Veteran liberal politician Boris Nemtsov is arrested

Russian protesters defying a ban on unapproved rallies have faced off with supporters of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow city centre.

Protesters chanted slogans against the ruling party as the Putin loyalists beat drums and chanted "Putin, Russia".

Police arrested at least 250 protesters, including veteran liberal politician Boris Nemtsov.

A rally on Monday against alleged fraud in Sunday's parliamentary elections was Moscow's biggest protest in years.

Mr Putin has played down losses by his party, United Russia, which won but with just under 50% of the vote, a sharp drop in its support.

Correspondents say the result reflects Mr Putin's declining popularity ahead of his bid for the Russian presidency in March.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton acknowledged the election was well-prepared and administered, but said reports of procedural violations "are however of serious concern".

She pointed specifically to an alleged "lack of media impartiality, a lack of separation between party and state, and the harassments of independent monitoring attempts".

Observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) had earlier said the election was slanted in favour of the United Russia party.

Navalny jailed
Live video from Moscow's Triumphal Square, on a major road artery close to the Kremlin, showed crowds of rival demonstrators shouting slogans on Tuesday evening.

Eyewitnesses said up to 500 protesters took part, facing a much larger group of Putin supporters from United Russia and the Nashi youth movement.

Footage from the scene was broadcast over the internet by the Russian citizen journalism outlet Ridus (audio in Russian), and was still being followed by at least 30,000 viewers hours after the rally.

According to an Associated Press reporter, two fireworks were thrown at a crowd of Putin supporters. It was not immediately clear who had thrown them or if they had caused any injuries, the agency said, correcting an initial reference to "fire bombs".

Police said that at least 250 people were detained, while Russian news agencies reported that around 200 protesters were arrested in Russia's second city St Petersburg and 25 in the southern city of Roston-on-Don.

Correspondents say Mr Nemtsov and other protesters were hauled off to waiting police vehicles. Mr Nemstov was reportedly later released.

Monday's protest in Moscow drew several thousand people and police made at least 300 arrests. At least 50 arrests were made in St Petersburg.

Two of those arrested in Moscow were well-known anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin, leader of the Solidarity party. They were jailed for 15 days on Tuesday for their part in the protests.

Their arrest was heavily tweeted by Russian bloggers, who circulated photos of Mr Navalny and others in custody.

"There is not a single doubt that my case is under the special control of the party of crooks and thieves," he told reporters in court ahead of being charged, referring to United Russia.

'Inevitable losses'
The Russian interior ministry has denied any extra security measures in Moscow, saying that police and troop movements in the city were a "rotation".

Its press service told Interfax that 51,500 police including 2,000 interior troops had been on a state of alert since 1 December, as part of election preparations.

"Statements that extra forces are being drafted into Moscow do not correspond to reality," it said.

Speaking to United Russia officials in Moscow earlier on Tuesday, Mr Putin suggested that electoral losses were inevitable for any party in power.

"Yes, there were losses and they are inevitable," the prime minister and former two-term president said, quoted by Russian news agencies.

"They are inevitable for any political force, especially for one which, not for the first year, bears the brunt of responsibility for the situation in the country."

Mr Putin also rejected the accusation by Mr Navalny and others that his party was especially corrupt.

"This is a label applied not to a specific political party but to authorities (in general)," he said, promising to tackle the issue.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16052329

I understand your situation, G. But, even Russians need freedom. Especially, since they have never really experienced it like some of us have. Thank God for western Democracy and respect for other people's opinion.
We'd be in a similar predicament were it not for these values...

Which reminds me of this statement:

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
---Martin Niemöller

OK...........you made an excellent point. Certainly thought provoking.............

As Protests Face Hurdles, Gorbachev Calls For New Elections In Russia

04:06 pm

December 7, 2011


by EYDER PERALTA


Ivan Sekretarev/AP
A police officer, center, falls down as he tries to detain a demonstrator during protests against alleged vote rigging in Russia's parliamentary elections in Triumphal Square in Moscow.


Reuters reports that today protesters in Moscow faced a huge increase in security presence that essentially stopped a mass protest against last weekend's parliamentary elections. But The Guardian reports that the protest movement gathered momentum with more than 1,000 people arrested in the past couple of days and anticipation grew for a rally that is expected to bring out "tens of thousands" this weekend.

The protests, reports The Guardian, are the "biggest challenge to Vladimir Putin's rule." The paper adds:

With concern inside the Kremlin growing, Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, met their security council, including the interior and defence ministers, the head of the federal security service (FSB) and the country's foreign intelligence chief, to discuss the situation.

Helicopters hovered in the skies over Moscow, while the police presence on the streets of the Russian capital remained strong following two protests that led to hundreds of people arrested.

The movement was triggered by a disputed parliamentary election result that protesters say wildly overstated the popularity of Putin's United Russia party.

Also, today, the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called for new elections. CNN reports that in an interview with Russian media, Gorbachev said the elections were "unfair" and "new elections were needed."

Over at The Atlantic Jeffrey Tayler has an interesting piece that puts the protests in perspective. They are the biggest demonstration, he writes, since the collapse of the Soviet Union and he notes that the people on the streets are not those who have been in opposition of Putin for a long time, but a set of people who have been "shockingly apolitical," but who have been "angered over apparent electoral fraud."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/12/07/143295617/as-protests-face-hurdles-gorbachev-calls-for-new-elections-in-russia

Friends and foes, I find this hard to do, yet, I wholeheartedly second the accusation that Putin makes.
Putin claims that Hillary is encouraging unrest in Russia. I agreed with Putin since all she's done while exercising her SECRETARY of State capacity is travel the world agitating peaceful nations and inciting disorder with her fiery speeches.

Note- this is not an endorsement of Putin's politics; It's an agreement of his indictment of Hillary Clinton. Putin was once in the KGB, so he ought to know about propaganda, infiltration and subversion....


Here's the headline:

Vladimir Putin accuses Hillary Clinton of encouraging Russian protests

Russian prime minister says US secretary of state gave a 'signal' to Kremlin opponents by criticising elections


Miriam Elder in Moscow
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 December 2011 05.46 EST


(There's a video here that I could not be included on Forum post)

Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, has accused the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, of inciting protests. Link to this video http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/dec/08/vladimir-putin-russia-election-protests-video

Vladimir Putin has reacted to an increasingly vociferous opposition movement in Russia by accusing Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, of fomenting protest inside the country.

He accused Clinton of giving "the signal" to opposition leaders, who are expected to gather tens of thousands of people for a major protest on Saturday. Clinton has repeatedly criticised a parliamentary vote in Russia last weekend that gave Putin's United Russia party nearly 50% of the vote despite widespread reports of fraud.

"(Opposition leaders) heard the signal and with the support of the US state department began active work," Putin said during a meeting with his All-Russia Popular Front, a new political movement set up to support his candidacy for the presidency in the upcoming election.

"We are all grown-ups here. We all understand the organisers are acting according to a well-known scenario and in their own mercenary political interests."

Russia has vehemently opposed the popular protests that have swept the Arab world, with officials often hinting they are the work of western scheming.

Russian opposition leaders have begun to express concern over how the Kremlin will react to Saturday's protest, spawned by growing outrage at the multiple examples of electoral fraud. More than 27,700 people have indicated their intention to join the protest on Moscow's Revolutionary Square via Facebook. Protests have been organised in more than 80 cities around the country.

"We are required to protect our sovereignty," Putin said. "We will have to think about strengthening the law and holding more responsible those who carry out the task of a foreign government to influence internal political processes."

Putin made a similar pronouncement just a week before the vote, prompting a campaign against Golos, an independent election monitor that receives foreign grants.

Putin's statements on Thursday marked the first time he openly acknowledged liberal opposition to his rule. "We must carry out a dialogue with the opposition-minded, and give them the chance to use their constitutional right to demonstrate," he said.

The liberal opposition has carried out a long campaign to win the right to demonstrate, and has almost always been denied. City authorities gave permission for Saturday's rally, but warned that the permit only allowed 300 people to gather.

Putin warned that illegal means of demonstrating would be punished. "If someone breaks the law, then the organs of power and keepers of order must demand the law be followed," he said.

The Kremlin has stepped up the security presence in the capital, with more than 50,000 police and 2,000 interior troops patrolling the streets. Water cannon and helicopters have also been seen in Moscow.

"No one wants chaos," Putin said, adding that most Russians did not want a repeat of government overthrows in nearby Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.

At the same time, Putin appeared to try to distance himself from United Russia, the main target of protesters' wrath. He told members of Thursday's Popular Front meeting that the party was pressuring deputies from his new group to use their parliamentary mandates in favour of United Russia.

"I relate to United Russia with very fond feelings – it's an organisation that I, in my time, created, but I ask you not to give in to pressure," he told the meeting.

President Dmitry Medvedev, also mentioned the growing protest movement during a visit to Prague on Thursday. "People must have the possibility to say their opinion, that's normal," he said. "The most important thing now is to calm nerves and allow the parliament to begin working."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/08/vladimir-putin-hillary-clinton-russia?newsfeed=true

DECEMBER 10, 2011, 11:01 A.M. ET.
By GREGORY L. WHITE, WILLIAM MAULDIN, ALAN CULLISON and OLGA RAZUMOVSKAYA


Reuters

An opposition activist in Vladivostok takes part in a rally Saturday to protest what demonstrators say are violations in the Dec. 4 parliamentary elections.
.
MOSCOW—Tens of thousands took to the streets in cities across Russia on Saturday to protest alleged vote-rigging in what observers said were the largest antigovernment demonstrations in at least a decade.

The huge display of popular anger raised the pressure on the Kremlin, which has so far dismissed the postelection discontent as instigated by the U.S. to undermine the Kremlin. But there was no sign that the authorities were willing to even consider opponents' demands for new elections or a full recount of the disputed Dec. 4 parliamentary vote.

Opposition leaders vowed to keep up the pressure with more demonstrations in a bid to disrupt Mr. Putin's chances in March presidential elections, when he was planning to secure a six-year term in office.

One opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov wrote in Twitter late Saturday that "We will gather millions" at demonstrations planned for Dec. 17, 18 and 24. "Putin has no choice—in March everyone will see that the king has no clothes."

The authorities did soften their approach to the protesters somewhat Saturday by giving permits for many of the demonstrations. In Moscow, tens of thousands gathered on Bolotnaya Square across the river from the Kremlin. With 17,000 police standing guard, the three-hour event went off peacefully, in contrast to protests earlier in the week that had ended in hundreds of detentions by police.

"We are here today because we are sick of lies," said Konstantin Pekhotin, a 20-year-old student. "Yes, consider us gathering here a signal to the authorities," his friend Andrei Ryabtsev, studying to be a customs officer, chimed in.

View Slideshow (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203413304577089900272237474.html#)


Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty

Opposition activists shouted near police officers during the protest rally in central Moscow on Saturday.
.More
Emerging Europe: 'Magician' Election Chief Draws Ire
Earlier: Kremlin Braces for Massive Protests
Election Fallout Shakes Markets
.
In the Dec. 4 vote, the ruling United Russia party of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saw its support drop sharply, but still retained a majority in parliament. But local and foreign observers reported widespread stuffing of ballot boxes and other abuses, many of which have been spread by reports and recordings on the Internet. U.S. and other Western governments have raised questions about what they say are suspicions of widespread fraud.

"I haven't walked in a demonstration like this in a long time," said Gennady Gudkov, a member of parliament from the Just Russia party, as he walked with thousands of others to the main rally. "The people have really awoken. The authorities can't ignore this many people."


(Continues)

In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the country's largest cities, protests built over the days since the vote, drawing many demonstrators who hadn't attended such actions in the past.


Map: St. Petersburg to Vladivostok
See details on major protest sites.

..
"We just want to show that we exist," said Ksenia Korneyeva, a magazine editor, who carried white chrysanthemums. Under a light snow, the mood was jovial and euphoric, despite the heavy police presence.

Saturday's rally was the biggest in years, with some observers comparing it with mass demonstrations at the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Police put the total at about 25,000, but that seemed understated. Some organizers said as many as 100,000 attended, crowding into the park along a canal to hear speaker after speaker denounce the vote as falsified and call for the resignation of Prime Minister Putin.

The rally attracted even some of the capital's glamorous cultural elite and wealthy, who rarely take public political stands.

"I came here to see people's faces and I see that this is no mob here but genuine faces of nice people," said Kirill Serebrennikov, a well-known theater director. "The fact that these people showed up here today means that a new, young force has emerged that will have to be taken into account."

Just how that might happen remains unclear. The demonstrators and speakers ranged from Communist Party members and nationalists to advocates for gays and lesbians. Unified by dismay at what they saw as the flagrant rigging of the elections, their demands went from a recount of the Dec. 4 vote to the resignation of Prime Minister Putin.

Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the liberal Yabloko party, which ran in the elections but didn't win any seats in parliament, called on colleagues from other opposition parties to refuse their seats. But legislators from parties that did win seats, such as Mr. Gudkov, said they aren't ready yet to give up their places for fear they would simply be taken by the ruling party.

Other members of his party said they would push for recounts in regions where major vote-rigging was exposed, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, but not across the country. But more radical opposition speakers called for annulling the vote and starting the campaign again to allow parties blocked from participating to compete.

State-controlled television softened its virtual blackout of the protests Saturday, leading newscasts with reports of the demonstrations around the country. The neutral reports highlighted the effective work of police at keeping the peace and avoided mention of any of the antigovernment slogans chanted by speakers and demonstrators. There was also no mention of any possible political impact.

Members of the ruling party also conceded that the demonstrations were the largest in years, but played down potential impact.

"These are young people who did not live through the chaos of the 1990s, and so they don't know that the more demonstrations there are the worse things get," said Sergei Markov, a senior United Russia member. "They are bored with stable politics and the stability of the country. They are looking for some active political life, for real opposition."

Mr. Markov said their protests now will force the Kremlin to sit up and listen to demands for more competition in the political system.

But he said that any cancellation of parliamentary elections was out of the question, only some recounting in Moscow and some other cities that could mean a few adjustments to the distribution of seats in parliament.

He said the presidential contest in March would be different, however. The Kremlin, he said, will take greater pains to show that it is an honest contest, and the government will also probably have to open up the contest to a greater number of candidates. Anticorruption activist Alexei Navalnyi—now serving a 15-day prison term for his role in a demonstration earlier in the week—may be one of them, although Mr. Markov said that Mr. Navalnyi would be no serious match for Mr. Putin.

"They want more competition, and they will get this," he said. But he added that Mr. Putin is still the country's most popular politician and will prevail in a presidential contest if he handles the situation correctly. "Twenty-five to 30,000 is a good result, but not great. You cannot make a revolution from it."


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203413304577089900272237474.html


P.S.
Where is the opinion of all those kids their parents named Lenin, Illich, and Vladimir? Or those that went to the Soviet Union Universities to earn advanced degrees during the Antonio Guzman and Salvador Jorge Blanco Administration. What say you?

If you don't write in English, wirte a response in Spanish or Russian. Spasiva!

Day of Protest Against Election Fraud Begins in Russia


Published December 10, 2011

Associated Press


Dec. 10, 2011: Protesters light flares during a mass rally to protest against alleged vote rigging in Russia's parliamentary elections in Moscow, Russia.


MOSCOW – MOSCOW-- Tens of thousands of Muscovites thronged to a square across the river from the Kremlin on Saturday to protest alleged electoral fraud and urge an end to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's rule, demands repeated at other rallies across this vast country in the largest public show of discontent in post-Soviet Russia.

The demonstrations come three months before Putin, who was president in 2000-2008 and effectively remained the country's leader while prime minister, is to seek a third presidential term.


December 9, 2011: Russian riot police officers stand at police vehicles near Red Square in Moscow.

The massive outpouring of public anger challenges his image, supported by state-controlled TV channels, as a man backed by the majority of Russians.

That image was undercut by last Sunday's parliamentary elections, during which his United Party narrowly retained a majority of seats, but lost the unassailable two-thirds majority it had held in the previous parliament. Even that reduced performance was unearned, inflated by massive vote fraud, the opposition says, citing reports by local and international monitors of widespread violations. The reports of vote-rigging and the party's loss of seats acted as a catalyst for long-simmering discontent of many Russians.

"The falsifications that authorities are doing today have turned the country into a big theater, with clowns like in a circus," said Alexander Trofimov, one of the demonstrators at Bolotnaya Square, on an island in the Moscow River adjacent to the Kremlin.

Protests took place in more than 50 other cities from the Pacific Coast to the southwest, including a large demonstration estimated by police at 7,000 people in St. Petersburg.

Less than 100 demonstrators were reported arrested nationwide, far fewer than the hundreds taken into custody at smaller protests in the first days after the Dec. 4 national election. Police, who normally crack down fast and hard on any unauthorized gathering, even allowed a few hundred leftist radicals to conduct an unsanctioned protest on Moscow's Revolution Square just outside the Red Square.

In the Pacific city of Vladivostok, several hundred protesters rallied along a waterside avenue where some of Russia's Pacific Fleet warships are docked. They shouted "Putin's a louse" and some held a banner caricaturing United Russia's emblem, reading "The rats must go."

The Moscow rally, which lasted about three hours, was so sprawling that unbiased crowd estimates were difficult to make. Police put the attendance at 25,000; organizers claimed up to 150,000.

Whatever the precise number, it was a show of dismay that gave pause to the ruling elite. State-controlled TV channels that usually ignore or deride the opposition gave notable airtime to the protests. A top United Russia official, Andrei Isayev, acknowledged late Saturday that "expression of this point of view is extremely important and will be heard in the mass media, society and the state."

Officials in many cities, including Moscow, gave permission for the protests. But in what appeared to be an attempt to prevent young people from attending the protest, Moscow's school system declared Saturday afternoon a mandatory extra school day for grades 9 to 11. Students were told about the decision only on Friday, news reports said.

Hundreds of people were arrested in smaller protests earlier in the week. Some, including prominent opposition blogger Alexei Navalny, were sentenced to 15 days in jail. Another prominent opposition figure, Sergei Udaltsov, was hospitalized after his Monday arrest and was expected to be released Saturday, but the Interfax news agency said he was taken from the hospital to a court to face further charges.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev conceded this week that election law may have been violated, and Putin suggested "dialogue with the opposition-minded" -- breaking from his usual authoritarian image. The Kremlin has come under strong international pressure, with U.S.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling the vote unfair and urging an investigation into fraud. Putin in turn criticized Clinton and the United States for allegedly instigating protests and trying to undermine Russia.

If Saturday's protests are a success, the activists then face the challenge of long-term strategy.

Even though U.S. Sen. John McCain recently tweeted to Putin that "the Arab Spring is coming to a neighborhood near you," things in Russia are not that simple.

The popular uprisings that brought down governments in Georgia in 2003, in Ukraine the next year, and in Egypt last spring all were significantly boosted by demonstrators being able to establish round-the-clock presences, notably in Cairo's Tahrir Square and the massive tent camp on Kiev's main avenue. Russian police would hardly tolerate anything similar.

Opposition figures indicated Friday that the next step would be to call another protest in Moscow for next weekend and make it even bigger. But staged events at regular intervals may be less effective than daily spontaneous protests.

Russia's opposition also is vulnerable to attacks on the websites and social media that have nourished the protests. This week, an official of Vkontakte, a Russian version of Facebook, reported pressure from the FSB, the KGB's main successor, to block access to opposition groups, but said his company refused.

On election day, the websites of a main independent radio station and the country's only independent election-monitoring group fell victim to denial-of-service hacker attacks.


Source: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/12/10/day-protests-against-election-fraud-begins-in-russia/#ixzz1g9S6cpZJ