Where Putin Is 'One Percent' - New Occupy Moscow Comes To Life

NOVAYA GAZETA,KOMMERSANT (Russia)

MOSCOW - In the aftermath of the "March of the Millions' on May 6th and the arrest of several hundred protesters that night, an improvised camp sprung up overnight in Moscow in the Park of Chistye Prudy, Novaya Gazeta reports.

The camp looks in many ways like the protest camps that have sprung up around the world with the Occupy and Indignados movements. It is divided into four sections: kitchen, creative master classes, legal help, and security. It includes a generator for electricity that allows hot food and drink to be served on benches. But one kind of drink is forbidden: the camp is completely alchohol-free.

Scheduled activities included Esperanto lessons, a lecture on what to do if you are arrested, a meeting with participants from Occupy Wall Street and a history lecture on civil protest.

But while Novaya Gazeta reports that the camps are well-run and organized, Kommersant reports that the damage done to the park has been substantial, estimated at 1 million rubles (around $33,000). But, Kommersant reported, the protesters themselves have already gathered the means to pay for any damage done to the park.

One woman from the neighborhood who was interviewed on television accused the protesters of defecating on the street and insisted that the police remove them immediately. As it turns out, the woman in question is not just a civic-minded grandmother, as viewers were led to believe, Kommersant reported. In fact, she is a member of Vladimir Putin's party, United Russia, and has appeared on television programs on many occasions.

WORLDCRUNCH

Premium stories from Worldcrunch's own network of multi-lingual journalists in over 30 countries.

WORLDCRUNCH

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Migrant Lives

Migration

What's Driving More Venezuelans To Migrate To The U.S.

With dimmed hopes of a transition from the economic crisis and repressive regime of Nicolas Maduro, many Venezuelans increasingly see the United States, rather than Latin America, as the place to rebuild a life..

Photo of a family of Migrants from Venezuela crossing the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum

Migrants from Venezuela crossed the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum.

David Peinado via Zuma Press

Julio Borges

-Analysis-

Migration has too many elements to count. Beyond the matter of leaving your homeland, the process creates a gaping emptiness inside the migrant — and outside, in their lives. If forced upon someone, it can cause psychological and anthropological harm, as it involves the destruction of roots. That's in fact the case of millions of Venezuelans who have left their country without plans for the future or pleasurable intentions.

Their experience is comparable to paddling desperately in shark-infested waters. As many Mexicans will concur, it is one thing to take a plane, and another to pay a coyote to smuggle you to some place 'safe.'

Venezuela's mass emigration of recent years has evolved in time. Initially, it was the middle and upper classes and especially their youth, migrating to escape the socialist regime's socio-political and economic policies. Evidently, they sought countries with better work, study and business opportunities like the United States, Panama or Spain. The process intensified after 2017 when the regime's erosion of democratic structures and unrelenting economic vandalism were harming all Venezuelans.