Dissent beginning to spread across Russia as crisis bites

[IndianaGreen]

Source: The Independent (UK)

Dissent beginning to spread across Russia as crisis bites

Thousands protest at Putin's handling of economy while rift with Medvedev grows

By Shaun Walker in Moscow
Monday, 2 February 2009

The Kremlin's rule is beginning to look much shakier than at any time since Vladimir Putin came to power, after a series of protests in cities across its vast landmass this weekend by Russians disgruntled about the economy. And as the country starts to feel the effects of the global credit crunch, there are also signs of a growing rift between Prime Minister Putin, and his hand-picked successor as President, Dmitry Medvedev.


In Vladivostok, 2,000 protesters took to the streets, with some carrying banners reading "Kremlin, we are against you", and other people chanting directly for the removal of Mr Putin. The Pacific port city, seven time zones away from Moscow, has become a focal point for dissent after riot police broke up a march last year over car imports and detained 100 people. Saturday's demonstration, under the watchful eye of the police, passed off peacefully.

Nearly every major city had a street rally, and though most were low key, the unusual scale of dissatisfaction is likely to worry the authorities. The Russian economy has been hit hard by falling oil prices, many oligarchs have seen billions of pounds wiped off the value of their shares, and ordinary Russians are feeling the pinch as factories struggle to stay afloat and companies lay off employees.

In Moscow, a motley band of communists, anarchists and liberals gathered at several points across the city to protest against Kremlin rule. At one spot, a dozen protesters taped over their mouths with white tape, held up white placards with no slogans, and handed blank white flyers to passers-by. Bemused by such a conceptual approach to protest, the police rounded them up and arrested them anyway, and the organiser got five days in prison.

Mr Putin has made several speeches blaming the economic chaos on America, and says he expects things to improve by the end of the year. State-controlled television is playing down the crisis, and most newspapers are also toeing the Kremlin line, but the internet is a worrying medium for those in charge, and offers a forum for dissenters to exchange ideas. Tiger, an acronym for The Society for Proactive Russian Citizens, is an online community of anti-government activists based across Russia's 11 time zones. Participants use the online forum to discuss how best to oppose the government. Those involved estimate that about 10,000 people have signed up since last autumn.


Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/dissent-beginning-to-spread-across-russia-as-crisis-bites-1522983.html

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There have been several LBN threads in the past few days regarding the deteriorating situation in Russia, and the resistance to Putin's oligarchs. I expect things to blow up by spring.

[Doctor Cynic]

1. I'm not looking forward to summer.

It will make 1968 look like a family day out.

[Igel]

2. I don't expect things to blow up by spring.

"Bei belykh krasnym klinom" and all that. (Beat the whites with the red wedge--an old Soviet civil-war era agitprop poster.)

Nashi will certainly have things to say about ikhnie--"Nashi", meaning "ours", is Putin's youth brigades, and "ikhnie" just being a substandard way of saying "theirs". Ikhnie will eventually be blamed for the problems; all of Mother Russia's economic problems are caused by imi, "them", the West and local saboteurs; all Mother Russia's religous problems are caused by outside groups; all Mother Russia's Slav-internal problems are caused by dissents and saboteurs, and larger intergroup interethnic problems by the presence of disloyal groups.

Been there, done that. The cultural foundations are fairly well in place and too many people, even intellectuals, have bought into it. There's enough truth in the lie to make it acceptable, and enough emotional investment in the lie to cause people to assume it's the truth.

[unkachuck]

3. a side note....

"...a motley band of communists,..."

....how come we never see a 'motley band of capitalists'? Sorry for the interruption, continue reading....

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. Sure you do.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. Russia, China, Britain, Greece, France, etc...

Somebody is missing.

:think:

[Blue_Tires]

6. Iceland?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. Yep.

[Blue_Tires]

7. it was only a matter of time before the income disparity started pissing people off

[WriteDown]

8. Expect Putin to save journalists from something bigger

than a tiger this time. Maybe a Liger?