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Russian police round up anti-Putin protesters
By Denis Pinchuk1 hour, 59 minutes ago
Russian riot police beat opposition activists on Sunday and detained nearly 200 people at protest rallies against President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg, Russia's second city.
Riot police also detained Boris Nemtsov and Nikita Belykh, leaders of the Union of Right Forces (SPS) party who are both running in a December 2 parliamentary election. They were later released.
This correspondent saw riot police beating activists with batons and their fists before forcing them into police buses.
Dozens more were detained outside the Winter Palace, the residence of the Tsars, and at another rally in central St Petersburg, Putin's home town.
"They have forbidden us from discussing Putin," Nemtsov told the crowd. "But we have come here today to ask Mr Putin and the authorities why is there so much corruption in the country?"
He was promptly detained by five riot policemen as the crowd chanted "Russia without Putin."
Nemtsov told Reuters his detention was a breach of Russian law which forbids police from detaining candidates.
"Putin has total disregard for the country's constitution and laws," Nemtsov said. "He is afraid the people will find out the truth and so he hides behind the riot police."
About 500 activists made it to the marches but were vastly outnumbered by riot police. Most of those detained were later released, organizers said.
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He is becoming, if he isn't already, a dictator. Russia is returning to it's status as a one-party state with Vlad playing Joe Stalin in the re-run.
Do you know I haven't got a clue about firearms ownership in Russia. I've got a book about Soviet law laying around in my little library somewhere but I'm pretty sure it had nothing on firearms and I'm absolutely ignorant of Russian law (on any topic!).
I think Putin has the majority backing him, it's the parliamentary opposition and would-be parties that are taking him on - and not getting anywhere with it. From what I read (and what he hell would I know anyway, I ask myself) he seems to be the consummate populist. Of course he's no Joe Stalin (yet), no Katyn massacre, no starving millions in Ukraine, no Gulags (regular prisons are apparently okay though), no murder of the Cossacks. But give him time.
Putin hasn't began gulags, yet. His opposition though seems to have problems staying well and free from germs, bullets, etc. In the past 2 days the police have arrested a few hundred protestors against his regime. Free assembly seems to be one of those other rights that's not cool there.
True enough. I'm wondering when he's going to go for Georgia and then start collecting the rest of the old Soviet republics.....
True enough. I'm wondering when he's going to go for Georgia and then start collecting the rest of the old Soviet republics.....
Putin rival held in psychiatric ward 'to prevent him protesting against government'
Last updated at 01:05am on 15th December 2007
A Russian opposition activist has been sent to a psychiatric hospital by authorities a day before a planned demonstration.
Artem Basyrov's detention is the latest in a series of incidents suggesting a punitive Soviet-era practice is being revived under president Vladimir Putin.
Mr Basyrov, 20, was ordered to be held at a hospital in the central region of Mari El on November 23, a day before planned demonstrations, said Alexander Averin of the opposition National Bolshevik Party.
The party is part of the Other Russia coalition which organised the so-called Dissenters' Marches across the country this year.
Mr Basyrov ran for the local legislature as an Other Russia candidate.
Police who originally detained him claimed he had assaulted a girl.
A local psychiatric board agreed, deciding the activist suffered from a mental illness and he was committed to the psychiatric hospital three weeks ago.
He was only transferred from an isolation ward and allowed to have visitors on Thursday, said Mikhail Klyuzhev, a National Bolshevik member from the city of Yoshkar-Ola.
The allegations against Mr Basyrov were "idiocy" and were "part of the hysteria" before Russia's parliamentary elections which were held on December 2, Mr Klyuzhev added....
When the political opposition is non-existent or jailed, and the media is shut down or killed, then I would guess that he can keep it up for a long time. The FSB is running the show in the new CCCP. Post Putin = more Putin. Diuretic is right, the new Soviet dictatorship has arrived. And the most depressing part is that its ok with the majority of the Russian people.Definately a case can be made here for 'the right of the people to bear arms...' Seriously though I wonder if he can keep up what is happening?
http://www.kansascity.com/340/story/406608.html
December 16, 2007
One hour ago
Russian President Vladimir Putin has nominated 42-year-old Dmitry Medvedev to succeed him — a move that all but guarantees Medvedev’s victory in the March presidential election.
The choice was something of a surprise. It was followed by a less surprising announcement: Medvedev would like Putin to serve as his prime minister.
If this comes to pass, the Russian hierarchy — or rather, oligarchy — will be shuffled, but in a way that isn’t likely to result in any substantive policy shifts. Putin will remain at the center of power.
Medvedev has been allied with Putin for nearly 20 years. Within Putin’s circle, he is considered more Western-oriented, although in the context of Russian politics that is a relative term.
Medvedev, now a deputy prime minister, also heads the energy giant Gazprom, which in recent months has outraged Russia’s neighbors with hardball rate-increase tactics and service cutbacks.
Russia’s constitution prevents Putin from running for a third term as president. But under the country’s rapidly evolving post-Communist regime, the title he carries probably doesn’t matter much.
Medvedev’s sudden rise is further evidence of Putin’s complete domination of Russian politics. He has stripped away many of the country’s democratic institutions, including the popular election of provincial governors, and effectively re-nationalized many of the country’s businesses.
His foreign policy has become increasingly hostile to the West, and now he has hand-picked his own successor. Russia is a democracy in name only.
