While (some of) Moscow marched...

Lots of blogging about the various protests in Moscow on Saturday, for the time being mostly on Russian-language LiveJournal (some of the better material seems to be at Ilya Peresedov's blog). Robert Amsterdam's blog has strong coverage; Veronica has a few posts (this one has some particularly funny photos, nice comic relief from the day's dire tone) and a slew of original pictures; Whims of Fate has done a great job of aggregating photos (from SPB, too!) and links to a few of the Russian LJ commentaries. Lenta.ru had a pretty good roundup of the day's events (or so it seemed to me, but of course I didn't see the actual events - or protesters - being rounded up). But while some marched and were arrested, the target of much of the protesters' ire was enjoying the sweetest form of victory over his opponents - ignoring them as irrelevant and relaxing in his hometown with his favorite sport:

BBC Monitoring
President Putin attends mixed martial arts tournament in St Petersburg - TV
Excerpt from report by Russian NTV on 15 April

[Presenter] Russian wrestlers celebrated their triumph in St Petersburg's Ice Palace, where a mixed martial arts tournament took place under the slogan: Russia vs America. Conquering the Americans was to a large extent a matter of prestige. [Russian President] Vladimir Putin came to watch the tournament. Here is our correspondent Vladimir Kondratyev with the report.

[Correspondent] It is incorrect to say that these mixed martial arts have no rules. In these games it is against the rules to do anything that could directly damage your opponent's health, or goes against sports ethics. For example, one cannot elbow one's opponent, hit them in the upper stomach or the spine, pull their hair out, spit in their face and so on. The sportsmen with the most success in this tournament are sambo* and judo wrestlers, precisely the two kinds [of sport] President Putin used to practise. It is well-known that Putin became Leningrad's champion for sambo and judo more than once. And it is not surprising that the president came to attend the tournament entitled: Russia vs America.

The thousands of spectators in the packed hall of the Ice Palace couldn't believe their eyes when after the first honorary guest, Jean-Claude Van Damme, the [tournament's] host announced the arrival of the Russian president. The surprise was a first-rate success; even the press only found out about Putin's plans at the last minute. Soon, yet another high-ranking spectator arrived: former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Putin does not forget his friends, even when they are no longer in power. The organizers had planned for Putin to sit by the ring for a while - the price for seats in the stalls was R7,500 by the way - then to move him to a box of honour in the upper circle. The president declined however, and remained downstairs so as to get a better view of the wrestlers' actions. [Passage omitted: details of the tournament.]

Putin applauded the victory [by Russia's Feodor Yemelyanenko] standing up, along with all the others. The times when the Americans dominated in professional boxing and martial arts have become a thing of the past. "We must be known and reckoned with," Yemelyanenko announced after his victory, unaware that his words sounded like a political statement. But this is not politics, only sport. Putin embraced the hero, and closer to midnight invited him and his friends to a late tea at the Konstantinovskiy Palace.

[Putin, in Russian, with consecutive translation in English] Your kind of sport is very tough. But it is not void of nobility, of respect towards your opponent. It is of course a sport for courageous people.

[Correspondent] Putin's short visit to his native town must have been enjoyable. It gave him the chance to go back to his sporting past, to his youth, he walked along the Strelka [spit of St Petersburg's Vasilyevskiy Island], where he congratulated a newly-wedded couple, and Palace Square. Next on the agenda are entirely different types of battles: political ones, also along the lines of Russia vs America. But in those, unlike during the martial arts tournament, knockouts are counterproductive.

For some reason, I thought (among other things) of W clearing brush on his ranch. The link would seem to be willful obliviousness to criticism. Although Putin was not running from politics at all - in American political terms, he was "connecting with his base." Just think - while one of his political opponents was arrested and another was roughed up, VVP was chilling in Piter with his buddies Jean-Claude and Silvio**, along with his new America-beating pal Feodor Yemelyanenko. Sovereign democracy means never having to say you're sorry...

Actually, the most absurd part of this is Van Damme being there. I can just imagine the sambo- and judo-heads' reaction - "Berlusconi - eto ladno, a Van Damme - eto da..."

While writing this, I remembered that I once almost attended a martial arts tournament in SPB in 2002 or 2003 - a friend of mine had been involved with the sport in his youth and wanted to go for the sake of nostalgia. But we wound up meeting a friend of his in front of the arena and unsuccessfully trying to get in (as I recall), and then adjourning to a nearby "zakusochnaya" to practice a different ancient art.

* Note that "sambo" in Russia refers to a martial art invented during the Soviet era, not the racial term.
** For those of you interested in another Silvio (sort of like "another Russia," but not really), check here. I have a real soft spot for the Tales of Belkin.

[Update - Whims of Fate has a post - with RIAN photos - poking fun at Putin's weekend with Jean-Claude.]

[Update 2 - Lenta.ru's story about Putin's weekend in SPB - apparently he visited with Matvienko and discussed the important issue of soccer team Zenit's success and whether it is linked to VVP's attendance at their matches - Putin's modest answer: "я здесь не при чем".]

[Update 3 - Robert Amsterdam reposts a Moscow Times editorial positing a Van Damme Trade Theory, as well as Putin's remarks from the judo tournament.]