a promotional stunt by United Russia ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections.

If anything, the action showed the party's strong organizational skills.

Holding signs reading "Hands Off Iraq, " and "Kosovo, Iraq, Who Is Next?" and chanting "Shame on President Bush," protesters marched on the embassy from three different directions. Hundreds of students came after professors canceled classes and ordered them to attend.

The crowd filled the eight-lane Garden Ring Road in front of the embassy and blocked traffic for 3 kilometers.

Some 2,300 police officers armed with truncheons encircled the embassy building.

All neighborhood kiosks were closed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., apparently by order.

From a makeshift platform, a half-dozen speakers took turns slamming the war and condemning the convoy incident, prompting chants of "Shame, shame," and "Down with Bush."

Ahead of the rally, organizers predicted that 100,000 people would show up, but a police lieutenant told Gazeta.ru that no more than 30,000 had attended.

The figure was still much higher than attendance at previous, mostly Communist rallies. A protest March 29 at the embassy attracted 6,000 people, including a handful of Americans.

Many protesters said Wednesday that they were ordered to attend by their employers.

Irina, a 21-year-old secretary with Glavmosstroi, a Moscow city-controlled construction company, came with several hundred colleagues who got the day off work.

"I see that more people showed up than were on our list," said Irina, who declined to give her last name.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/04/10/003.html