Hundreds arrested in Russia during protests against election outcome

[News_Editor]

Hundreds arrested in Russia during protests against election outcome

2012-03-06 10:09:16 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOSCOW, Russia (BNO NEWS) -- More than 550 people were arrested on Monday when tens of thousands of people participated in unauthorized protests in the Russian cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg to denounce Vladimir Putin's re-election as president, officials said on early Tuesday.

Thousands of people gathered at Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow to demand free elections after Putin won 63.60 percent during Sunday's presidential election, which international observers have said were 'clearly skewed' in favor of the prime minister. Putin was followed by Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov and self-nominee businessman Mikhail Prokhorov who won 17.18 and 7.86 percent respectively.

Police officials said approximately 14,000 people took part in the opposition rally in Moscow, but organizers said the actual figure was between 20,000 and 40,000. With 12,000 police officers present, the situation at the square was described as calm and there were no reports of significant incidents.

But although the main opposition rally had been authorized by city authorities, up to 1,000 people refused to leave the square when the authorized demonstration ended. Some protesters started a sit-in and pledged to stay until their demands for fair elections were met, resulting in about 250 people being arrested.

Among those arrested in Moscow was blogger and political activist Alexei Navalny. "Hello from the police van," the activist wrote on his Twitter profile. He later tweeted a photo from inside the police van, showing at least nine other protesters who had also been detained during the rally.

"The Moscow police forces responded to the violations promptly and in full accordance with the powers defined by law, and took measures to avoid negative developments and the aggravation of the situation," a spokesperson for Moscow police told the ITAR-TASS news agency. It said all the detainees were taken to city police stations for formal registration.

In St. Petersburg, more than 300 people were arrested at St. Isaac's Square when a group of approximately 800 people participated in an unauthorized protest against Sunday's election result. Among those arrested were several men who threw Molotov cocktails at police vehicles, Russian media reports said.

Earlier on Monday, election monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) concluded that voting procedures were generally followed during Sunday's presidential election. But there was evidence of fraud and observers said campaign conditions were 'clearly skewed' in favor of Putin.

"The point of elections is that the outcome should be uncertain. This was not the case in Russia," said Tonino Picula of the OSCE, commenting on Monday's report. "There was no real competition and abuse of government resources ensured that the ultimate winner of the election was never in doubt."

Opposition leaders have rejected the results of the election.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-03-06

[Exsexyman]

On the steps of the police station Mr Navalny promised that he would continue the protest until the end. No doubt he meant until the end of his US taxpayer welfare regime change payments! The Western media establishment is infatuated withMr Navalny. The BBC described him as "Arguably the only major opposition figure to emerge in Russia in the past five years". More relevent is the fact that Navalny went to the elite American East Coast Yale University, also home to the Bush family, where he was a "Yale World Fellow".Navalny however is also or has been on the payroll of Washington's regime destabilising National Endowment For Democracy, NED According to a posting on his own blog, LiveJournal, he was financed in 2007-2008 by the NED. The NED is also financing key parts of the Russian "Independent" polling and election monitoring, a crucial part of of being able to claim election fraud, They also finance The Regional Civic Organization In Defense Of Democratic Rights And Liberties."GOLOS". According to the GOLOS annual report the funds went to " Carry out a detailed analysis of the autumn 2010 and the spring 2011 election cycles in Russia, which will include press monitoring, monitoring of political agitation, activity of electoral commisions, and other aspects of the application of electoral legislation in the long term run up to the election". Imagine what would happen if Mr Putin was found to be funding the US Occupy Movement! The US State Department has called on Russia to investigate allegations of fraud. How strange they didn't want an investigation into the fraudulent election of GW Bush in 2000!

[FangFerang]

A largely one-sided argument, Exsexyman. Worse, your information about Navalny, Putin, and implied villainy is all wrong.

Navalny earned both his degrees in the Russian Federation. He was appointed a Yale Fellow for his work for fighting corruption in Russia, and has received numerous Russian Awards for his work. Because he is a media man, the media in the "free world" (a questionable term) raise his picture as a poster child for journalistic intensity. Further, he is deeply into the metals market and has his own cash (Russia is the number one producer of titanium sold everywhere ion earth and is the second largest oil producing nation after Saudi Arabia). The jet you rode in to Thailand was made of titanium alloy aircraft aluminum, probably brokered by Navalny into the West. Maybe you should send him a thank-you note since you are therefore blatantly funding him.

Putin was selected as the Time Man of the Year in 2007. Here is the link, and the story is interesting. The media bias is dependent on the source, not the country. http://www.time.com/...1690757,00.html

Lumping entire groups together is a lazy shortcut to bigotry. All media sources align on different sides of an issue, adopt a stance (slant) and pander to their chosen demographic as a business model. That's how they make money. When I worked at a US newspaper, more than one reporter told me that editors selected articles and reports that supported a chosen stance, and the writers knew better than to lose their jobs-- a bit of journalistic prostitution that goes on worldwide.

I do agree with you that regime change is a stupid idea, and history shows it to be a short-term goal almost certain to backfire over time. The US and other countries that diddle in foreign affairs, including the Russian Federation, the UK, and other permanent members of the UN Security Council, are slowly realizing it. If anyone is the bad guy here, it is ignorance, not information, and from available information, it would be more likely the Chinese would like to engineer regime change in the Russian Federation. They arrest each other's spies on a regular basis and share a whopping border that is the sixth largest in the world. Further, Russian instability leads to missing nukes that threaten the West, and Putin offers stability.

It is the current lame sport of European expats to target Americans as the villains that are ruining the world, but the wealthy who control governments worldwide all sit at the UN Security Council as permanent members, being the Russian Federation, China, the United Kindgom, France and the United States. Each are huge exporters of small arms, the five largest in the world, and those arms kill more people each year than anyone wants to consider, especially when having a good game of sophistry to talk about everyone's favorite bad guy. The SK and AK-series weapons from Russia and China, and from the West the M16, the lovely Heckler and Koch products, all unified under the notorious and popular favorite, the NATO 7.51mm round usable in every gun that NATO nations produce and sell worldwide to the highest bidder are a critical underlying cause of instability and bloodshed...Khadaffi was supplied by French and British licensees exporting small arms through Malta and Italy.

There is plenty of blame to go around, and I feel sure some it sits on the first table you ate from in your home nation.

FF

Edited March 7, 2012 by FangFerang

[ParadiseLost]

Disinformation rules!

How can anyone believe what one hears/reads in newspapers, television etc. today?

I have one main source of news - John Stewart of the Daily Show - the rest can blow it out their...

FangFerang -Thank you for an extremely informative, well written comment, wasted in such a lonely forum topic. Such a change from the usual drivel found on TV. My choice for post of the year.

Edit:

I feel I must add this - in another thread (to some people's disdain) I lumped Putin, Burlesconi and Thaksin into one evil category. A bit of fun initially but I do think they are moulded from the same disgusting substance...

I see from your writing you think Putin has redeeming qualities, but as with Thailand I see Russia as a totally corrupt, immoral nation - don't even mention Italy.

In my view corruption is eventually going to lead to the downfall of law and order in every nation of this world. Young people are left with no hope for the future, so only one option is available - anarchy.

Edited March 7, 2012 by ParadiseLost