For Russia's Most Powerful Man, Fear Still A Factor
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posted by zaina19 on December, 2007 as ANALYSIS / OPINION
From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 12/3/2007 12:12 PM Friday, November 30, 2007 For Russia's Most Powerful Man, Fear Still A Factor By Robert Coalson Russia -- An opposition protest march in St. Petersburg, 09Jun2007 Why does Vladimir Putin's Kremlin still fear any sign of dissent? (epa) November 30, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- On the one hand, the Kremlin's plan for the legislative elections seems to be proceeding smoothly. Election commissions, local officials, the police, the courts, and the pseudo-opposition parties all seem to be doing their part to ensure that the pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party wins in a rout. On the other hand, the authorities are cracking down sternly, even brutally, on even insignificant manifestations of opposition, from small demonstrations to individual articles in regional newspapers. "Of course, the current authorities are nervous, as we can see," former Prime Minister and opposition leader Mikhail Kasyanov said this week. "And this is expressed in the uncertainty of various actions, including the reaction to protest actions that take place." The administration of President Vladimir Putin seems ... >> full
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Russia: Moscow Shifts From 'Managed Democracy' To 'Manual Control'
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posted by zaina19 on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 12/3/2007 12:20 PM Monday, December 3, 2007 Russia: Moscow Shifts From 'Managed Democracy' To 'Manual Control' By Robert Coalson Russia - President Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila dine at Siberian cuisine restaurant Vladimir Putin, dining with his wife after voting on December 2, will head a party with enough seats to change the constitution ITAR-TASS December 3, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- No one was surprised that preliminary official results of the December 2 Duma elections gave a resounding victory to the pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party. With some 64 percent of the vote, according to government figures, the party seems set to get about 310 seats in the 450-seat lower chamber -- more than the two-thirds majority needed to initiate constitutional changes. Moreover, the left-leaning pro-Kremlin A Just Russia party -- which competes with Unified Russia only in manifesting its loyalty to President Vladimir Putin's administration -- somewhat unexpectedly was awarded 7.6 percent of the vote and some 38 seats, giving the Kremlin-controlled parties a solid block of ... >> full
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Pro-Putin Party Wins Landslide In Russian Elections
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posted by zaina19 on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 12/3/2007 12:24 PM Monday, December 3, 2007 Pro-Putin Party Wins Landslide In Russian Elections Russia - Members of the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi (Ours) hold a rally near Red Square in central Moscow, 03Dec2007 Members of the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi (Ours) hold a rally near Red Square in central Moscow (AFP) December 3, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- In elections marred by allegations of intimidation and fraud, the pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party has won a landslide victory. The results all but assure that President Vladimir Putin will continue to dominate Russian politics. Analysts and opposition leaders warned, however, that the country was headed for Soviet-style one-party rule. With ballots from nearly 98 percent of precincts counted, Unified Russia -- with President Vladimir Putin as its top candidate -- held a crushing lead with 64.1 percent. The Communists trailed in second place with 11.6 percent. In Pictures: Russians Go To The Polls Outgoing State Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov told reporters today that the results are a mandate for the continuation of ... >> full
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Russia: Voting For The 'Boss' On Election Day
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posted by zaina19 on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 12/3/2007 12:27 PM Sunday, December 2, 2007 Russia: Voting For The 'Boss' On Election Day By Chloe Arnold Russia -- the elections 2007,Moskow,2dec2007 Russians went to the polls across 11 timezones RFE/RL ODINTSOVO, Russia; December 2, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Despite temperatures of minus-12 Celsius and thick snowfall, there was a festive atmosphere outside school No. 14 in central Odintsovo this morning. Pop music blared out of speakers placed beside the large tricolor flag on the school roof, and children threw snowballs at each other in the yard. Swarms of residents, all dressed in their Sunday best, made their way inside to vote in parliamentary elections, which President Vladimir Putin's Unified Russia party is expected to win easily. This sleepy town, just outside Moscow, is mostly home to Muscovites who have sold their homes in the capital and moved outside the city for bigger apartments and cleaner air. In Pictures: Russians Go To The Polls Fifty years ago, Odintsovo was a village with wooden huts and water wells at the end of ... >> full
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Russia: Five Myths About The Elections
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posted by zaina19 on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 12/3/2007 12:30 PM Sunday, December 2, 2007 Russia: Five Myths About The Elections By Robert Coalson Russia -- Soldiers holding their identification line up at a polling station in the town Balashikha, 02Dec2007 Soldiers line up at a polling station in Balashikha, a town outside Moscow (AFP) December 2, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- There is an "election" going on in Russia. Not an election, but an "election." This is not an election that falls short of international standards. It is not a democratic, a flawed-democratic, or even a pseudo-democratic process. According to a recent RFE/RL poll, nearly two-thirds of voting age Russians don't believe the elections will be conducted honestly. Nearly half say if they do vote, it will be out of a sense of "duty." The Kremlin, regardless, is expending considerable effort to create the illusion of a democratic process, with the Kremlin-controlled election agencies, the Kremlin-controlled legislature, and the Kremlin-controlled media, which constantly intones the mantra that Russia is following its own democratic path, that the ... >> full
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