MOSCOW - In a show of strength that demonstrated his intention to win the presidency by a landslide, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin put his political machine into high gear yesterday as it assembled tens of thousands of people for a meticulously organized, and heavily patriotic, preelection rally.
You know, I have really, really had it with the pot-hollering-kettle crap AmeriKan media.
Using the considerable means at his disposal, Putin showed why even the opposition here expects him to emerge as the victor in the March 4 election. He freely deployed government resources, and marshaled as participants those who rely on a government paycheck - or a paycheck from a company that enjoys government largesse....
Yeah, good thing all that never happens in AmeriKa.
I'm sick of the constant sawing away by the f***ing s*** AmeriKan media, readers. I'm so sorry.
The army set up field kitchens to dispense food and beverages.
When our guys do it they are heroes.
So did the ministry of emergency situations. The Moscow schools food service program delivered rations in its trucks.
Military police directed traffic. Banners were handed out, sometimes to people who did not know what they stood for. All this was in contrast to the opposition demonstrations of earlier weeks - as was the trash that yesterday’s attendees left behind.
That's the same complaint the agenda-pushing media makes about Occupy here!! How very instructive!
But being recruited, pressured, or forced to attend did not appear to translate into a lack of genuine support for Putin. “Stability,’’ agreed the retired women, was what they approve of in Putin. They, like many others, chose not to give their names - also in contrast to the opposition protesters.
“Everything will be great; Ingushetia is for Putin,’’ said Uruskhan Galayev, a 20-year-old student, who was clearly enjoying the chance for an outing with his friends.
“At this point in time, it’s better to have a president with experience and who has already dealt with crises,’’ said Sergei Grigorin, a 54-year-old retired veteran. Besides, he added, “none of the other candidates has a chance of winning the election.’’
That, in fact, has been one of the main opposition complaints against Putin. He has apparently decided that he must win more than 50 percent of the vote, to avoid a second round. So a government-controlled polling agency now reports that he is in line to win 58.6 percent of the vote, after steady improvement all winter.
That could be an actual reflection of his standing - or it could be the response to an order from on high. Reports of widespread fraud in December’s parliamentary elections have generated a large degree of suspicion on officially reported numbers.
I KNOW the FEELING!!
Pressure against the few remnants of a free press has been stepped up. The government moved to take firmer control of Ekho Moskvy, an insouciant radio station; security agents raided the bank of Alexander Lebedev, a billionaire and former KGB agent who provides financial support for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which said it would have to suspend staff salaries for a month; and prosecutors questioned a lively Internet TV station, called Dozhd, as to whether it receives financing from US sources.
Putin has been hammering away at the United States, and yesterday - the Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland, a holiday formerly known as Soviet Army Day - he dwelt on Russian pride and patriotism.
Seems to be okay when AmeriKan politicians wave and wrap themselves in the flag.
“We came here to say we love Russia,’’ Putin said after striding onto a stage in the middle of the 80,000-seat Luzhniki stadium under a steadily falling snow. “We are the defenders of our fatherland.’’
The response from the crowd was muted. Thousands had streamed out before he arrived, complaining of the cold and, in many cases, declaring that they had fulfilled their obligation to a boss or teacher and now just wanted to go home. They may not have known he would speak - whether he would or not was not clear until he entered the stadium. But thousands more had stayed.
Can you see why I'm so sick of this shit and unenthusiastic about reading and analyzing it?
One or two applause lines went by in silence - but when Putin finished, the stadium erupted into cheers.
The implication being they were cheering at the fact that he was done.
Did I mention I was tired of s*** insults, too?
Putin evoked a Russia under siege, recalling that this year marks the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia and the Battle of Borodino.
“The fight for Russia continues,’’ he said. “We will win.’’
They always do.
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Related: Rushing Through Russian Post
Can you blame me?
"Russian protesters form 10-mile chain for anti-Putin event; Thousands hold hands to encircle central Moscow" by Lynn Berry | Associated Press, February 27, 2012
MOSCOW - Thousands of protesters held hands to form a 10-mile human chain encircling central Moscow yesterday to keep up the pressure on Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as he prepares to extend his rule for six more years.
Putin, who was Russia’s president from 2000 to 2008, is running for a third term - now set at 6 years long - in an election March 4. He is expected to win easily against four Kremlin-approved challengers, but an unprecedented wave of protests has undermined his image as a strong leader who rules with broad public support.
Related: US to Attempt Overthrow of Putin Government
Yeah, WE GOT THE MESSAGE, mouthpiece!!
The protest yesterday appeared drew about the 34,000 people that opposition activists estimated were needed to complete the chain along the Garden Ring, a wide road that makes a loop around the city center. Almost all of the people standing in the wet snow wore the white ribbons that have become a symbol of the peaceful anti-Putin protest movement.
When the agenda-pushing newspapers endorse your protest you know it is an intelligence operation.
Young Putin supporters also were out in sections of the Garden Ring yesterday.
And I'll bet there were a LOT MORE!
Wearing heart-shaped red signs around their necks that said “Putin loves everyone,’’ they handed out similar ribbons in imitation of the protesters. Some passers-by refused the pro-Putin ribbons, which had stripes of white, blue, and red like the national flag.
The Garden Ring was the scene of protests on two past Sundays, when hundreds of people drove cars decorated with white ribbons and balloons as others waved from the sidewalks and overpasses as they went by, horns blaring.
These demonstrations have helped the protest movement maintain momentum between the huge rallies in Moscow that have drawn tens of thousands of people.
That tune will be changing real soon.
The protests began in December following a parliamentary election that saw widespread vote rigging to boost the results for Putin’s party....
It was rigging the other way, but what would you expect from the AmeriKan media at this point?
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"Moscow protesters denounce Putin’s victory; Hundreds arrested at St. Petersburg, Moscow rallies" by Ellen Barry and Michael Schwirtz | New York Times, March 06, 2012
MOSCOW - A day after claiming an overwhelming victory in Russia’s presidential elections, Vladimir Putin faced a range of challenges Monday to his legitimacy, including charges of fraud from international observers and a defiant opposition that vowed to keep him from serving his full six-year term.
While Putin was still celebrating his win, thousands of antigovernment protesters gathered in a city square to blast his victory as illegitimate, chanting “Russia without Putin,’’ and “Putin is a thief; we are the government!’’
When riot police demanded the crowd disperse an hour later, dozens of demonstrators circled blogger Alexei Navalny, the most charismatic figure to emerge in this wave of activism, but officers detained him and pushed him into a police van along with most of the movement’s other prominent leaders. Dozens of other arrests were reported, while determined protesters tried to keep regrouping....
That blogger must be one of their agents.
Putin also received a figurative slap in the face from observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which said he had faced no real competition and unfairly benefited from lavish government spending on his behalf.
He received milder rebukes from the European Union and from the United States, which called on the government to conduct a thorough investigation of fraud allegations but said it was ready to work with Putin in his new role.
Putin’s capture of 63.7 percent of the vote Sunday extended his claim on power to 18 years and strengthened his hand against the opposition, which he cast as pawns of Russia’s enemies. The Monday crowd, which police estimated at 14,000, had little of the giddy confidence of the past, instead showing uncertainty and anger....
Putin was genuinely shaken in December, when his United Russia Party performed dismally in parliamentary elections. Even those results were padded by ballot-stuffing and other flagrant violations. Putin’s own approval rating had dropped to a 10-year low, suggesting that he had miscalculated in announcing his return to the presidency for a six-year term.
Then it popped back up, but.... sigh.
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"Putin protest movement loses steam, lacks agenda; Rally turnout drops after his election victory" by David M. Herszenhorn and Ellen Barry | New York Times, March 11, 2012
MOSCOW - Thousands of people thronged a concourse along a main street in Moscow on Saturday to denounce President Vladimir V. Putin and to cry out together, one more time, for political freedom.
They waved the flags of opposition parties in a kaleidoscopic swirl; wore white ribbons that read, “Russia demands change’’; and chanted now-familiar refrains: “Russia without Putin!’’ and “Russia will be free!’’
And so Moscow’s winter of dissent drew to a close. Or so it seemed.
In the 13 weeks since the first rally on Bolotnaya Square, the movement had not spread much beyond Moscow, and no clear leader had emerged.
Then WHY was the AmeriKan media making it seem so huge?
The outrage over electoral fraud in December and anger over Putin’s return to the presidency, perhaps for 12 more years, brought together radicals, moderates, liberals, fascists, communists, nationalists, social democrats, the young, and the old, many of them from Moscow’s new and growing middle class.
They turned against Putin after he raised their standards of living?
But while they shared grievances, organizers acknowledged that they had yet to settle on a common goal or a common path forward.
“We know who we are against,’’ said Kseniya Sobchak, a television celebrity and socialite who is one of the most recognizable protesters. “We need to show what we are for.’’
For Saturday’s protest, the authorities granted a permit for up to 50,000 people - perhaps 20,000 showed up....
Putin received 64 percent of the vote, according to official returns, and while there were allegations of widespread voting irregularities, even many of his critics acknowledged that he had won a majority of votes.
With the protest movement at a crossroads, some participants talked about possibly joining a new political party that the billionaire Mikhail D. Prokhorov, who finished third in the election, has vowed to create.
Related:
"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."
Others talked about pushing Putin hard to fulfill his campaign promises of government reform.
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Related: Strategy for now, beyond divides Russian protesters
"Russian activist’s husband gets 5 years" Associated Press, March 16, 2012
MOSCOW - A Russian court sentenced the husband of an opposition activist to five years in prison Thursday in a case that has outraged antigovernment protesters.
Also Thursday, separate Moscow courts sentenced opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov to 10 days in jail for disobeying police during a protest rally last weekend and ordered Alexei Navalny, perhaps the most charismatic of the protest leaders, to pay a fine of $33 for disobeying police orders at a rally.
The case against Alexei Kozlov dates to 2008, when he was arrested on charges of fraud related to a business deal with a former member of Parliament. He was initially sentenced to eight years in prison, but his wife, journalist Olga Romanova, successfully battled the legal system until the Supreme Court overturned her husband’s conviction and ordered him released in September.
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Related: Russian activists now fear reprisals
Police detain protesters in Russia
Police detain protesters in Moscow, St. Petersburg
Yeah, their numbers are dwindling fast!
