4.3 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 25 August 2016
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
After the last elections in Russia, mass protests against vote-rigging led to clashes in the centre of Moscow. The events on Bolotnaya Square were the biggest challenge President Putin has ever faced to his rule. Four years on, several demonstrators are still serving long prison sentences, the laws on protesting have been tightened and the arrests continue. As Russia gears up for parliamentary elections in September, Sarah Rainsford talks to some of those caught up in the Bolotnaya protests, and asks what their stories tell us about Putin’s Russia today.
Producer: Mark Savage
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0:00.0 | This is a BBC podcast. You can get all our podcasts and our terms of use at BBCworldservice.com |
0:06.8 | slash podcasts. |
0:10.6 | You're listening to assignment on the BBC with me Sarah Rainsford. |
0:14.4 | Campanney of the United States. |
0:16.4 | It's nearly 7 o'clock in the evening. |
0:22.4 | It's nearly 7 o'clock in the evening close to the time when we've been told that |
0:28.1 | protesters are due to gather here on Bolotna Square. Walking along the |
0:31.6 | embankment now past the fountains and the announcement here for |
0:35.2 | boat rides along the Moscow River. |
0:38.6 | What I can see is a huge number of riot police. |
0:41.4 | There are buses here lined up. They're obviously ready for something here. |
0:47.0 | But as I pass the police, I only find a handful of protesters on the square, |
0:52.0 | and a man singing about the collapse of communism. They're here to mark four years since a very different vast protest at rigged elections |
1:06.2 | ended in violent clashes and mass arrests right on this square. It was the biggest challenge that Russia's leader has ever faced. |
1:17.0 | Since then, Vladimir Putin has approved changes to the law that make it extremely difficult to stage a protest. |
1:25.4 | The man behind this one didn't even try to get a permit because he's always been refused. |
1:31.1 | There's a lot of police here, Riot Police. Is it normal that there's so many police? |
1:35.0 | For 6th of May, each year, yes. |
1:39.0 | If I would be an authority, I wouldn't be afraid at all. |
1:44.0 | I would be afraid at all. |
1:45.0 | In the Polish, |
1:47.0 | my grasse, |
... |
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