Home » News » Inhabitants of Europe » The currency borrowers blocked Neglinnaya street in Moscow and scuffled with the police

Mostra/Nascondi il menu

The currency borrowers blocked Neglinnaya street in Moscow and scuffled with the police

One of the mass actions Moscow has seen lately was the protest staged by the so called currency borrowers.
The Russian currency borrowers are those who have borrowed from various banks, some of them being foreign ones, substantial amounts of money in hard currency, either in the US Dollars or Euros, to support their mortgages.

Due to a dramatic, more than 50 % devaluation of the Ruble against the US Dollar and Euro, these people have found themselves in a tremendous predicament, as their monthly payments to the banks have more than doubled.

The protesters in Moscow down town area blocked a street adjacent to the Central Bank office, according to the local mass media. 

The people took to the street and obstructed the traffic chanting ‘’Shame on you’’. The police officers didn’t interfere at first. 

As a RSN agency journalist estimated, the protest action was attended by more than 200 people. They had come up to the bank office carrying balloons and started chanting: ‘’Hey, bankers, bankers, you have torn up our pockets’’. 

Then, when the protesters tried to enter the bank office, the police interfered.

Supported by a riot squad, the officers detained some participants. Four activists have been arrested, according to the mass media. A coordinator of the action, a woman protestor, was also detained. During the arrest she fell unconscious and police dragged her into a prison van.

This protest turned out to be a regular one in the series of similar actions staged in Moscow and other Russian cities and areas.

On February, 5, a crowd of people who had borrowed from the DeltaCredit bank staged a meeting in front of the bank office. The bank officers and clerks had to mount a fence to stop the protesters from entering the office territory.

The same day saw another action held at the OTP Bank office.  

Then the protest staged by mortgage borrowers of the Société Générale  (Rossbank) bank ensued.

On January, 27, the borrowers had blocked Tverskaya street near the White Square in Moscow.

Earlier, the long haul truckers staged a number of actions, having blocked federal highways in some areas all over Russia, protested the so called ‘’Platon’’ system of collecting new dues for transporting cargoes along the major highways.

Russia, crippled by the economic crisis, is witnessing spasmodic, chaotically organized protests of different groups of the population.

Vladimir Putin, obviously perplexed by the ongoing events, is to appeal soon to the population on TV. 

Georeferences

Comments

Log in or create a user account to comment.