|
This reaction is in sharp contrast to the usual harsh reaction to unauthorised protest.
Putin recently signed a new law, giving Moscow broad powers to monitor the activities
and finances of NGOs. The new powers include the right to suspend NGOs.
His mild response to the EcoDefense protest must be considered an attempt to
smoothen down the sharp criticism on the antidemocratic tendencies of his government.
“It’s very good that the president had such a positive reaction... It was a good
sober reaction of a person who believes that environmentalists have a right to speak
their mind,” said Vladimir Slivyak, a leader of EcoDefense, commenting after the
protest on Tuesday. But “here there was the president and there were TV cameras
and journalists and this gives a certain protection,” Slivyak said. At an anti-nuclear
demonstration near the Kremlin in April, security officers detained a dozen campaigners
and several reporters.
The protest of the anti-nuclear activists was widely reported in the Russian media.
At the end of the speech the protesters applauded after Putin said that efforts
should be made to find an alternative to nuclear energy.
The two-day Civil G-8 is the official NGO prep meeting for the G-8 summit later
this month that is (partly) dedicated to Energy.
|
