A few months ago the last thing that former KGB colonel Gennady Gudkov could imagine was that he would lead thousands of people to an anti-Kremlin rally, shoulder to shoulder with somebody like Boris Nemtsov, a man the authorities call a liberal marginal politician. A member of a moderate opposition party, Just Russia, and member of Parliament, Gudkov has criticized the Kremlin’s politics in the past for “feudal, horrifying, corruption.” Still, like a majority of Russians, he was not fond of the liberal opposition. But the vote count during the parliamentary elections last weekend made Gudkov furious: at least a fifth of his party’s votes were stolen in several regions of Russia, he said. “If there is no option of taking power from swindlers and thieves through fair elections, there is only one way left—street protests,” Gudkov said. He plans to lead the opposition rally against alleged election fraud on Saturday.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin does not use Twitter, Facebook, or any Russian social networking site, his spokesman claims. Otherwise he would have seen how the number of people who say they will come to Revolution Square is growing. By Thursday evening, about 30,000 Russian Facebook users said they would show up at the Moscow protest this weekend. Considering that the number of permitted protesters was limited to 300 people, the opposition leaders expect more violence over the weekend. It is a rather a chaotic movement, and not inspired by Hillary Clinton’s signals, as the prime minister suggested.
Russian special services do monitor the Internet thoroughly, the leader of environment defense movement Khimki Forest, Yevgenia Chirikova believes. “As soon as I wrote in my Twitter blog yesterday that I would coordinate the protest on Revolution Square, I got detained by the customs police at the airport. Nobody else but me,” Chirikova said. On the way back from Brussels, where she said she was telling European Union officials about the violations during the parliamentary elections, Chirikova was stopped in Sheremetyevo airport and kept for two hours, she said, for “a rather humiliating procedure” that involved undressing. She said it was intended to threaten her. “If the only answer Putin has for people is arrests and clubs, we will push him into a corner with that club in his hand. We’ll come out and there will be more of us than they expect.”
Robert Schlegel, a United Russia parliament member responsible for information policy, said that to be more appreciated, United Russia—the ruling party—should improve its Internet propaganda. “Blogging and surfing social nets is for the younger generation. United Russia should have become more active on the Internet,” Schlegel admitted. Commenting on this week’s protests, Schlegel called the opposition leaders Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin “provocateurs using well-known technologies of the Orange revolution.” He does not believe that all 27,000 signed up Facebook users will actually show up at the Revolution Square for the Saturday rally. “I read hysterical comments on Facebook and Twitter, then I step outside and see absolutely calm peaceful Moscow,” he said. Schlegel also predicted there would be more arrests and beatings at unapproved protests. Nearly 1,000 protesters were detained during street rallies this week.
Meanwhile, security in Moscow’s center has been tightened—busses full of police and interior troops patrol the streets and squares. More protesters came out to unapproved rallies in St. Petersburg, Riazan, Samara, and other Russian provinces this week, provoking police crackdowns and detentions. As an alternative peaceful struggle, bloggers started a new movement: activists wear and decorate their offices and cars with white ribbons, as a symbol of Russians disagreeing with fraud.
“When millions of us show white ribbons, we will see each other and the authorities will see us,” one of the movement’s activists, Arsen Revazov, suggested in his blog. The theater and film director Ivan Vyrypayev supports the idea of the upcoming protest on the Revolution Square and expresses hopes that the event will play an awaking role in the mentality of both authorities and public. “It is important for Russians to realize that they can decide themselves what politics they choose. And for the authorities it is important to begin to respect the people’s true voices.”
20 comments:
Russia, in comparison to the United States, is handling their anti-corruption movements extremely bad. They can't just arrest anybody and everybody, even if free speech isn't quite as sought after as it might be in more democratic countries. I think that if the group in office wants to reach its opinion out to young people, they should exploit tools such as the internet, just like Schlegel had said. If you were to arrest everybody that takes part in an unauthorized protest, you'd eventually run out of places to put people and that would just aggravate the public even more. Russia is way to big of a country and I think that the authorities aren't doing the best job that they can of it.
Politicians often underestimate the power of the people and this situation is an example of such a mistake. The number of people who volunteered to participate in this protest in Moscow is amazing, not only because it's such a large number, but also because it shows how many people in Russia are willing to fight for and support a righteous government. Election fraud is an unmoral and cowardly thing to do and, accordingly, it has no place in politics. A government where it exists is not really a government that works for the benefit of it's citizens. Most unrighteous governments eventually do fall due to some reason or another. Likewise, the immoral politicians in Russia, who would stoop to such a low level as to commit election fraud, will most likely and soon, find themselves in a difficult situation. Since the people they govern are unhappy, it is difficult to imagine their escaping this situation easily.
I'm really glad the Russian people have decided to stand up and protest the fraudulence of their government. People have the right to choose how their government should be run, we believe this in the USA. Russia has always been a place where the people haven't been treated properly, their voices haven't fully been heard. I truly hope that all 27,000 people show up today.And I hope that their voices are heard.
It really seems like there are more and more riots and protests going on in the world. It's kinda scary, because eventually everything's going to come to a head and explode. I don't disagree with the the parties in Russia that are protesting, I just hope that it doesn't get too violent. That will just make everything worse for Russia. And as far as their use of internet is concerned, if they don't want to be stopped by officials like Yevgenia Chirikova was, then they need to be smart about how they're going to rally protests.
The Russian people have been under oppression for the past two decades.
Just because the Soviet Union ended in 1991 doesn't mean that Russia has been free.
I don't see how Gudkov could prove that there was election fraud. It could have been that the opponent(s) was more appealing to the citizens' views or rights. And street protests couldn't be the only way left to settle this issue. However, because they decided to go through the path of street protesting, they at least seem to stay away from violence. It is the authorities (mainly the police) that use physical action because they are trying to stop the protests, but the protesters aren't even using any violence. I agree with the idea of using white ribbons on cars and offices because it helps the citizens express their views on the issue without even using violence or going on the streets to protest, and it also prevents them from getting arrested or detained by the police because they aren't doing anything wrong. I also agree with the idea of using the Internet and social media websites to express their views, but sometimes some people can go too far with posts and writing, like, for example, putting extremely gruesome/inappropriate photos of others or bullying or calling others hurtful names on the Internet, esp. for the younger generations.
If there was never an election fraud none of this would have ever happened. The protestors are just there to show how wrong it was for theem to do that. It is true when they said the people have the roght to choose the government. I believe the protestors are doing the right thing, it shows they won't stop until they get what is right for them.
It's amazing to see the growing impact of social networks such as facebook and twitter. Not only are they being used for personal contact uses, but also for propaganda. It was also funny how people didn't show up at the airport where Chirikoud was waiting.
Gennady is right with the fact that having your votes stolen is very wrong. Therefore the street protests were a good idea, until how many people said they were going. With 30,000 people going there will be some acts of voilence and chaos. With no idea what to expect its good that there is more security.
I find it pretty intersting how people use the internet now a days. Its cool that people are using facebook to speak out about politics while most people use it for things that are no where near as important as this. However I don't think its the wisest idea for important politicians to be using it. Bad things can come out of it.
Russians should have the right to protest what they believe to be wrong. The unapproved protests however are not a good way to show it. With the uprising popularity in social blogging, its easier for word to spread and for people to express their feelings toward things they do not like. If they spread the word soo much then Russian politicians have no other choice but to listen.
Its good to see that not all of Russia is falling under the corruption of its leaders. Kremlin's violation during the parliamentary elections by stealing 1/5 of the votes is an awful thing but thats what happens in politics, power and corruption go hand in hand. What is great to see is all of the Russians taking a stand against it. Blogging, protesting, decorating theirs cars with symbols showing that they disagree with Kremlins feudal, horrifying corruption in politics, these movement's activist are doing whatever it takes to do the right thing. The next step is for the police to realize that they are on the wrong side. By stoping Khimki at the airport because of a twitter comment, supporting the revolution, shows that the police are protecting their corrupt ways and that has to change.
Sometimes you just have to give in. Whether you believe in it or not, things will only get worse if you continue to neglect the voice of the country. Look what happened to Russia in the past. They were tired of being pushed around by the monarchs for over three hundred years, so they rebelled and formed the soviet union. They were tired of being forced and restricted in every situation by the the communist party that when they became a democracy, they had absolutely no idea how to function. Russia is a very confused country as a whole. Every time it always seems like it's them versus the world. Just make their day just once and maybe all of the fighting and rebelling and secrecy will slowly come to a halt.
This just comes to show that more and more politics are using the web more for movements and campaigning as for other reasons too. Its cheaper and easier to access this way.
I think it's funny how they caught wind of the violent protests through Facebook and Twitter, and how there was some kind of RSVP limit to the protests.
I'm really thinking that as scary as this huge uprising sounds, it needs to happen. The Russian government isn't exactly perfect right now. I applaud those you signed up on that Facebook page to protest. Sure, a rigged election may not seem like much in the dirty, scheming world of politics, but it just illustrates the control a few people are trying to exert. Example? A woman posts on Twitter about protesting and gets detained at customs. Really? Sure, all politicians play dirty, but the Russian government is starting to sound more and more corrupt. Something definitely needs to be done.
Historically, it seems that Russia has had serious political issues. First with the Romanov Dynasty (until its fall in 1917), then the Communist party, and now a semi-presidential republic, it appears that Russia has had just about every governmental policy. Now, its clear that they are having even more problems with their fairly new system. This is a serious concern with the type of political repression and infringement on the rights of the Russian citizens. This issue must be addressed and there should be no problem with the protests the Russians are planning in order for them to make substantial changes within their governmental system.
I think its a shame that secret service is so paranoid about up coming rallies that the use twittering and Facebook as major leads. They should stick to their word and hold a fair election as they promised earlier. Only time can tell what's going to happen.
I think that the protest is a very good thing. THEy are right that people in Russia should have the knowledge of who they are voting for in politics. Everybody has the right to know what is going on in politics and the protest is something that people in Russia should do if they want to make sure that their life and politics are not fraud.
Hopefully this means real change for the Russian people. However, I hardly think Putin and his crowd are going to relinquish control without a fight.
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