Russian Duma Kills No-Confidence Measure

[Alpharetta]

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-02-09-voa25.cfm

Russian Duma Kills No-Confidence Measure
By Bill Gasperini
Moscow
09 February 2005

The lower house of Russia's parliament has failed to pass a no-confidence motion in the government led by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. Many pro-Kremlin deputies signaled their dissatisfaction over controversial social reforms by declining to cast votes.
.......
The motion had little chance of passing given that the pro-Kremlin United Russia Party holds a two-thirds majority in the chamber. But most of these deputies declined to vote, apparently seeking to distance themselves from the government despite having overwhelmingly supported the law on social reforms last year. In a bid to streamline government finances the law replaced Soviet-era benefits and subsidies, such as free transportation, with cash payments. But bureaucratic delays and poor implementation of the law sparked street protests in cities and towns across Russia, since it came into force on January 1.
..................

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets since New Year's Day in what has become the largest measure of dissatisfaction in the government since Mr. Putin became president more than five years ago. In many cases police declined to take action against the protesters. Police and members of the military have also lost similar benefits under the new law.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-02-09-voa25.cfm

[makhno]

1. It's not just delays

It's that the money the government promised doesn't even begin to cover the benefits that were cut. I've maintained for the past thirteen years that we should look to Russia to see the future of our own neo-liberal policies - graft, corruption, poverty under the banner of privatization and deregulation.

Nice to see VOA being put in a tough spot by having to defend reactionary market policies on the one hand, while criticizing the Russian government on the other.

[bemildred]

2. The Russian empire is not done crumbling yet, I guess. nt

[tom_paine]

3. No actually, BushPutinist Totalitarianism is on the rise all over

I still think it's 50-50 on whether it's Lights Out for the concepts of Constituional Liberty all together.

Can the small, remaining Free World withstand the BushPutinist assault?

Stay tuned...