As it turns out, I also had to return home in order to find out why there was such an abundance of police in Moscow on Saturday. My friend Virginia emailed me to say that she'd been thinking of me when she heard the news about the protests in Moscow on Saturday. I had to google to find out that a year after the massive protests staged following last year's parliamentary elections, a new protest day was held on Saturday. A significantly smaller protest than a year before. Based on the numbers of police that I saw on every street I wandered down, I would imagine that police may have outnumbered protestors.
From my hotel room, I could see the police helicopter hovering overhead of the protest, which was literally a block away from where I was staying.
It's such an interesting time for Russia and its citizens. As I've noted before, the abrupt shift to an economy based on capitalism has been jarring. The attempt to establish a democracy in concert with the new economic model has been challenging. No one can do this for Russia, of course. It's a bit like watching a friend who decides it's time to make some changes in his or her life.
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