Anti-Putin protests get worse in Russia

Tshering22

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Tens of thousands took to the streets of Moscow on Saturday to protest against allegedly fraudulent elections, as opposition leaders issued scathing personal attacks on Vladimir Putin in the hope of preventing his return to the presidency next year.

Security sources said 80,000 people turned out for the four hour protest on Moscow's Sakharov Prospect, despite a freezing temperature of -5C. Police put the number at 29,000 while protest organisers said up to 120,000 had gathered.

Protesters waved banners, let fly balloons and called for Putin's ouster in the biggest protest yet against the powerful leader's rule.

"I see enough people here to take the Kremlin or White House right now!" opposition leader Alexey Navalny told the crowd.

"But we are a peaceful force – we won't do that, for now. But if these crooks and thieves continue to try to cheat us, to try to lie and steal from us, we will take [what's rightfully ours] by ourselves."

The protest, on a wide avenue named after leading Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, dwarfed a similar protest held two weeks ago. While that crowd was largely young and middle class, Saturday's protest also gathered many pensioners and first-time protesters, indicating that anti-government sentiment was growing.

"Russia can't go on like this," said Alexei Frolov, 26, a clothing shop manager. "Putin should stand aside; he looks out of touch with reality."

Frolov said he voted against the United Russia party in the early December parliamentary vote and became angry after seeing videos of ballot box stuffing online.

"When I looked at the crowds going to the first protests, I saw they were not cattle, but normal, happy people who just wanted to defend their rights. So this time I decided to come too."

Speakers issued attacks on Putin and called on voters to prevent his election in a 4 March presidential vote. A further protest was planned for after the long New Year's holiday.

"We are the 99%," Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov said in a video message broadcast to the crowd. Udaltsov has been repeatedly jailed for minor offences in what his supporters say is a campaign to keep him off the streets. "The 1% are Kremlin bandits, criminal oligarchs, corrupted officials and other bastards."

Referring to Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, the president, he said: "The leadership – these tandem dwarves – is deathly dangerous for Russia."

Although able to unite a huge crowd against Putin, opposition leaders have struggled to unify around a concrete figure, although Navalny, recently released from jail following his participation in Russia's first post-election protest, was best able to rouse the crowd and has proven popular among many in the Moscow elite despite his nationalist views.

The oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, who has received Kremlin approval to run for president as a relatively liberal candidate against Putin, showed up at the protest but did not address the crowd. Alexei Kudrin, a longtime Putin ally and former finance minister, made an unexpected appearance and joined the call for new elections.

"We believe that next year power will change peacefully and power will belong to who it should," Navalny said. "We warn that we will go out into the streets until they return what belongs to us. We are peaceful people but we can't be patient indefinitely."

Medvedev has attempted to appease the protesters by offering a package of election reforms and permitting them to gather. The police presence in Moscow was minimal on Saturday, although a helicopter hovered over protesters' heads.

Medvedev, due to leave the presidency after the March vote and long seen as being in Putin's shadow, was not a target for most protesters. They instead turned their wrath toward Putin. Several protesters carried condoms in reference to Putin's insult their protest symbol – a white ribbon – resembled contraceptives. Some were inflated and held like balloons, others dangled limply from coats or posters. Others held aloft posters comparing Putin to Muammar Gaddafi and Kim Jong-il.

Natalya Dikashvili, a 30-year-old advertising agency owner, stood alone holding a white rose and the orange flag that is the symbol of Solidarity, an umbrella liberal opposition organisation. "I don't know a single person who voted for United Russia but the official result said they got almost 50%," she said. "We need clean, honest elections so that there is a real choice. We need fairness."

What response would satisfy her from Putin and the ruling elite? "That they would all go away so that we can start again,"she said.

Yelena Savrayeva, 42, the director of a publishing firm, had a white ribbon pinned to her jacket and a sticker on her back reading: "The state department of the USA doesn't pay me, I pay taxes in the Russian Federation."

She said: "I'm for honest elections, for a lawful state. I want politics to be polyphony, not monotone. It's the cynicism and the silliness of the ruling power that I can't stand any more."

LINK: Russian anti-Putin protests draw thousands to Moscow again | World news | guardian.co.uk

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The man is seriously not liked these days eh? 2011 is proving to be some year for Russians. Wonder what AV has to say on this.
 
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JineshJK

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Oh its just another CIA play. Look at US, a very good history for making fake election results and no problem...
 

Tshering22

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^^ But I tell you something. I have many Russian friends with whom I have worked on some international projects. They too don't like Putin. After his first term got over, many Russians say that he got corrupted and started abusing his powers turning Russia into his playground. Using his KGB influence, he moulded the state totally to his personal favors. While Putin's first term was loved by all Russians, post his second victory things went downhill.

While US may have a hand here, Russians now dislike Putin like anything. I couldn't believe it two years ago but having spoken to a lot of Russians, I guess it is not as simple to blame the Americans now as it was sometime back. There is really a discontent among Russian people.
 

SpArK

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The new look Putin, Is he good or bad for India.

There has been some shift in focus with the Russians lately on geo politics.
 

Tshering22

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^^ The man seems to be focusing more on his own elite circle these days than any outward country for that matter. So can't say what he will do in the future. The way he's obsessed with becoming the next Vladimir Lenin is not really appreciated by modern Russians.
 

Param

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The new look Putin, Is he good or bad for India.

There has been some shift in focus with the Russians lately on geo politics.
He's good for Russia, that's for sure.
 

The Messiah

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No doubt these protestors demand a liberal dove who will make the country totally incompetent.
 

Zebra

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Published on Dec 24, 2011 by AFP
Tens of thousands massed in Moscow on Saturday to protest against the alleged rigging of parliamentary polls, in a new challenge to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin's domination of the country.
 
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Ray

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The anti Putin show of strength is an interesting departure from the usual!

Requires careful watch to include the commentaries that are thrown up in the media and open forum!
 

Tshering22

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Smear in Russia Backfires, and Online Tributes Roll In

Does Russia's leading opposition activist cavort with aliens? Or with criminals?


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/world/europe/smear-attempt-against-protest-leader-backfires-in-russia.html
I am telling you, this is not going to work. Putin was respected as long as he maintained the balance of power. While Russians aren't really used to free principles for the last 600 years or something, it might as well change now. This isn't 1921 where Putin could order a Stalinist massacre to silence Russians. There will be pandemonium on the streets if he tried that.
 

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