Analysts treat action with flashlights in Southern Russia as successful

The action "Love is stronger than fear" was successful, despite the fact that not all of Navalny's supporters reacted thereto, the experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" assert.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 14, regions of the South of Russia held the all-Russian action in support of Alexei Navalny "Love is stronger than fear". Activists went out into their yards and turned on flashlights.

"We had a good coverage (of activists). This is a good result. The organizers had three options: to continue holding unsanctioned mass actions ... to do nothing, or to find some kind of compromise that does not involve head-on collisions with the authorities," said Sergei Davidis, a board member of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial"*. He has noted that the February 14 action "entailed no repressions."

Professor Ilya Shablinsky, Deputy Head of the Division of Constitutional and Municipal Law of the Higher School of Economics, has noted that those who had been motivated came out to take part in the action. "For many people, a flash mob is an unusual thing. It's still a youth format," he said. However, he urged "not to draw any political and sociological conclusions from this." "A huge segment of the population remains politically unrepresented ... Of course, such a problem cannot be solved by a flash mob," Mr Shablinsky has concluded.

* the HRC "Memorial" is recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 16, 2021 at 04:12 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.