Eastern approaches

Ex-communist Europe

Protest in Russia

The anti-Putin promenade

Feb 6th 2012, 21:40 by A.O. | MOSCOW

THE Starlight Diner on Octyabrskaya (October) Square in Moscow was doing brisk trade on February 4th, as middle-class Russians scarfed down a hearty breakfast before joining the protest march against Vladimir Putin. The crowd inside the diner was jolly and colourful. Many sported bright skiing jackets, as if they were about to take to the slopes.

In fact, it was more of a promenade than a march. Tens of thousands of Muscovites carrying creative signs and white balloons, strolled, unfazed by a temperature of -20°C, towards the Kremlin. Politically-affiliated columns of Communists, nationalists, anarchists and monarchists were overtaken and outnumbered by middle-class citizens who valued their private space too much to form columns. This was no revolutionary crowd—they came to display their dignity and demand honest elections, not to storm the Kremlin. They reject Mr Putin not as some ruthless tyrant (he is not) but as the lynchpin of a corrupt system of governance based on the supremacy of the bureaucrat over the private citizen.

The timing was symbolic: one month before the presidential election which Mr Putin hopes to win in the first round, and 21 years after hundreds of thousands of Russians marched through Moscow demanding the end of one-party Communist rule. The people who walked through Moscow last Saturday complained not about the shortage of food and clothes as their predecessors did, but about the lack of rule of law and institutions in the country.

The Kremlin responded to this latest protest with its own rally, to which it bussed state workers and people from nearby towns, most of whom were paid or coerced. The shrill speeches at the Kremlin rally, about America’s plot to orchestrate a colour revolution in Russia, contrasted with the much more calm and positive tone of the anti-Putin protest, which was highlighted by a couple of songs, including this one by a group of ex-marines. And while most people at the pro-Kremlin rally left with a feeling of resentment and humiliation, the well-heeled and independent Muscovites celebrated their outing and their resolve with a perfect “après ski”.

(Photo credit: AFP)

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Didomyk

The latest Moscow pop song, named "V.V.P." (it stands for Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin ) promotes Putin as a "heaven-sent" leader who turned Russia in crisis into a world power both as president and as prime minister.
The use of such terms as "heaven-sent" and the "savior of the people," promted an opposition blogger to write:
"Creativity has reached a new level. … The lyrics! What lyrics! Listen and enjoy!".
You can 'enjoy' the song in Russian, of course, here: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/pro-putin-song-is-web-hit/452...

Spectacularj1

I find it amusing that Putin is so convinced of his own greatness that any opposition to him must be the result of foreign meddling.

As though thousands of Russians could be motivated by a Western agent provocateur but not by the state of their own country.

Chermen in reply to Spectacularj1

Quite simply: Putin wants scare people by the Orange Revolution, because, he supposes, that it will force them vote for him. Although most of the people, by contrast, believes, that President Putin himself orange.

Didomyk

The process of training Putin 'supporters' takes several years and includes staging rallies of young (brainwashed and ignorant) 'Putin-generation' (aka 'Putin Jugend') equipped with appropriate flags, banners, slogans, masks, video equipment etc. All these activities need financial support by way of 'donations' from the 'priviledged' Russian oligarkhs experienced in raising their business profits by 'padding' multimillion dollars state orders.

Watching this video serves as a reminder of photos found in some history books of similar 'Jugend rallies' in the 1930s in cities like Berlin, Nurnberg, etc.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2007/08/07/world/1194817101307/the-putin-...

lennoxRU

The official name of the crowd was "for fair elections" and it had nothing to do with "against Putin" slogan. Everyone in the country would support such a motto, including Putin supporters.

TE is deceiving pity western public again painting everything in black and white.

bostonchris in reply to lennoxRU

Putin would support the motto and then stuff the ballots. Fair elections would dethrone Putin. Anyways, the article states that, "they came to display their dignity and demand honest elections, not to storm the Kremlin."--hardly a dishonest nor 'black and white' article.

By the way, why did Putin find it necessary to buy his own rally if this one was so pro-Putin?

Omniprescient in reply to lennoxRU

"Fair elections" inevitably mean and shall lead to level playing field in political campaigning, including freedom to associate (registration and functioning of political parties) and registration of candidates without discriminate interference by the State usurped by Putin's apparatchiks. I think Russian legal framework as well as de facto workings of the system are a joke and cannot be any more further from "free and fair elections".

lennoxRU in reply to bostonchris

Excellent analysis and decent opinion. You miss one thing however: everything you know about Russia is from the articles written by the same biased people. Putin has 65+% approval rating.

What is funny is that you sit in Massachusetts and pretend to know exactly what this world and that particular nation needs. You cannot even imagine how comprehensive, colorful and diverse the world is. only murmuring "democracy" here and there, you don't inderstand that you live a much more slavery life with money and primitive comfort being your masters. Russians are much more free than you are, truly in their soul, so don't worry. We will much appreciate if you pay attention to yourself really.

Chermen

Russia needs a new Stalin.

FFlump in reply to Chermen

Stalin was definitely a murdering psychopath. There is no doubt about it. And you dishonor the memories of his victims by suggesting anything else. Furthermore, comparing Stalins reign with the Great Depression is so absolutely ludicrous that it is beyond belief.

Didomyk in reply to Chermen

Propaganda ? Are you denying the Soviet GULAG system ? The mass executions of political prisoners ? The well know destruction of all religions, the murder of Orthodox priests, bishops and faithful ? Denying the reign of terror known as Yezhovshchina, the Beria executions, the Lazar Kaganovich's mass starvation of millions from hunger ?

You must be still in Grade 1 public school, unable to comprehend reality.

There are plenty of Russian-lanuage documents on the RED TERROR.
You read Russian. Take a good look at this one:

http://www.gulag.ipvnews.org/article20070225.php

Chermen in reply to Didomyk

"Are you denying the Soviet GULAG system?"
No, as you do not deny the existence of prisons in other countries. I reject the blatant lie about the number of inmates and victims.

Learn true material, non fictions:
(lgz.ru/article/16066/)

(rusarchives.ru/evants/exhibitions/xx_f/69.shtml)

P.S.
Incidentally, in the Stalin's Soviet Union the number of prisoners was not much more than in the U.S. today.

Didomyk in reply to Chermen

Russian state archives, and KGB archives in particular, remain closed. What has been released are selected bits of misinformation to keep the ignorants confused.

Witness propaganda at work. You are a good example.

Joey the Reader

"The Kremlin responded to this latest protest with its own rally, to which it bussed state workers and people from nearby towns, most of whom were paid or coerced." ----- Something tells me these anti-Putin protestors weren't in it for free.

Chermen

Putin is a strong politician against the backdrop of Western Pygmies, but he must "finish" corrupt fellows. Otherwise, citizens will "finish" him.

FFlump in reply to Chermen

A "strong politician" would take part in debates, not run and hide from people who disagree with him. At least the "Western Pygmies" have earned their positions, not just stolen them from their people.

Cloudwarrior

I feel quite sad for Putin.... he had to actually bus in his own rally group!

Wow how pathetic does he feel?

lennoxRU in reply to Cloudwarrior

The official name of the march was "for fair elections". It was not anti-Putin, The Economist please do not deceive people for who you are the only source of info about Russia.
Why The Economist also doesnt say about the counter-march organised the same day, organised by people who "support Putin". It gathered more people. Not presenting both sides of the story proves one more time that the journal holds biased position and pushes its own opinion through the masses - propaganda in other words.
The mob is more like against corruption for which Putin is partly responsible (not to mention benefits he brought to the country).
loudwarrior you have false info. there are many of them, I would even say most of the people support Putin. He is and will be in power thank God.

moscovia2012 in reply to lennoxRU

I am a foreigner living in Russia. 12 yrs now. My 70 year old father-in-law works as a dezhurny at a district Uprava in Moscow. The entire staff of the uprava was told to go to the pro-putin rally. My father in law didn't go - he said he would rather resign than go. But the rest of the staff went. Nobody wanted to risk getting the sack. When I said that once there anyone wanting to leave earlier could easily slip away, my wife told me how it works: there would be a head count right before and after the rally. Coincidentally, I had to go the bank office at park pobedy on saturday and I saw the masses going to the rally. A lot of grim faced middle-aged people packed like sardines in the tunnel that joins the metro with the square.
I might be exagerating a bit but it was like watching a chain gang of prisoners.

lennoxRU in reply to moscovia2012

You are exagerating a bit. Its just the way foreigners see the Russians. I see the Americans to be freaky and unmannered. They see Russian calm nature and absence of emotions about ordinary things as gloominess.
Concerning your father: there are some directors of public companies who propose their course of action. It doesn't automatically mean the bloody ruler said them to and the government responsible for that and deserves to die. It's just the characteristic of any power vertical that is to do with peoples inherently deficient nature. Still better pay some price for having strong government than see gays on the streets and totally individualistic, materialistic and consumer driven society as in the west. That's a pity Russia is becoming one of the cheap clones of this pervert system.

yossarian1985

I think the author means the popular Starlite on Bolotnaya, not Oktabrskaya. And they weren't ex-marines singing, they were ex-airborne (VDV).

The protest meetings certainly seem to be much more calm now and are quite organized and civilized affairs compared to the first one just after the 4 December elections (when police forceably broke up the march and carted hundreds off to jail). Putin will win in March and remain without serious challengers, but this vocal and organized minority are likely to be a permanent background fixture of Russian politics now.

blake123

And yes, in getting ready for the elections, corrupt little KGBchik Putin has fired the journalist who ran one critical story of him on NTV. Putin's bet: blame it all on the Americans.

Putin was for his life someone who snitched and spied to rise through the KGB where he functioned in East Germany with the disgusting STASI. This is where Putin's worldview was molded. He has never lived in a democracy ruled by law nor any Western state. His whole experience of the outside world apart from Russia is Nil - just all those paranoid anti-American texts he studied in the KGB. He honestly cannot come to believe that honest Russians want to rid themselves of their KGB czar.

So as the paranoid Soviets did before him, Putin starts will all these paranoid stories of Western conspiracies and bloodshed and revolution. Again: Lubyanka morality does not provide good leaders for 21st century countries.

Problem is Putin and his zhuliki and crooks have stolen so much from the Russian economy, he would clearly be arrested or lose his spoils should an honest Russian leader run the country. Hence, my prediction Putin will hold on at all costs and will find an excuse or provocation to maintain his rule. Don't exclude anything.

Yura2009 in reply to blake123

In an article 'Putin without Putinism'

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/08/putin_without_putinism

Anders Aslund wrote:

"the opposition thinks it has won and lives in a free country, while the government believes its rule persists. These two contradictory perceptions of reality are soon bound to clash, however, and Russia's system of government will be changed beyond recognition in the process."

The author believes that Russians' expectations about the aftermath vary greatly and lists five alternative scenarios, including the most critical one of a "red-brown alliance" consisting of Zyuganov's Communist Party, Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party, and Sergey Mironov's 'A Just Russia'.

To understand the options and potential consequences read the article in full.

Hektor Konomi

So the rich are against Putin?

Chermen in reply to Yura2009

"a strong but just president who respects justice but will employ judiciary effectivly to rid the country of Putin allies and assorted thieves"

So, it looks like, you're talking about Stalin.

About Eastern approaches

Eastern approaches deals with the economic, political, security and cultural aspects of the eastern half of the European continent. It incorporates the long-running "Europe.view" weekly column. The blog is named after the wartime memoirs of the British soldier Sir Fitzroy Maclean.

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