Novosibirsk officials sanction a protest against ‘American occupation’
Local authorities in Novosibirsk have granted a permit to activists for a motor rally and demonstration against what they say is American occupation and Russia’s so-called Fifth Column. The group, Yevgeny Fyodorov’s ultranationalist National Liberation Movement (NOD), will hold its event on May 11, on the anniversary of the separatist referendums in Donetsk and Luhansk. As many as 700 people will be allowed to attend.
The motor rally will follow roughly the same route denied to Monstration demonstrators last weekend, which resulted in the arrest of Artem Loskutov, the rally’s creator and organizer.
NOD’s demonstration will promote the following slogans: “Down with American occupation!” "Down with the Fifth Column in the government and the media!” and “Novorossiya is Russia!” NOD activists will also advocate a referendum to reform the Russian Constitution, to repeal existing articles that ban a state ideology and give international laws precedence over domestic laws.
The event’s announcement reads, “Our national leader, as the guarantor of a colonial constitution who’s under assault by the ‘Fifth Column,’ lacks the power to make amendments without the active support of Russian citizens. This is confirmed by the failure to implement most of the President’s executive orders and by his statements about national-traitors.”
“In 2014, it wasn’t just Novorossiya that broke away from Ukraine; there was a national liberation uprising against the NATO-Bandera occupation launched by the United States after capturing power in Kiev,” the protest’s organizers say.
- The leader of NOD is Duma deputy Yevgeny Fyodorov, who says Russia currently exists as a colony in the American Empire, paying tribute to Washington. Fyodorov has said Vladimir Putin is trying to lead Russia out of this dependency.
- NOD activists played a role in Moscow’s Anti-Maidan rally in February 2015.
- For more on NOD and the Anti-Maidan movement, see Russia’s pissed off patriots: Meduza reports from the ‘Anti-Maidan’ march in Moscow