"Protesters rally in anger over Russia's economy; Actions challenge the Kremlin" by Mansur Mirovalev, Associated Press | February 1, 2009
MOSCOW - Thousands of protesters rallied against the government in cities across Russia yesterday, reflecting mounting anger over the nation's economic woes.
The protests, among the largest yet, posed a challenge to the Kremlin, which faced little threat from the fragmented opposition during the years of oil-driven boom. The largest march took place in the far eastern port of Vladivostok, where about 3,000 people denounced the Cabinet's decision to increase tariffs on imported cars. Some shouted slogans urging Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to resign.
Many people in the region make their living from importing cars. Police, who brutally dispersed a similar protest in Vladivostok last month, did not intervene. In Moscow, about 1,000 Communist demonstrators rallied on a central square. Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov said the government must abandon Western economic models and adopt broad nationalization. Protesters held signs reading: "Putin's plan - Peril to Russia!"
More like he SAVED RUSSIA from the JEWISH MAFIA (I think; it's hard to tell sometimes).
Several hundred police officers lined the square but did not try to break up the protest, which had been sanctioned by authorities. But Eduard Limonov, who leads the banned National Bolshevik Party and who is one of the Kremlin's most vocal critics, was detained by police before he could make a statement.
Limonov was among about 10 party activists who were held after attempting to join in the Communist Party march. Across town, demonstrators from former chess champion Garry Kasparov's United Civil Front opposition group caught police by surprise. Protesters shouting "Russia without Putin!" gathered at a subway station - then took a train across the city, leaving police behind.
Police detained several protesters, and activists from the Young Russia pro-Kremlin youth group brutally beat others, but several dozen demonstrators marched downtown, shouting "Down with the government!" and "Russia without Putin!"
See, they are the PUTIN YOUTH!!
Propaganda on FULL THROTTLE, isn't it, War Daily?
Putin must be hurting their crime syndicate.
"We are demanding civil freedoms and pushing for the government's resignation," said Valery Nadezhdin, one of the protesters. Kasparov did not take part in the march.
A small group of activists from the opposition youth group "We" protested near the headquarters of the Russian government with blank posters and their lips sealed with tape. The protest was peaceful but police detained all the participants.
I'd bet my bottom dollar that the West is funding these groups, either covertly or through "human rights" and "non-governmental" covers.
Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said a total of 41 people were detained briefly yesterday for participating in unsanctioned rallies. Authorities sought to counter the protests with a rally of the main pro-Kremlin United Russia party next to the Kremlin - an area off limits to other demonstrations. Army soldiers served tea and cookies to some 9,000 participants who gathered on a crisp sunny day with temperatures about minus 7 degrees.
Minus 7 degrees? That doesn't sound like global warming to me!!!!
United Russia staged similar rallies in several other cities across Russia. In St. Petersburg, where authorities barred opposition groups from holding rallies, individual protesters walked the streets. One of them, Denis Vasilyev of the United Civil Front, held a placard saying: "Put the Government Under People's Control!"
The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that about 500 Communist demonstrators attended an antigovernment rally in Novosibirsk, in central Siberia, and some 100 rallied in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The demonstrations represent a serious challenge to the Kremlin, which sidelined political opponents and established tight controls on the media during Putin's eight-year presidential tenure.
Many observers predict the protests will snowball as unemployment grows, prices soar and the ruble is loses its value. The currency has lost over a fifth of its value since November because of a slide in commodity and oil prices. The government has pledged to spend over a trillion rubles to help revive the economy.
So their economy is also being screwed with by the bankers!!!!
Tensions have increased in the Vladivostok region since the government raised taxes on imported foreign vehicles in an effort to protect domestic auto manufacturers, which have been badly hurt by the economic downturn. Used Japanese vehicles are popular in Vladivostok, and many people make their living importing them. The taxes have had a severe effect on the business.
--more--"And look at the European protests the MSM missed!
Related: Agent Provocateurs Missing at French Protests
Britons protest hiring of foreign workers
Buckling Europe fears protests may spark a new revolution
Protesters rally in Mexico City
Update: Russia, looted by oligarchs and oppressed by their government, edges closer to revolution
"
Umar S. Israilov saw the men who had come to kill him. They confronted him in the neighborhood where he lived in hiding in Vienna. He must have sensed their intentions, because he ran.
For more than two years, Mr. Israilov, a Chechen in exile, had formally accused Russia’s government of allowing a macabre pattern of crimes in Chechnya. Even by the dark norms of violence in the Caucasus, his accusations were extraordinary.
A rebel fighter turned bodyguard of Ramzan A. Kadyrov, Chechnya’s current president, Mr. Israilov had access to the inner ring of Chechen power. Mr. Kadyrov’s career has been sponsored by Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who as president lifted him from obscurity with unwavering Kremlin support.
In written legal complaints, Mr. Israilov described many brutal acts by Mr. Kadyrov and his subordinates, including executions of illegally detained men. One executed man, Mr. Israilov said, had been beaten with a shovel handle by Mr. Kadyrov and Adam Delimkhanov, now a member of Russia’s Parliament. Another prisoner, the defector said, was sodomized by a prominent police officer and at Mr. Kadyrov’s order put to death.
Mr. Israilov said he and others had been tortured by Mr. Kadyrov, who amused himself by personally giving prisoners electric shocks or firing pistols at their feet. Mr. Kadyrov and Mr. Delimkhanov refused to be interviewed for this article. A spokesman for Mr. Kadyrov released a statement decrying “a large-scale and purposeful campaign” to discredit Chechnya’s president and government. The campaign, the spokesman said, was the “deeply conspiratorial initiative of some ideologists of terrorism and an armed criminal underground.”
Since 1994, Russia’s wars against nationalist and Islamic separatists in Chechnya have been fought with sinister conduct by all sides. Human rights organizations and independent journalists have documented patterns of abduction, detention, disappearances, collective punishment, extrajudicial executions and the systematic use of torture by Russian and Chechen authorities, including Mr. Kadyrov. The separatists have unapologetically employed terrorist attacks, including on children.
Of course, NEVER YOU MIND U.S. TORTURE, FALSE FALG OPERATIONS, and THINGS of THAT NATURE!!
But the character of Mr. Israilov’s allegations was different. He had been an insider. And with his father, Sharpuddi — who says that Mr. Kadyrov illegally detained him for more than 10 months, and that his captors tortured victims with a gas torch — he filed complaints to Russian prosecutors and the European Court of Human Rights in 2006 and 2007.
The Israilovs’ filings, never made public, appear to have been the first formal allegations based on the actions of Mr. Kadyrov, who has been celebrated by the Kremlin as a hero for marginalizing the insurgency in the Republic of Chechnya since 2004.
Taken together, their accounts offer a window into Russia’s counterinsurgency campaign and the climb to power of Chechens in Kremlin favor as the separatists’ influence waned. They also detail efforts by Chechnya’s government to suppress knowledge of its policies through official lies, obstruction and witness intimidation.
Since last year, the Israilovs had cooperated with The New York Times, including by providing copies of sealed court records....
The Times postponed publication of the Israilovs’ accounts out of concern for the safety of witnesses and people who helped the investigation, some of whom wanted to relocate....
AGAIN!!!!??
--more--"
I guess Russian lives mean nothing to the Zionist War Daily because this item is only a brief: 23 elderly killed in apartment fire
"Advocate of improved ties with Rome is made Russian Orthodox patriarch
MOSCOW - A new patriarch took charge of the Russian Orthodox Church yesterday, formally becoming the first leader of the world's largest Orthodox church to take office after the fall of the Soviet Union. Patriarch Kirill, 62, has been a cautious advocate of change and a prominent figure in trying to reconcile with the Catholic Church....
That's bound to piss off the Jews, isn't it?
Kirill... has been critical of tolerance of homosexuality, abortion, multiparty democracy and the division of secular and religious authority. He adheres to nationalist ideas about Russia's role in the world and supports the idea that Russian civilization is fundamentally different and opposed to Western concepts.
Oh, is that ever a THUMB in the EYE to the Jewish agenda!!!!!
An unusually outspoken religious figure in the church known for its traditionalism, he has long pushed for introduction of Orthodox religious classes in schools. Church and state are officially separate under the post-Soviet constitution, but ties have tightened again since Putin came to power in 2000.
--more--"The western reaction is predictable:
"Russia, EU spar over human rights
MOSCOW - The EU's top executive angered Prime Minister Vladimir Putin while standing next to him at a news conference yesterday by raising concerns about the murders of Russian human rights activists and journalists in Moscow.
Their acrimonious exchange came after meetings intended to improve European Union-Russian relations, badly scarred by the Georgia war and last month's cutoff of Russian natural gas supplies to Europe. Both Putin and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said their talks were constructive and set a positive tone for negotiations on a long-awaited EU-Russia partnership agreement.
But the atmosphere soured after Barroso mentioned that he had raised the issue of Russia's problems with the rule of law in his meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev earlier yesterday.
"I have just now learned that Mr. Barroso discussed the construction of a law-based state with President Medvedev," a visibly irritated Putin told reporters. "Mr. Barroso discussed this in the Kremlin but is talking about it here, at a news conference, where Mr. Medvedev is absent and cannot say anything about this issue."
Putin tried to turn the tables, saying the rights of ethnic Russians, migrants, and prisoners are violated in some EU countries. Barroso then offered more detail, saying he had expressed EU concerns about the fatal shootings on a Moscow street last month of a human rights lawyer and a reporter.
Never mind all the reporters (let alone civilians) the West has killed in Iraq (or Afghanistan).
I can see why the Russian got angry; I'd get sick of being lectured and moralized to by a bunch of fat-assed hypocrites!
"Just like here in the US!" -- Wake the Flock Up