"Putin starts presidential run with warning" November 28, 2011|By Lynn Berry, Associated Press
MOSCOW - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sternly warned the West not to interfere in Russia’s elections as he launched his campaign to reclaim the presidency in a speech yesterday before thousands of flag-waving supporters....
They did anyway.
Increasingly viewed as representing the interests of a corrupt bureaucracy, United Russia has watched its approval ratings sink in recent months. Nonetheless, the party is certain to win the Dec. 4 election, but is expected to lose the current two-thirds majority that has allowed it to change the constitution at will.
And yet the same mouthpiece media will be hollering fraud?
Putin’s decision to swap jobs with President Dmitry Medvedev after the presidential vote in March, presented as a done deal at the party congress in September, also has soured the public mood. Many Russians are wary of Putin’s authoritarian tendencies and fear he will remain in power for 12 more years to become the longest-serving leader since Communist times.
The congress yesterday began with a steelworker, a businessman, a farmer, a decorated special services officer, and a film director standing up one after another to praise Putin as the only man capable of leading the country. The 11,000 delegates chanted “Putin, Putin.’’
He promised Russians stability, a word he repeated often during his speech. In countering criticism that he has tightened his control at the expense of democracy, Putin said that Russia needs a “stable political system’’ to guarantee “stable development’’ for decades to come.
He used the occasion to lash out at opposition leaders, saying they had brought the country to ruin in the 1990s.
“They killed industry, agriculture, and the social sphere,’’ he said. “They stabbed the knife of civil war in the very heart of Russia by allowing bloodshed in the North Caucasus. In fact, they led the country to the brink of catastrophe, the edge of a precipice.’’
He said Russia wants to develop cooperation with the West but strongly warned the US and Europe against paying too much attention to the Kremlin’s critics and providing financial support.
“That’s a wasted effort, like throwing money to the winds,’’ he said.
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"Frustrated by Putin, Russians seek a way out" December 04, 2011|By Maria Danilova, Associated Press
MOSCOW - While an expanding economy has boosted living standards for many, corruption has become systemic and political competition has virtually disappeared. On a more day-to-day level, many Russians complain that education and health care continue to lag. The draft-based army is plagued by vicious hazing, leaving many parents fearful for their sons. Few have faith that they can count on either the police or the courts to protect them or their property....
It's AmeriKa (except for that first part)!!
But the decision to leave Russia is still often painful. Many emigres leave behind elderly parents, a familiar culture, and the ability to communicate in their native tongue....
As it is for any citizen of any nation.
In the early 2000s, Natalia Lepleiskaya voted for Putin and his party, but as the years went by she became increasingly angered by what is happening in the country....
She came to the conclusion that citizens have no power to hold the government accountable or push for change, either through competitive elections or street protests....
She's where I am.
Social inequality has worsened, corruption runs amok, opposition protests are violently dispersed, and the television news often resembles Soviet propaganda....
If you want more of that go here
Related: Russian voters deliver setback to Putin's party
Russian election marred by fraud, observers say
And not the way the agenda-pushing American media is reporting.
See: US Caught Meddling in Russian Elections
Russian protests quashed on day 2
Russian election chief blasts videos of alleged vote fraud
Voters say 'nyet' to fraud
That confirms it in my eyes that this is all a plan to destabilize Russia as much as possible before initiating WWIII with the USraeli attack on Iran.
"Putin blames voter unrest on Clinton; Says US incited protesters by voicing doubts" December 09, 2011|By David M. Herszenhorn and Steven Lee Myers, New York Times
MOSCOW - Asked about Putin’s remarks, Clinton reiterated her concerns at a NATO meeting in Brussels yesterday. She stressed the importance of the relationship with Russia, but added: “At the same time, the United States and many others around the world have a strong commitment to democracy and human rights. It’s part of who we are. It’s our values.’’
Torture is your values not mine, lady. Mass-murdering military action based on lies is your values, not mine.
Man, am I ever sick of the slop coming from US officials.
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"Big Moscow crowd demands reform; Demonstration is largest since end of Soviet Union" December 11, 2011|By Ellen Barry, New York Times
MOSCOW - Tens of thousands of Russians gathered peacefully in central Moscow yesterday to shout “Putin is a Thief’’ and “Russia Without Putin,’’ forcing the Kremlin to confront a level of public discontent that has not been seen here since Vladimir V. Putin first became president 12 years ago.
The crowd overflowed the square where it was held, prompting stragglers to climb trees or watch from the opposite riverbank, and organizers repeatedly cleared a footbridge out of fear it would collapse under the weight of so many people gathered for what was the largest anti-Kremlin protest since the collapse of the Soviet Union....
There was a massive police presence around the Moscow rally site, including rows of troop carriers, dump trucks, and bulldozers, but when the crowd dispersed four hours later, no detentions had been reported. Authorities reported only about 100 arrests nationwide.
Equally remarkable was the fact that the Moscow demonstration was covered on government-controlled television news, which has not aired criticism of Putin for years.
Did I also mention how sick I was of pot-hollering kettle mouthpieces?
Many in the crowd said the event marked a watershed moment perhaps not seen since the early 1990s, heady days when street politics brought down communism....
Calls for protest have been mounting since parliamentary elections last Sunday, which domestic and international observers said were tainted by ballot-stuffing and fraud on behalf of Putin’s party, United Russia.
The independent Russian election observer group Golos said yesterday that United Russia “achieved the majority mandate by falsification.’’
That's the AmeriKan-funded group!
Don't you wish they would spend as much time focusing on ELECTION FRAUD HERE AT HOME, Americans?
*********************
Yevgeniya Albats, editor of the New Times magazine, said the gathering was the most striking display of grass-roots democracy that she has seen in Russia, and that the involvement of young people was a game-changer....
It's Russia's Occupy Movement!!
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"Russia’s ruling party chief quits key post in vote scandal" December 15, 2011|By Michael Schwirtz, New York Times
MOSCOW - The chairman of Russia’s ruling party, United Russia, resigned as speaker of the lower house of Parliament yesterday, an apparent effort to quell some of the uproar about perceived fraud in recent parliamentary elections....
The resignation appeared to be part of a packet of concessions by the authorities to a defiant, upwardly mobile middle class that largely makes up a growing protest movement here.
Does THAT MAKE SENSE to YOU?!!
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Protesters demand 'fair vote for Russia'
That's another thing I'm sick: the arbitrary coverage of protests.
Wall Street Propagandists Scramble To Cover US Ties to Russian Protesters
Oh, now I see why they are getting so much positive coverage here.
Russians press for new elections
Numbers are dropping but they still get agenda-pushing approval.
"Russians scoff at Medvedev vow to investigate election; Bold commenters greet Facebook post with ridicule" December 12, 2011|By Kathy Lally, Washington Post
MOSCOW - President Dmitry Medvedev used his Facebook page yesterday to disclose that he had ordered an investigation into reports of election fraud, a statement his audience greeted with derision.
The posting quickly went viral and drew more than 8,000 mostly offended and even offensive comments in a little over six hours, revealing the depth of the disillusionment with Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and their government.
Tens of thousands of Russians spoke up in demonstrations across the country Saturday, protesting the Dec. 4 parliamentary elections, and they apparently had no intention of returning to their former silence.
“Shame!’’ was a frequent comment, along with “You’re pathetic.’’
The commenters’ posts yesterday revealed astonishing candor and courage. It’s one thing to stand in a Moscow crowd of up to 40,000, according to estimates, and call for new elections. It’s another matter to advertise your anger and disgust on the president’s Facebook page, where it doesn’t take a KGB agent to make a quick identification.
Won't take the U.S. long, either.
In posting on Facebook, Medvedev was attempting to respond to Russians who organized Saturday’s protest online, who are angry because they suspect the election was rigged in favor of the United Russia Party....
The AmeriKan media spin is incredible.
The protests against Putin and his party that arose in more than 60 Russian cities on Saturday, including a vast demonstration a few hundred yards from the Kremlin, appear to have shaken the man accustomed to giving orders, lecturing journalists at marathon news conferences, and dismissing dissenters with barbed and occasionally vulgar comments....
Did you read the AmeriKan media's description of Occupy?
State-controlled TV channels gave substantial airtime to the protests, a sharp change from their previously ignoring or deriding the opposition. Most of Saturday’s protests had government permission and Moscow authorities showed more restraint than they have in previous protests and made far fewer arrests.
Medvedev, famous for tweeting and carrying an iPad, routinely orders investigations into all sorts of matters: Nothing has come of those....
I know the feeling.
--more--"
Related: Medvedev reaches out to protest movement
"Putin praises, warns young protesters" December 16, 2011|By Michael Schwirtz, New York Times
MOSCOW - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia delivered a mixed assessment yesterday of a growing protest movement against his government, praising a new class of young dissenters for standing up for their beliefs while suggesting that they were being used as pawns by opposition leaders to destabilize the country....
He suggested that some of the protesters at last weekend’s rally might have been paid to be there, adding that he had no problem with students earning a little money. There has been no evidence that this was in fact the case.
Coming from the AmeriKan media that is a confirmation.
--more--"
"Russian leader promises more debate" December 22, 2011
MOSCOW - The Parliament chosen in a fraud-tainted election that set off protests across Russia opened its first session yesterday with the new speaker promising to allow more genuine debate in an effort to win voters’ trust.
Under Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the Parliament has become little more than a rubber stamp for government initiatives. The previous speaker once famously said it was “not a place for political discussion.’’
Sounds like the US Congress.
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"Massive protest calls for end of Putin’s rule; Free elections urged in huge Moscow rally" by Lynn Berry Associated Press / December 25, 2011
Tens of thousands of Russians jammed a Moscow avenue Saturday to demand free elections and an end to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s 12-year rule, in the largest show of public outrage since the protests 20 years ago that brought down the Soviet Union. Gone was the political apathy of recent years as many shouted “We are the Power!’’
The demonstration - bigger and better organized than a similar one two weeks ago -and smaller rallies across the country encouraged opposition leaders hoping to sustain a broad protest movement ignited by a fraud-tainted parliamentary election on Dec. 4.
--NOMORE--"
The enthusiasm also cheered Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader who closed down the Soviet Union on Dec. 25, 1991.
"I’m happy that I have lived to see the people waking up. This raises big hopes," the 80-year-old Gorbachev said on Ekho Moskvy radio.
He urged Putin to follow his example and give up power peacefully, saying Putin would be remembered for the positive things he did if he stepped down now. The former Soviet leader, who has grown increasingly critical of Putin, has little influence in Russia today.
Then why does the agenda-pushing media bring the fellow globalist.... never mind.
But the protesters have no central leader and no candidate capable of posing a serious challenge to Putin, who intends to return to the presidency in a March vote.
They ARE OCCUPY, except WE HAVE a CANDIDATE!
Even at Saturday’s rally, some of the speakers were jeered by the crowd. The various liberal, nationalist and leftist groups that took part appear united only by their desire to see "Russia without Putin," a popular chant.
It is a western plot.
Putin, who gave no public response to the protest Saturday, initially derided the demonstrators as paid agents of the West. He also said sarcastically that he thought the white ribbons they wore as an emblem were condoms. Putin has since come to take their protests more seriously, and in an effort to stem the anger he has offered a set of reforms to allow more political competition in future elections.
Then why does the agenda-pushing media bring the fellow globalist.... never mind.
But the protesters have no central leader and no candidate capable of posing a serious challenge to Putin, who intends to return to the presidency in a March vote.
They ARE OCCUPY, except WE HAVE a CANDIDATE!
Even at Saturday’s rally, some of the speakers were jeered by the crowd. The various liberal, nationalist and leftist groups that took part appear united only by their desire to see "Russia without Putin," a popular chant.
It is a western plot.
Putin, who gave no public response to the protest Saturday, initially derided the demonstrators as paid agents of the West. He also said sarcastically that he thought the white ribbons they wore as an emblem were condoms. Putin has since come to take their protests more seriously, and in an effort to stem the anger he has offered a set of reforms to allow more political competition in future elections.
Kremlin-controlled television covered Saturday’s rally, but gave no air time to Putin’s harshest critics....
Putin’s United Russia party lost 25 percent of its seats in the election, but hung onto a majority in parliament through what independent observers said was widespread fraud.
Even thought THAT is what the POLLS SHOWED would happen?
United Russia, seen as representing a corrupt bureaucracy, has become known as the party of crooks and thieves, a phrase coined by Alexei Navalny, a corruption-fighting lawyer and popular blogger.
We have one in AmeriKa.
"We have enough people here to take the Kremlin," Navalny shouted to the crowd. "But we are peaceful people and we won’t do that — yet. But if these crooks and thieves keep cheating us, we will take what is ours."
Even thought THAT is what the POLLS SHOWED would happen?
United Russia, seen as representing a corrupt bureaucracy, has become known as the party of crooks and thieves, a phrase coined by Alexei Navalny, a corruption-fighting lawyer and popular blogger.
We have one in AmeriKa.
"We have enough people here to take the Kremlin," Navalny shouted to the crowd. "But we are peaceful people and we won’t do that — yet. But if these crooks and thieves keep cheating us, we will take what is ours."
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov was among those who sought to give the protesters a sense of empowerment. "There are so many of us here, and they (the government) are few," Kasparov said.
That's where Globe print ended.
MOSCOW — The youthful, Internet-savvy Russians who have turned out in the streets in historic numbers in recent weeks want to end Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s untrammeled rule over their country, but whether they can translate their frustration to the political arena — or even whether they will remain fired up — remains an open question.
Sound familiar, American Occupiers?
Much of the country’s young post-Soviet middle class stayed apolitical until recent months, and the established opposition parties have been slow to capitalize on the discontent. On Monday, the planners of a Christmas Eve protest agreed to focus on denying Putin the presidency in March. But they did not discuss a candidate for whom they would campaign, in part because few new faces are on the scene.
The latest disappointment for the young organizers came Monday when the reformist Yabloko party filed papers to nominate its longtime leader, Grigory Yavlinsky, 59, for president, rather than a charismatic blogger, Alexei Navalny, 35, who has been a galvanizing force behind the protests.
He must be the West's man.
Many of the young generation thought that nominating Navalny was the fastest path to a re-energized electorate, although some have questioned his strident nationalism.
The party rejected consideration of the blogger at a weekend meeting, saying he had not submitted a written application. But filling out the form would have been difficult: Navalny has been in prison, accused of obstructing traffic during an unsanctioned protest, since the day after the Dec. 4 parliamentary elections.
That there is serious discussion about challengers to Putin is itself a major departure for a country where just weeks ago any chinks in his armor appeared theoretical at best.
Yes, isn't that VERY INTERESTING?!?!
“There is a demand for changes in society, and such changes are not possible without new faces in politics,” said Nikolai Kuznetsov, a member of Yabloko who had pushed for the blogger to be the party’s nominee. “Navalny’s supporters are active young people. They are the ones who are building civil society in Russia. Because of him, people in Russia now understand that the United Russia party is a party of crooks and thieves,” he said, referring to a phrase Navalny coined that has become a popular way to refer to Putin’s party.
It remains unclear whether Yavlinsky will make it onto the ballot. He and billionaire New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, 46, who declared his intention to run last week, will each have to collect 2 million signatures by Jan. 18 to qualify — working through the New Year’s and Christmas holidays, when much of the country goes on vacation....
Prokhorov, a pro-business candidate who has espoused democratic reforms, could attract liberal support, but some analysts here have questioned whether he has been put up by the Kremlin to split the reformists’ vote.
More about him below.
If neither Prokhorov nor Yavlinsky makes it onto the ballot, Russians most likely will choose among an ultra-nationalist, a Communist nostalgic, a candidate who until this year was close to Putin, and Putin himself — unappetizing options for the protesters, many of whom were uninterested in politics until very recently, content to prosper as the run-up in oil prices drove government spending during Putin’s first decade in power.
Withered by the Putin years, few political parties cater to a youthful audience.
Yabloko would once have been the most natural fit for many of the protesters, analysts say. But “most of the members are pensioners, or close to retirement age,” said Kuznetsov, 30, who said he was one of the party’s youngest officials.
Civic organizations have sprung up in recent years — one dedicated to saving a forest on the outskirts of Moscow from development, another devoted to fighting the blue lights that the rich and powerful put on top of their cars so they can speed around Moscow’s always-snarled traffic — but their broader political aims remain muted, and when their leaders have turned toward the established parties, they have been rebuffed....
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About that billionaire challenger:
"Billionaire set to run against Putin; Election losses stir opposition forces in Russia" December 13, 2011|By Jim Heintz, Associated Press
MOSCOW - It is unclear how effective a challenger Mikhail Prokhorov, the billionaire industrialist and owner of the New Jersey Nets, might prove to be. His wealth, estimated by Forbes magazine at $18 billion, and his playboy reputation may turn off voters who resent the gargantuan fortunes compiled by tycoons even as countless Russians struggled through the economic chaos of the 1990s after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Of course, since 2000 and Putin the middle-class has expanded, but hey, who cares about inexactitude and contradiction when it comes to an agenda-pushing mouthpiece media posing as a newspaper?
The 46-year-old bachelor is known for lavish parties and the occasional scandal. He and some guests were arrested at a Christmas party in the French Alpine resort of Courchevel in 2007 for allegedly arranging for prostitutes; but he was soon released without charges.
Prokhorov made his fortune in metals and banking and became majority stakeholder in the New Jersey Nets last year. Since then, he has traveled widely to build a global fan base for the basketball team, in the process showing off his 6-foot-8 frame and excellent command of English....
Yeah, owning the basketball team should help him win votes.
--more--"
Also see: Russian principal dies in jail despite shaky case
Russian journalist killed outside office
Architect of Russian domestic politics is reassigned
About that billionaire challenger:
"Billionaire set to run against Putin; Election losses stir opposition forces in Russia" December 13, 2011|By Jim Heintz, Associated Press
MOSCOW - It is unclear how effective a challenger Mikhail Prokhorov, the billionaire industrialist and owner of the New Jersey Nets, might prove to be. His wealth, estimated by Forbes magazine at $18 billion, and his playboy reputation may turn off voters who resent the gargantuan fortunes compiled by tycoons even as countless Russians struggled through the economic chaos of the 1990s after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Of course, since 2000 and Putin the middle-class has expanded, but hey, who cares about inexactitude and contradiction when it comes to an agenda-pushing mouthpiece media posing as a newspaper?
The 46-year-old bachelor is known for lavish parties and the occasional scandal. He and some guests were arrested at a Christmas party in the French Alpine resort of Courchevel in 2007 for allegedly arranging for prostitutes; but he was soon released without charges.
Prokhorov made his fortune in metals and banking and became majority stakeholder in the New Jersey Nets last year. Since then, he has traveled widely to build a global fan base for the basketball team, in the process showing off his 6-foot-8 frame and excellent command of English....
Yeah, owning the basketball team should help him win votes.
--more--"
Also see: Russian principal dies in jail despite shaky case
Russian journalist killed outside office
Architect of Russian domestic politics is reassigned
