Anna-Lena Laurén: the Park stands against the church in Ekaterinburg

They dance to Queen, and Viktor Tsoj – city residents in Yekaterinburg, who would rather have a green park than a church.

Right now, there is the demonstration for the second day in succession. Demonstrators have torn down the fence and several have been arrested by the police. Specialpoliser has been sent in to disperse the demonstrators.

the Choice of the music is symbolic. Both the Queen and Tsoj (perestrojkans rockikon) symbolizes rebellion.

on Monday evening, walked a few hundred inhabitants in Ekaterinburg it out of the park at the Plosjtjad Truda and demonstrated against that area had been blocked of for a kyrkbygge. They clashed with the guards, and the confrontation continued until Tuesday morning.

A kind of combined rebellion against the klerikalism and corruption is what is going on in the Kremlin right now. The church wants to build a cathedral and is supported by the city and religious activists. Citizens want to keep their park.

has historic claims on the site. Here was a church between 1764 and 1930, Ekaterina cathedral, which was dynamited by the bolsheviks the Destruction was part of the bolsheviks systematic policy to eradicate religions.

in 2010, a decision was taken that the church would be rebuilt. Since then, the process has stalled.

When the area is recently being blocked for kyrkbygget would begin, the reaction was instantaneous. Hundreds of people went out to stop the construction. Fences were torn down, and a diverse mixture of private security companies, religious activists and professional MMA kampidrottare defended the construction. The police was passive, according to eyewitnesses.

, the capital of the Urals, is famous for its hard-line industrial workers and their banditmaffia – but also for its from the Moscow, independent, intellectual, and political tradition. It is no coincidence that Russia's first president Boris Yeltsin was born here. For many years, the city had an independent mayor by the name of Yevgeny Rojzman.

In recent years, Russia has been rocked by a number of small demonstrations. The provinces of rebels against being forced to receive Moskvabornas garbage, against the increased retirement age and now, towards the minster.

All protests are about one thing: People are outraged, never to be questioned. In addition, implementation decisions often in a clumsy and incompetent way of officials and decision-makers, which means the necessary measures are not having the intended effect.

On social media quickly created groups of citizens protesting against individual decisions. Often they have a strong impact and is extremely difficult for policymakers to shake off.

the Kremlin is against the church itself. It is above all about people, experience their urban environment is being destroyed and no one asks them whether they would rather have a park or a church.

In the bottom is also a strong sense of frustration, of knowing that all major construction projects in Russia almost invariably involve corruption. To officials and decision-makers will gladly give permission to big projects where a lot of money is involved is because they expect to get a piece of the pie.

" After all the protests against the pension reform had believed that the officials would at least avoid to irritate people further. But it itches in your fingers at them and now they go on the areas that are very dangerous, where people feel that their private lives will be curtailed, writes the political scientist Aleksandr Kynev of the independence of the 7x7.