Marina Khodorkovskaya, mother of Mikhail Khodorkovsky participated in the March of Millions on Saturday and shared her experiences.

Interviewed by TV Rain following the protests, Marina Khodorkovskaya explained how she had never seen such “outrageous behaviour” from the riot police during any other protests she had attended. Innocent people with children went to a permitted protest and were met by such a large number of police that it seemed like a war zone, she explained. Police started spraying gas, people were coughing and it turned into a nightmare… Why? She couldn’t fathom as people were not doing anything wrong…

Marina Khodorkovskaya was surrounded by a group of friends and was not harmed. The Government had allowed the protest, but for some reason organisers were dragged from the stage, electric cables were cut and people who wanted to attend were stopped from coming close to Bolotnaya Ploshchad, even though there was plenty of space.

“It certainly was a provocation from the authorities, but I fail to understand why…Just before the inauguration, to act so disgracefully before the eyes of the entire world!” Marina Khodorkovskaya underlines the idea that the people were not the problem, their intentions were peaceful and positive but the authorities were clearly not ready to listen to opposition, and instead sought to provoke those voicing their dissent.

Click here for the full interview