Human rights activists and activists of Greenpeace were also present, although in smaller numbers.This time, too, the organizers decided to speak out both against the war in Iraq and the war in Chechnya, although the first topic certainly dominated in the speeches and the slogans of demonstrators.

This was not the most massive protest against the war in Iraq this day in Moscow. Communists and nationalists gathered about 1000 supporters near the US Embassy in Moscow on the same day. In preceding days a rally was also held by the so called Liberal-democratic party lead by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, which is in fact a very nationalistic party. However, these two rallies couldn’t be called genuinely anti-war, as their participants by no means wanted to speak out against the war in Chechnya and the demonstrations were largely anti-American and nationalistic, rather than anti-war.

Going back to the demonstration against the war in Iraq and Chechnya, its participants were predominantly young (under 40), which is rather unusual for Russia, where young people are usually said to be “de-politicized”. Active chanting – “No to war for money! No to war for oil! 1-2-3-4- We don’t need your fucking war!”, etc. – helped to survive the frost of minus 15 degrees centigrade. Cop presence was rather heavy – about 50 in total – which was more than at a larger demonstration against the war in Chechnya two weeks before.

Of course, the demonstration could have been larger, if the organizers would drop slogans either against the war in Chechnya (nationalists would come to this event in this case), or would prefer to organize another demon against the war in Chechnya (and pro-Westerm Russian liberals would come). However, it was decided to sacrifice neither of these topics and hold a protest against all wars started or planned by the capitalist system.

On the same day demonstration against the war in Iraq were also held in other Russian cities. In Voronezh about 500 protesters, primarily members of the authoritarian and nationalistic “Communist party”, gathered to burn a copy of George W.Bush. In Nizhny Novgorod demonstration was organized by ATTAC and anarchists. Rallies were also held in Krasnodar and some other Russian cities, which were also dominate by Communists and Russian nationalists.
Video footage of the demonstration in Moscow is available on Indymedia-Russian language at:

 http://www.russia.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/f15_moscow.mpg