Russians paid to march in ‘Immortal Regiment’ parade honouring dead soldiers

“Immortal Regiment” parades are important to the Kremlin because they transform ordinary citizens from passive bystanders into active participants.

The Fontanka journalist said that about 70 people answered the advert put out by the Moscow-based Akula marketing agency.

“I was handed a poster with a black-and-white portrait of Pavel Viktorovich Minakin. According to information from open sources, he died during the second Chechen War in February 2000 from a sniper’s bullet,” she wrote.

“At the command of one of the organisers, we raised and lowered posters of the dead several times. The operator filmed. Nearby a timid ‘Ura!’ went up. Several people in our column chuckled awkwardly.”