Putin's Grip on Power is Unraveling

Ray

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So he has lost some support?

The papers state that there has been some fraud too!
 

asianobserve

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Thousands Protest Against Putin in Moscow
By AP/JIM HEINTZ
Monday, Dec. 05, 2011



(MOSCOW) — Several thousand people protested Monday night against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his party, which won the largest share of a parliamentary election that observers said was rigged.

It was perhaps the largest opposition rally in years and ended with police detaining some of the activists. A group of several hundred marched toward the Central Elections Commission near the Kremlin, but were stopped by riot police and taken away in buses. The total number of those detained was not immediately available.
See "Russia: Putin's Party Barely Hangs on to Majority."

Estimates of the number of protesters at the rally ranged from 5,000 to 10,000. They chanted "Russia without Putin" and accused his United Russia party of stealing votes.

United Russia took about 50 percent of Sunday's vote, a result that opposition politicians and election monitors said was inflated because of ballot stuffing and other vote fraud. It was a significant drop from the last election, when the party took 64 percent.

Pragmatically, the loss of seats in parliament appears to mean little; two of the three other parties winning seats have been reliable supporters of government legislation. But, it is a substantial symbolic blow to a party that had become virtually indistinguishable from the state itself.

It has also energized the opposition and poses a humbling challenge to the country's dominant figure in his drive to return to the presidency. Putin, who became prime minister in 2008 because of presidential term limits, will run for a third term in March and some opposition leaders saw the parliamentary election as a game-changer for what had been presumed to be Putin's easy stroll back to the Kremlin.

Also Monday, more than 400 Communist supporters gathered to express their indignation over the election, which some called the dirtiest in modern Russian history. The Communist Party finished second with about 20 percent of the vote. "Even compared to the 2007 elections, violations by the authorities and the government bodies that actually control the work of all election organizations at all levels, from local to central, were so obvious and so brazen," said Yevgeny Dorovin, a member of the party's central committee.

Putin appeared subdued and glum even as he insisted at a Cabinet meeting Monday that the result "gives United Russia the possibility to work calmly and smoothly."

Although the sharp decline for United Russia could lead Putin and the party to try to portray the election as genuinely democratic, the wide reports of violations have undermined that attempt at spin.

Boris Nemtsov, a prominent figure among Russia's beleaguered liberal opposition, declared that the vote spelled the end of Putin's "honeymoon" with the nation and predicted that his rule will soon "collapse like a house of cards."

"He needs to hold an honest presidential election and allow opposition candidates to register for the race, if he doesn't want to be booed from Kamchatka to Kaliningrad," Nemtsov said on Ekho Moskvy radio.

Many Russians came to despise United Russia, seeing it as the engine of endemic corruption. The election showed voters that they have power despite what election monitors called a dishonest count. "Yesterday, it was proven by these voters that not everything was fixed, that the result really matters," said Tiny Kox of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, part of an international election observer mission.

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.




Read more: Thousands Protest Against Putin in Moscow - TIME
 

pmaitra

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Medvedev on US: 'If they continue to push us around, we'll push back'

Medvedev on US: 'If they continue to push us around, we'll push back'


Published: 17 December, 2011, 19:29



RIA Novosti / Ekaterina Shtukina

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has spoken out after a telephone conversation with his US counterpart, saying Obama's comments on Russia's recent parliamentary elections were "unacceptable".

Speaking to a number of United Russia MPs, Dmitry Medvedev stated that, correctly delivered, thoughts and comments on a country's electoral process are acceptable – and welcome. But when they are reminiscent of Cold War-era statements, it is outrageous. "That is not a reset [in relations], and I've had to remind my colleague of that", said the president.

Domestic criticism is of course welcome and constitutionally-justified, Medvedev told MPs. "The streets are not the US State Department. The streets reflect the mood of our people." The Russian leader was referring to a recent comment made by the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who called these past elections "neither free nor fair."

Medvedev summed up his statement by saying that he will not stand for intimidation. Russia will continue to pursue its interest within the international arena. "If they want to push us around, we'll push back. But if they hear our concerns, then we can work together."





Source: https://rt.com/politics/medvedev-obama-elections-reset-055/
 

agentperry

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we need new and weaker govt in russia, India's stake with russia are huge and russias' attempt to re-look relationship with India is worrisome moreover its not right that they side more with pakistan where they are making generous investment and selling weapons too like helicopters and engines for aircrafts.
 

asianobserve

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we need new and weaker govt in russia, India's stake with russia are huge and russias' attempt to re-look relationship with India is worrisome moreover its not right that they side more with pakistan where they are making generous investment and selling weapons too like helicopters and engines for aircrafts.

Russia will always be the faded superpower... It's just bluffing. India is too important to Russia. Even the Americans are zealously courting India, how much more the Russians? I say let them beg on their knees with outstretched arms. If they like to sucker up to the Pakis tell them to suck it up. They'll always come around to beg for more from India (of course all the time secretly doing business with China).

These Moscow twins are talking caricatures of Emperors with no clothes!
 

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