Flashlight Protests

February 14th, a day known to many as Valentine’s Day. A day meant specifically to show affection and adoration towards loved ones. With this in mind, Russian protesters took to the streets in freezing temperatures armed with a common household item: flashlights. Protesters also used the flashlight from their phones. Sunday was certainly not the first attempt to gather brave souls to protest, but it was more successful than the previous attempts. A new uprising known as the “flashlight” protest has formed, a potential beginning to a much larger ordeal.

Russia’s current president, Vladimir Putin, is not taking any chances with this recent display of disobedience. A choice many in power may choose to make for if there is the slightest chance of reducing their authority, it will be considered a threat. Russia’s government differs from the United States’ after all. Therefore, Putin decided to crush the budding seeds of opposition by “cracking down” on the conflicting party and their supporters. The first step was to remove the leading figure and that’s exactly what he did. Earlier than the Valentine’s Day protests, on February 2, 2021, Alexei Navalny was sentenced to “two years and eight months in a prison colony” by a Moscow court (Guardian). The second step is to crush the support the opposing party is receiving. What’s the best way to accomplish that? Imposing fear into the citizens’ hearts. After news of Navalny’s sentence spread, the people in cities from Siberia to Moscow decided to follow Navalny’s earlier suggestion and protested his imprisonment with flashlights. Russian authorities were then able to round up “more than 1,000 protesters” and arrest them (Guardian). This action taken certainly made hesitant citizens fearful of protesting despite them supporting the Kremlin-opposing faction.

Navalny was a lesser known critic who accused Putin and his comrades of stealing billions of money from the country. However after his most recent arrest, his name spread to more ears. His team urged citizens to come with flashlights and protest, but it was at first met with ridicule and jokes. It gained more attraction as brave protesters took the first step outside and uploaded photos onto social media with the hashtag “#любовьсильнеестраха (#LoveIsStrongerThanFear)”. The previous attempts to gather and Putin’s attempts to smash the opposition all led up to the more well known protest on Sunday, February 14th. Despite it still being quite small, with the total number of participants still unknown, it gained much more attention from not only Russian citizens, but from foreign nations’ governments. Once again however, Putin and Russian officials took no chances. They “spent days trying to blacken the protests” by spreading propaganda such as Navalny's allies were “acting on NATO’s instructions” and making Kremlin-supporting television channels warn that “flashlight rallies were part of major uprisings around the world”. Putin and his team even went as far as citing “unnamed sources as saying a terrorist group was plotting attacks during unapproved mass protests” (Politico) despite the condemnation from the United States and other nations.

Regardless of the attempts to put down this sprouting uprising, more people have joined the cause. They take their flashlights outside and trace hearts in the air with it. The goal of Navalny’s team and current protesters now is to get even more Russian citizens to be aware, even if it means the slightest glance out of the window into a crowd of flashlight-wielding protesters. As this “display of unity” (Litvinova) is still relatively new, as in it began in 2021, it has yet to garner the necessary attention to make a change, but seeing how desperate Russian officials are trying to stomp it out, that means there is a chance of it evolving into a large scale event.

Works Cited

“Alexei Navalny: 1,000 Arrested after Protests over Jailing of Russian Opposition Leader.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 3 Feb. 2021, www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/02/russian-opposition-leader-alexei-navalny-jailed.

Litvinova, Daria. “Russia Moves to Extinguish pro-Navalny 'Flashlight' Protests.” Daily Herald, Daily Herald, 14 Feb. 2021, www.dailyherald.com/article/20210214/news/302149989/.

Luxmoore, Matthew. “With Flashlight Protests, Russian Opposition Circumvents Ongoing State Crackdown.” RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, With Flashlight Protests, Russian Opposition Circumvents Ongoing State Crackdown, 15 Feb. 2021, www.rferl.org/a/with-flashlight-protests-russian-opposition-circumvents-ongoing-state-crackdown/31104362.html.

Press, Associated. “Pro-Navalny 'Flashlight' Protests Light up Russian Cities.” POLITICO, POLITICO, 14 Feb. 2021, www.politico.com/news/2021/02/14/russia-navalny-protests-putin-469020.