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Russian Democracy
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| Dopey |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6492447.stm
Last Updated: Sunday, 25 March 2007, 02:20 GMT 03:20 UK
Russian opposition demo quashed
Riot police detain protesters during an opposition rally in Nizhny Novgorod
Riot police with batons and shields dispersed crowds of protesters
Russian riot police have arrested dozens of demonstrators who staged an anti-government rally in the city of Nizhny Novgorod on Saturday.
Protesters were dragged into waiting police vans and driven away.
The marchers were defying a ban on protests to demonstrate against what they see as attempts by President Vladimir Putin to stifle democracy.
A Russian presidential envoy described those taking part as disaffected young people and political outsiders.
"Around 30 people have been detained, four or five of them were active organisers," a local police spokesman, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
Riot police with batons, black helmets and shields dispersed the remaining dozens of protestors in the city's central Gorky Square, some of whom were chanting "Fascists".
Organisers said that dozens of activists had also been arrested ahead of the demonstration in Russia's fourth biggest city, about 380km (240 miles) east of Moscow.
'Power to silence'
The anti-government protest is the second in recent weeks. Several thousand demonstrators held a rally in St Petersburg, during which about 100 people were arrested.
The event - entitled "the march of the dissenters" - was organised by opposition leaders, including former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and chess champion Gary Kasparov.
They accuse the Kremlin of using its power to silence the opposition in advance of local and parliamentary elections.
The constitution requires Mr Putin to step down after his second term in 2008. Critics accuse him of trying to manipulate victory for a successor of his own choosing.
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I guess relations with China are very strong eh? |
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| star-traveler |
Oh my. I knew that someone like you would post that garbage here.
Just take time and look which parties the BBC call the Russian opposition. One of them is NBP - they are the ing Russian facists. The primary goal of this so-called "oposition" is to make riots. |
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| Dopey |
| quote: | Originally posted by star-traveler
Oh my. I knew that someone like you would post that garbage here.
Just take time and look which parties the BBC call the Russian opposition. One of them is NBP - they are the ing Russian facists. The primary goal of this so-called "oposition" is to make riots. |
Did BBC error in reporting that there is a ban on protests? |
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| star-traveler |
| quote: | Originally posted by Dopey
Did BBC error in reporting that there is a ban on protests? |
I don't really care. If a new protest by this opposition was actually banned it's even better.
Earlier this month when they gathered for a protest in St.Petersburg. The local authorities gave them a space at one location, but this "opposition" refused to make a protest there, so they decided to block one of the main streets in the city center.
Imagine somebody blocking the main street somewhere in London or NYC without any authorization on it. |
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| star-traveler |
Look here, same thing happens even in the most Democratic nation in the Universe. When you break the laws, the police will punish you.
| quote: | Hundreds Arrested At White House Christian Anti-War Protest
SARAH KARUSH
AP
Saturday, March 17, 2007
WASHINGTON — Thousands of Christians prayed for peace at an anti-war service Friday night at the Washington National Cathedral, kicking off a weekend of protests around the country to mark the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq.
Afterward, participants marched with battery-operated faux candles through snow and wind toward the White House, where police began arresting protesters shortly before midnight. Protest guidelines require demonstrators to continue moving while on the White House sidewalk.
"We gave them three warnings, and they broke the guidelines," said Lt. Scott Fear. "There's an area on the White House sidewalk where you have to keep moving."
About 100 people crossed the street from Lafayette Park _ where thousands of protesters were gathered _ to demonstrate on the White House sidewalk late Friday. Police began cuffing them and putting them on buses to be taken for processing.
Fear said 222 people had been arrested by Saturday morning. The first 100 were charged with disobeying a lawful order, and the others with crossing a police line. All of them were fined $100.
The windows of the executive mansion were dark, as the president was away for the weekend at Camp David in Maryland.
John Pattison, 29, said he and his wife flew in from Portland, Ore., to attend his first anti-war rally. He said his opposition to the war had developed over time.
"Quite literally on the night that shock and awe commenced, my friend and I toasted the military might of the United States," Pattison said. "We were quite proud and thought we were doing the right thing."
He said the way the war had progressed and U.S. foreign policy since then had forced him to question his beliefs.
"A lot of the rhetoric that we hear coming from Christians has been dominated by the religious right and has been strong advocacy for the war," Pattison said. "That's just not the way I read my Gospel."
The ecumenical coalition that organized the event, Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, distributed 3,200 tickets for the service in the cathedral, with two smaller churches hosting overflow crowds. The cathedral appeared to be packed, although sleet and snow prevented some from attending.
"This war, from a Christian point of view, is morally wrong _ and was from the beginning," the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, one of the event's sponsors, said toward the end of the service to cheers and applause. "This war is ... an offense against God."
In his speech, the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, senior pastor at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, lashed out at Congress for being "too morally inept to intervene" to stop the war, but even more harshly against President Bush.
"Mr. Bush, my Christian brother, we do need a surge in troops. We need a surge in the nonviolent army of the Lord," he said. "We need a surge in conscience and a surge in activism and a surge in truth-telling."
Celeste Zappala of Philadelphia recounted how she learned of the death of her son, Sgt. Sherwood Baker, who served in the National Guard. When a uniformed man came to her door asking if she was Baker's mother, she said yes.
"'Yes,' and then I fell to the ground and somewhere outside of myself I heard someone screaming and screaming," she said.
The Friday night events mark the beginning of what is planned as a weekend of protests ahead of Tuesday's anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion, which began on March 20, 2003.
On Saturday morning, a coalition of protest groups has a permit for up to 30,000 people to march from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial across the Potomac River to the Pentagon. Smaller demonstrations are planned in cities across the country. |
Hundreds Arrested At White House Christian Anti-War Protest |
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| Dopey |
| Well of course of course you must protest legally not to get arrested, it's just the way BBC worded that makes me think it is something more. |
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| Magnetonium |
"The event - entitled "the march of the dissenters" - was organised by opposition leaders, including former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and chess champion Gary Kasparov."
^^^
And you guys dont think these guys, esp. the politically ousted member dont have an agenda? These people are like anarchists - instead of supporting a political party they just go against the government party, just like what the communists did in the 1917 revolution, street protests against the government led to the overthrowal of the government and installment of a shady dictatorship that brutalized the nation for over 70 years and whose ghosts still linger today. Legally, and most politically correct, Kasparov and Kasyanov should start a party, an anti-Putin party instead of causing unrest - a lot of these protests in Russia have resulted in mobbing, violence, looting, especially the skinheads marches.
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"The constitution requires Mr Putin to step down after his second term in 2008. Critics accuse him of trying to manipulate victory for a successor of his own choosing."---
^^^ I guess thats why Putin refuses to name the party or the politician he supports and he hopes to win in the next elections yet? I mean, how come Putin is not supporting and advertising his favourite party?
Plus, when protests happen in other cities around the world, as star-traveller showed, people get arrested for smaller things, but all because a) the march was not sanctioned and not properly organized - you CAN have marches and protest walks in Russia if properly co-ordinated with the officials to make sure that government provides police, route, and security to make sure the protest doesnt go out of hand, otherwise it could easily spill into violence as happened before. I've seen these anti-government protests before, where people used violence, attacked police, drew nazi symbols on buildings, etc. IN RUSSIA. If you dont sanction and organize your protests and march on, you'd get arrested in a whole bunch of countries around the world, even in Canada for disturbing the peace, havoc ... |
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| Lira |
| quote: | | Originally posted by star-traveler |
You know what the rules are, be responsible for your acts!
(Your alt account is banned: it's just a week, for Christ's sake) |
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