From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 9/4/2005 7:14 AM
Stirring for Russian revolution
Dissidents are making noise against President Putin, loud enough for country's leaders to take notice

BY SEBASTIAN SMITH
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

August 29, 2005

MOSCOW - With 39 of his followers crammed into defendants' cages in the Moscow courtroom, would-be Russian revolutionary Eduard Limonov might have been expected to concede defeat.

Three weeks earlier, riot police had used a power saw to enforce an eviction order at the headquarters of his National Bolshevik party, a youth outfit that has won a cult following with stunts like throwing eggs at politicians and unfurling anti-government banners in public. A separate court had recently outlawed the movement, which espouses an eclectic mix of ultranationalism and liberalism, and when the Supreme Court overturned that decision, prosecutors immediately appealed.

Now, in an ongoing trial that began in mid-July, the 39 young party members - known as NatsBols - face possible jail terms of up to 8 years for briefly occupying a public Kremlin office in December.

The onslaught, observers believe, is a sign that Russia's political elite is increasingly worried that even marginal groups such as the NatsBols could threaten President Vladimir Putin's iron rule, or what the Kremlin calls "managed democracy."

Apart from NatsBols, there are Communists, pro-Western liberals and special-interest groups ranging from old people against capitalism to youngsters against military service. They are a ragtag bunch with limited media access, but they are passionate and united in a desire to see Putin go. The peaceful overthrow of entrenched regimes in ex-Soviet Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan over the past two years gives them hope.

Ready for fight

Certainly the NatsBols leader is in a fighting mood.

"We are the avant-garde of revolution," Limonov, a counterculture writer, proclaimed during a pause in proceedings. "I think we will succeed in breaking down the walls of this terrible state." Back in court, a young activist greeted him with a defiant, clenched-fist salute through the bars of his cage.

On the face of things, there would seem to be little to bother Putin - Limonov included. Parliament is dominated by government loyalists, regional governors no longer are elected directly, television is state-controlled and a vast security apparatus keeps growing.

The constitution requires Putin to step down in 2008, but some think he is trying to find a way of holding on to power.

A majority of analysts believe he will comply with the constitution, but only after making sure that a chosen successor faces no significant opposition.

In a case widely seen as punishment for political activity, Yukos Oil chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced to 9 years in prison this summer after being found guilty of tax fraud and embezzlement. Then, a suspiciously selective corruption probe was opened against potential presidential candidate and former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who is accused of illegally appropriating a state villa. Chess great Gary Kasparov was blocked repeatedly by local authorities during a recent tour of southern Russia as he tried to contact grass-roots voters. Kasparov heads "Committee 2008," which is campaigning to ensure a free presidential vote.

However, each time the Kremlin tightens the lid on debate, opposition bubbles up.

One of the more unexpected challenges came last month in the form of a hunger strike by holders of the country's highest military honor, Hero of Russia, and (for those decorated before the USSR's collapse) Hero of the Soviet Union. The veterans' anger was sparked by a government plan to modernize the economy by switching automatic benefits, like the right to free transport, to cash payments.

In January, the same issue brought tens of thousands of pensioners into the streets, but the Heroes' protest was more surprising since the longtime military men were not exactly typical dissidents.

In July nine such men joined the hunger strike, some for a few days, others for weeks. Valery Burkov, 48, an air force colonel who lost both legs during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, said the row over benefits was the tip of deeper resentment against overpowerful rulers. "They look after themselves, not society," he said, lying against a mattress after 17 days surviving on water. "We should do everything to bring down such a government."

As usual with anti-Putin protests, television almost completely ignored the hunger strike. Many newspapers reported on it freely, but the print media's impact in Russia is negligible. Only the three state-controlled TV channels penetrate this vast country.

Government counters

Nevertheless, there are signs the Kremlin is feeling the pressure. One indication was the creation this year of Nashi, a youth group apparently conceived by the Kremlin to counter the kind of Western-backed student movements central to Georgia's "rose revolution" and Ukraine's "orange revolution."

With extensive financial resources and high-level support, Nashi is trying to sweep up young people before they drift into opposition. At an impressively equipped summer camp, 3,000 youths aged 17 to 21 from around Russia listened to anti-Western lectures and relaxed to Soviet-era patriotic music.

"Your job is to defend the constitutional order," a top Kremlin adviser, Gleb Pavlovsky, told them. Even the name Nashi - meaning Ours - illustrates the way battle lines are being drawn through Russian society ahead of 2008.

Violence is never far from mind in Russia, with its history of mass repression and a severe terrorism problem stemming from two wars in Chechnya.

Boris Nemtsov, one of the many liberal leaders of the 1990s to have lost his parliament seat, says political upheaval is likely, but not in the peaceful mold of Ukraine. "In Russia there is great interethnic hatred, class hatred - I mean hatred for wealthy people - that is stirred up by official propaganda," he said in a recent interview with U.S.-funded Radio Liberty. "That is why there can be no 'velvet' solution, as there was, for example, in Georgia or Ukraine."

Limonov, who was imprisoned from 2001 to 2003 on charges of terrorism and preparing an armed rebellion in Kazakhstan (he claims the charges were trumped up for political reasons), agrees. "The Russian revolution will not be without bloodshed," he said. "I think the authorities will resist."

Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc.

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