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Showing posts with label Putin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Putin. Show all posts

Russia's Putin offers small change demonstrators

Written By Guru Cool on Wednesday, December 14, 2011 | 3:49 AM

1 out of 6. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin monitored during a question and answer session transmitted on TV in Moscow 15 December 2011.
IMG credit: Reuters/Alexsey Druginyn/RIA Novosti/pool
By Timothy heritage and Steve Gutterman
MOSCOW | Thu 15 December 2011 5: 48 pm EST
Moscow (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin offered something its close facilitate political control of Russian policy in token concessions to demonstrators, beating of the largest demonstrations turn out to be, as he does that 12 years ago took over paid.
In a 4-1/2 hour call - in question and answer show that was live broadcast in Russia and to rebuild support as he prepares, the Presidency, which has long-standing Prime Minister is trying, as a sensible, balanced national leader to present free, can that his people should.
But many Russians in the social network Twitter suggested that his efforts failed say the 59-year-old former spy three months before the presidential elections was, that he hopes to win.
10 Putin break its silence on rallies of tens of thousands of people on December praise with proposals, some of the protesters complaints of electoral fraud and demanding a new election were paid to show up mixed.
"I hit people on the TV screens... saw young people, actively and with positions, which they clearly expressing", Putin said. "This makes me happy, and if that is the result of the Putin regime, which well - there is nothing bad about it."
"they make at least some money," he said, of course, that he thought had the paymaster. Putin has proposed in the past, the ridicule of the opponents, protests had stirred the United States and it had funded foreign States.
Putin, 59, said that first he thought the white bands of demonstrators as a sign of dissent held were part of an AIDS campaign, and he had them incorrectly for condoms.
A manipulated photo was the round on the Internet, with Putin wearing a condom on his chest instead of a medal soon do.
Dressed in a suit and tie at the large desk as he took questions by phone or by a studio audience, and sometimes via video links with cities of the huge country it less well than in previous years.
Putin, Behauend the possibility of changes in a tightly controlled political system suggested that legislation could be amended, can be registered to small opposition parties.
One of the most important acts of Putin's after the takeover in 1999 was elected governors in regions of Russia and its own representatives, remove restore strong Kremlin control send. This said he drove from danger, break up the largest country in the world.
Putin suggested reintroduction of direct elections, but only after the President approved candidates proposed by party-an idea not likely to win support from critics.
"We can move in this direction," he said.
Putin has no indication that he met the protesters demands such as dismissal of Central Election Commission Chief and rerunning the election of Putin's Party United Russia returned would respond with a reduced majority.
He seems intent instead on horseback, the protests and hope that they fade, although another day is scheduled on the 24th December protests of the opposition.
"This is it." It's the end. Putin is completely out of touch. And this is increasingly obvious to everyone. "You had to think hard to insult people like this," a person who identifies as Oleg Kozyrev wrote.
A 21-year-old lawyer, who gave his name only as Yevgeny in the city of Ekaterinburg said: "he doesn't even show interest to what people were saying..." "Aliens have nothing to do with earthlings."
PUTIN THOUGHT THAT DEMONSTRANTEN HAD CONDOMS
Many of the people to the collections of alleged electoral fraud are young professionals in major cities that have answered online calls to protest and the political system opens up a liberal opposition reflect their views to contain.
Some of their claims were supported by international vote monitors, who said that the December 4 election was slanted in favor of Putin's Party United Russia, although it only one almost gained majority in the House of Commons of the Parliament.
A message from Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev saw many Russians on 24 September, which they planned jobs as a sign swap, the everything was cooked between them with no respect for democracy. Putin confirmed on Thursday that he wanted to Medvedev leading after the March election.
Putin tries, democratic and unconcerned about the protests by saying that they were "absolutely normal.", as long as everyone in the framework of the law is
"In my view, the outcome of the election undoubtedly reflects public opinion in the country," he said, a clear there would be no election rerun.
But at another point, he turned the journalist hosts the call-in and said: "I had enough of these questions about the election."
IMAGE PROBLEMS
Russia-based economist, said Putin had considerably harder than in previous years continue to operate its credibility and doubted that he had gained no new support in his performance.
"It is not fresh voices win." "He did not say anything, what the voices of the other set (the opponent) to win - he could have used this great event to promote its assessment", Alexey Bachurin said the Renaissance Capital Investment Bank,.
Putin has used the annual call-in he the last kept decade his image as to Polish up a strong leader with a detailed knowledge of the country and of the entire population. Thursday at the show was the longest yet, beating last year by five minutes.
As always there were such as health, pensions and housing, and Putin many questions on social issues suggested that he the individual leaders to unite and maintaining stability in the world largest energy producer was.
So often in the past he had strong words for the West and in particular former cold war foe the United States.
"The United States needs no ally, it needs vassals," he said.
He defended his economic record, say that some 2008 / 09 was "remarkable and useful" achievements such as poverty, despite the global economic crisis.
He hinted that former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, the foreign investors and many young professionals is held high after falling out with the Kremlin Government could return in September.
"Such people had to and need for Governments in the past and future", he said the Kudrin, has recently spoken form a political party and suggested that he could join protests.
(Reporting by Timothy heritage;) (Editing by Douglas Busvine)
3:49 AM | 0 comments

Thousands of Russians protest Putin

Written By Guru Cool on Monday, December 12, 2011 | 11:51 AM

1 of 17. Policemen detain an activist during a rally to protest against violations at the parliamentary elections in St. Petersburg December 10, 2011. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Russia on Saturday to demand an end to Vladimir Putin's rule and a rerun of a parliamentary election in the biggest opposition protests since he rose to power more than a decade ago.

Credit: Reuters/Alexander Demianchuk

By Steve Gutterman and Amie Ferris-Rotman


MOSCOW | Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:09pm EST


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people in Moscow and thousands more in cities across Russia demanded an end to Vladimir Putin's rule and a rerun of a parliamentary election on Saturday in the biggest opposition protests since he rose to power 12 years ago.


Potesters waved banners such as "The rats should go!" and "Swindlers and thieves - give us our elections back!" in cities from the Pacific port of Vladivostok in the east to Kaliningrad in the west, nearly 7,400 km (4,600 miles) away.


But the biggest protest by far was in Moscow, where riot police were out in force but just watched as protesters waving flags and shouting "Putin is a thief!" staged the opposition's biggest protest rally since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.


The protests showed a groundswell of anger over the December 4 election, which the opposition says was rigged to favor Putin's United Russia, and discontent with the prime minister three months before he tries to reclaim the presidency at the polls.


"Today 60,000, maybe 100,000 people, have come to this rally," former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov said in a speech to a huge crowd packed into Bolotnaya Square across the Moscow River from the Kremlin.


"This means today is the beginning of the end for these thieving authorities," said Kasyanov, who now leads an opposition movement which was barred from the election.


People of all ages gathered in Moscow, many carrying white carnations as the symbol of their protest and some waving pictures of Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev declaring: "Guys, it's time to go." Helicopters at times buzzed overhead.


Vladimir Ryzhkov, an opposition leader, read out a list of demands including annulling the election and holding a new one, registering opposition parties, dismissing the election commission head and freeing people the protesters consider political prisoners.


"Russia has changed today -- the future has changed," he said, urging demonstrators to come out for new protests on December 24. The crowd chanted, "We'll be back!"


But Konstantin Kosachyov, a United Russia lawmaker authorized to speak on behalf of the Kremlin, ruled out negotiations on the organizers' demands and said: "With all respect for the people who came out to protest, they are not a political party."


The rallies, many of them held in freezing snow, were a test of the opposition's ability to turn public anger into a mass protest movement on the scale of the Arab Spring rebellions that brought down rulers in the Middle East and North Africa.


Most Russian political experts say the former KGB spy who has dominated the world's largest energy producer for 12 years is in little immediate danger of being toppled and that protests are hard to keep going across such a vast country.


But they say Putin's authority has been damaged and may gradually wane when he returns as president after the March election, unless he answers demands ranging from holding fair elections to tackling rampant corruption and reducing the huge gap between rich and poor.


"The time has come to throw off the chains," one of the main opposition figures, blogger Alexei Navalny, said in a message sent from jail following his arrest in a protest in Monday.


"We are not cattle or slaves. We have a voice and we have the strength to defend it," he said in the message, which drew cheers when it was read out from the stage by Oleg Kashin, an opposition journalist.


Such large protests were unthinkable before last Sunday's election, in which United Russia won only a slim majority in the State Duma lower house -- police warned protesters to get off a Moscow bridge at one point for fear it would collapse.


But in a sign that the Kremlin has started to sense the change of mood, most of Saturday's rallies were approved by city authorities hoping to avoid violence and state television showed footage of the protests - but no direct criticism of Putin.


PROTEST FROM EAST TO WEST OF RUSSIA


Invited by messages sent on social media, people protested in dozens of cities such as Vladivostok, Novosibirsk in Siberia, Arkhangelsk in the Arctic north, in Kaliningrad in the west, and in the Karelia region near Finland. Witnesses said 10,000 took part in a protest in St Petersburg, Russia's second city.


Police broke up an unapproved protest by about 400 people in Kurgan, on Russia's border with Kazakhstan, and at least 20 were detained in Khabarovsk near Russia's border with China, Russian news agencies said. Ten were held in St Petersburg, police said, and 35 were detained in Syktyvkar near the Arctic Circle.


"This is history in the making for Russia. The people are coming out to demand justice for the first time in two decades, justice in the elections," Anton, 41, a financial services sector employee who gave only his first name, said in Moscow.


"I want new elections, not a revolution," said Ernst Kryavitsky, 75, a retired electrician dressed in a long brown coat and hat against the falling snow in Moscow.


At least 100 trucks of riot police were parked near the Kremlin and columns of police trucks drove around the capital. Police put the number of protesters at around 25,000, and organizers said it was up to 150,000.


Medvedev has denied the allegations of fraud in the election. Putin, who became prime minister in 1999 and was elected president in 2000, has accused the United States of encouraging and financing the protesters.


FALLING POPULARITY


The protesters were mainly angered by the election, in which they say only cheating prevented United Russia's result being worse. International monitors also said the ruling party had an unfair advantage and that they had evidence of ballot-stuffing.


Putin, 59, remains Russia's most popular leader in opinion polls, and has dominated the country under a political system in which power revolves around him. Far from all Russians wanted to take to the streets to protest.


"We think all these rallies, they're not right, because you need to work for justice in legal ways," said Lyudmila Mashenko, owner of a small business walking with her grandson in Moscow.


Some protesters want new elections but still back Putin.


"I came here today mainly to say that I don't agree with the result of election," the manager of an IT company in St Petersburg who gave her name only as Dasha.


But Putin has seen his support - won by restoring order after the chaos of the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union - slip in opinion polls.


Many Russians felt disenfranchised in September when he and Medvedev announced plans to swap jobs after the presidential election and said they had taken the decision years ago.


(Additional reporting by Andrei Ostroukh, Thomas Grove and Guy Faulconbridge, Writing by Timothy Heritage, Editing by Steve Gutterman)

11:51 AM | 0 comments

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