Dmitry Gudkov member of Russian Opposition Coordination Council
Participation in the protest movement 2011–2013
The Gudkovs are noted for their opposition to President Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party. Along with Ilya Ponomarev, Dmitry and Gennady Gudkovs became leaders in the 2012 protests against Putin's re-election. In the period of winter 2011 to spring 2012, Gudkov took an active part in protest actions and acted as one of the organizers of the rallies "For Fair Elections". During the unauthorized "public festivities" on Kudrinskaya Square following Vladimir Putin's inauguration, Gudkov tried to present the rally as his meeting with voters to prevent the detention of protesters. According to Gudkov, he was illegally detained on an opposition meeting on Nikitsky Boulevard on 8 May 2012, but the police claimed that the politician himself followed the detainee Ksenia Sobchak. In the elections to the Russian Opposition Coordination Council in October 2012, Gudkov was ranked the tenth in the civil list. In May 2013, Gudkov criticized Maxim Katz, a municipal deputy of the Shchukino district who prematurely left the opposition council and called for his dissolution, for "showing weakness" and creating a motive to criticise the Coordination Council. In September of the same year Gudkov himself refused to run for new membership in the Council. After Gudkov's refusal and other members of the Coordination Council to participate in the further work of the association, the council basically ceased its activities.In June 2012, Ponomarev, Gudkov and his father led a filibuster against a bill allowing large fines for anti-government protesters, alternating speaking against the bill for 11 hours. Gennady Gudkov said of the bill that by removing outlets for protest, the legislation was putting Russia on "a sure path to a civil war". The Economist described the filibuster as "the most striking act of parliamentary defiance in the Putin era".
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