SERPUKHOV, Moscow Region — Yury Chervochkin had no Internet connection at his apartment in this industrial town 100 kilometers south of Moscow where he lived with his mother and younger brother.
So when the 22-year-old opposition activist was released from police custody on the evening of Nov. 22, 2007, he went straight to the Internet cafe Portal in the center of town to post an account of his detention on an opposition blog community.
We have now two presidents in Russia: old one is Mister Putin and a new one, appointed on March 2, Mister Medvedev. That idiocy will be formally ended on May 7, when Mr. Medvedev will be inaugurated in Kremlin’s seat. But nevertheless, for more than two months, Russia was headed by two presidents.
As to Putin’s in his first years of presidency to Mr. Medvedev also could be addressed banal questions: “Who is Mister Medvedev?” Because Mr. Medvedev is not a political figure, he is a practically unknown bureaucrat, one of a huge crowd of bureaucrats surrounding Putin. As Putin himself is a small bureaucrat, one from a huge crowd of “chinovniks” surrounding Yeltsin. If the elected president had been named Zyuganov or Yavlinski or Kasparov or even Limonov, nobody in Russia would have asked a question: “Who is that man?” Because these are political leaders, actors in Russian political play. They are known to general population. Mr. Medvedev, on the contrary, is not known, or wasn’t known, at all. Mr. Medvedev is not a leader of political party, he is not a member of political party, so he is not a political man. We can guess that he is a member of Putin’s circle of close friends, a member of some inner circle. If he is to be appointed to the post of guarding of their interests, we are guessing that Mr. Medvedev is trusted by Mr. Putin’s group and Mr. Putin himself.
Correction Appended
It began inauspiciously. On a frozen afternoon in late November, as Moscow was draped with blocklong plastic billboards, banners and flags, each proclaiming a variation on a single theme — “POBEDA PUTINA — POBEDA ROSSII!” (“A Victory for Putin Is a Victory for Russia”) — a few thousand Russians converged on the city center for a rare act of political theater. It seemed, at first, like a tableau from the last days of the U.S.S.R., those heady months when glasnost swelled the streets with protesters. A handful of dissidents stood on a flatbed truck; a jumble of loudspeakers were stacked below; the crew of foreign reporters vastly outnumbered the local press; and across the way, the secret policemen with their unseen amplifiers were drowning the protest in canned laughter and Soviet waltzes. (more…)
British Newspaper Hacks “Other Russia” Story To Bits
I am thinking now that I am working for “Exile” as reporter, being in same time active participant and even architect of Russian History. Thus, the first Congress of “Other Russia” held in Moscow’s Izmailovo Hotel on September 30 was planned and executed by Garry Kasparov and me. As to the idea of participation in the comping Russian parliamentary elections it was entirely my idea. I expressed that idea two years ago, and steadily, have promoted it inside of the Other Russia coalition. Finally it was accepted by my colleagues in the coalition. On October 1st, Kasparov and me, we visited Central Electoral Commission and have handed over the list of candidates for elections of deputies of a State Duma. What I want to say, that I am reporter who is reporting on activity of Edward Limonov–who is oppositional politician. Unusual situation, isn’t it?
Other Russia’s Conference on July 11—12 have started processes of confrontation between Putin’s Kremlin forces and new oppositional forces consolidated under “Other Russia’s” banner.
At the moment of “Other Russia’s” creation, old opposition forces (Zuganov’s Communists, Yavlinski’s democrats, the Union of Right Forces) have proved to be impotent. Not dead, but as unactive as dead. For more than decade those opposition parties were present in Russian State Duma, however that presence couldn’t stop an installation in Russia of rightwing Putin dictatorship. Exploiting protest emotions of population, Zuganov, Yavlinksi, and rest were actually pretenders, false oppositioners.
Police-state is not the same state that is fascist state. Russia before April 14, 2007 was a police state, but it became a fascist state after brutal suppression of “March of Dissenters” on April 14 in Moscow, and April 15 in St. Petersburg. I went through both of them.
On the morning of April 14 center of Moscow was looking like a military camp. Army vehicles, columns of special forces. Passersby were severely scrutinized by soldiers and police officers. Suspected to be dissenters were dragged out almost immediately. I met Garry Kasparov at about 11:30 am near Zubovsky Bulvar. Mikhail Kasyanov was blocked somewhere, so we have decided to go at Pushkinskaya Ploschad, where we have announced dissenters should meet. On telephone we have received an information that biggest group of dissenters have concentrated itself near Museum of Revolution on Tverskaya Ulitsa. We decided to go there. Kasparov’s car have passed across the street on yellow light, so a car with me and my security people have arrived to the place of destination near Museum of Revolution with few minutes delay. I saw Kasparov surrounded by police special forces soldiers. Other soldiers were running towards Kasparov. One of Kasparov’s security people saw my car and me in it, ready to get out, so he signaled me with his hands, “No, don’t go out!”
The Moscow City Court on Thursday declared the unregistered National Bolshevik Party an extremist organization, making it possible for the authorities to arrest anyone who takes part in its activities.
Judge Alla Nazarova also ruled in favor of a request from city prosecutors to ban the organization.
Writer Eduard Limonov, who created the organization in 1993, told reporters outside the courthouse that the ruling was “politically motivated and unjust.”
“This precedent will enable the authorities to do the same thing to parties or people who hold alternative views,” Limonov said. (more…)
We have met inside of Leningradski railroad station at midnight. Kasparov with his body guards, surrounded by liberal looking people from United Civic Front, as well as young, huge, skin-headed Sergei Udaltsov with his boys from Red Youth, and us - National Bolsheviks, who made more than a half of the crowd of one hundred. Later, the governor of St. Petersburg, Valentino Matvienko, would label us as “two carriages of agent-provocateurs from Moscow.”
Some groups of plain-clothed policemen were spread over Leningradski rail-road station building. We were ready to their attempt to arrest us here, in Moscow, but plainclothes policemen didn’t move when we started our move to platform. They have let us go. We boarded our train.
// Kasparov’s United Civil Front Headquarters Searched
Yesterday commandos from the anti-terrorism unit of the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry searched the Moscow headquarters of Garry Kasparov’s United Civil Front party. The police, claiming that they were trying to head off any trouble that might arise during next Saturday’s “March of Dissent,” scoured the office for literature that could be construed as encouraging extremism. In return, Mr. Kasparov accused the ministry of “repression” and “intimidation.” (more…)
My partner and I are engaged in a semantic argument. At the heart of it is the question, what is the regime doing? Specifically, is it pissing itself or pissing on us? I think the way the authorities are acting betrays a great fear of us, the people, who are growing increasingly dissatisfied with the way things are. In other words, they are pissing themselves. She thinks the actions of the authorities show great disdain for us, the people. In other words, they are pissing on us. I think change is in the air; she thinks we’ll all be sorry. (more…)