i'm protesting against protests!

Today Jonathan and I saw a "demonstration" about the whole Kosovo-declaring-independence thing that was pretty impressive. It was set to start at 3:00 PM. I should explain that Russian law requires all protests and public meetings etc be approved by the government first, for the "protection" of the protesters. Take a guess at which groups get told they will have to "reschedule" or that aren't allowed because it isn't "in the budget!" Yes, pretty much anything left-wing or pro-West...

Anyway, since nothing is spontaneous, we generally know in advance when demonstrations are being held. (Were any group here to try to start a spontaneous demonstration, they would very quickly be taken out by the OMON.) At about 2:50 we saw people starting to gather, as well as news crews. There were maybe 10 protesters, very calmly standing around, chuckling, chatting, nothing that would indicate they're upset with the world. A few more people trickle along in the next ten minutes. Then, on cue at 3:00, it's like a light switch was flipped. They hoisted up some signs and paced, stomping, while angrily chanting about America being jerks. This goes on for... MAYBE... four minutes. Then suddenly they stop, the cameras stop rolling, and there's more jolly chatting amongst them before they disband and are gone like the four winds. The street is empty, save for one guy still folding up his tripod.

Talk about putting on a show for the media... I'm sure the papers tomorrow will be all "hundreds stage protest against America's support of Kosovo!" Wow.