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Russian police search St Petersburg HQ of opposition leader Navalny
Agence France Presse ^ | Jan 18, 2018

Posted on 01/18/2018 3:50:01 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Thursday that police were raiding his campaign headquarters in Saint Petersburg as he pressed ahead with a call for a boycott of presidential polls.

"Right now a search is going on in our Saint Petersburg headquarters," Navalny wrote on Twitter, posting a video of uniformed police and non-uniformed officials with his staff.

The charismatic politician, who has called a major protest on January 28, is urging voters to boycott the March election in which President Vladimir Putin is expected to win a fourth Kremlin term. Navalny himself has been barred from standing in the election because of a fraud conviction he says was politically motivated. His campaign offices around the country are gathering support for a poll boycott, but supporters say his campaign workers have come under intense pressure from the authorities.

Navalny's campaign press secretary Ruslan Shavedinnov told AFP that "in the last two days there have been searches in 11 offices, they are taking away equipment and leaflets supposedly calling for a boycott."

Shavedinnov added that as he was speaking police had arrived at a 12th campaign office in the town of Izhevsk in the Urals region.

"We link this to the January 28 protest. The authorities are afraid of a large number of people on the streets and are trying to hinder us."

The campaign office's Twitter account said that police "have chucked out everyone except the coordinator (and) seized equipment, turned off our security cameras and covered the windows... so we cannot film."

Navalny wrote on Twitter that the authorities "are afraid of a boycott by voters. That means it's the right thing to do. Join us."

(Excerpt) Read more at afp.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Politics/Elections; Russia
KEYWORDS: boycott; navalny; polls; protests; putin; russia; vladimirputin
Navalny's protest movement surprised a lot of Russia "experts" last year when tens of thousands of mostly youth showed up to the streets to protest Kremlin corruption. The protests spanned across Russia from Kalinigrad to Vladivostok to include provinces and regions normally isolated from the opposition movements typical to the big cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg. But even still, the movement's just a scratch on the surface.

That being said, it's only a matter of time before, the fake news about Trump-Russia collusion will with real news about Russia's own inner turmoil and the collapsing system of Vladimir Putin, which will be one of the significant markers of this decade.

Mark. My. Words.

1 posted on 01/18/2018 3:50:01 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
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To: GoldenState_Rose
But why oppose Putin at all? He is almost a modern day St. Paul according to some here.
According to them, he is single-handedly restoring Christianity in Russia.
2 posted on 01/18/2018 4:38:43 PM PST by FreedomOfExpression
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To: FreedomOfExpression

Putin: “Communist ideology is like Christianity. Lenin’s body - saintly relics.”

https://www.rt.com/news/415883-putin-communist-ideology-christianity/


3 posted on 01/18/2018 5:09:22 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
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To: GoldenState_Rose

Vladimir Zhirinovsky exposing Navalny (English subs)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1vLbDfqktto

Now go dispute Zhirinovsky on that. Everything he said is factually true.

Navalny is a fraudster by the way of life and so is his campaign.

His only topic is that he is against Putin and that is all.
Then comes some empty socialist talk of ‘just ways’ and promise of free money.

He is a lot like Obama vs Bush although Obama had some details behind ‘Hope and change’ Navalny doesn’t.

His ‘anti-corruption’ activism is as fraudulent as the rest of his life. Initially it was a blog with police press releases regarding corruption cases without links to original sources.

Funny thing, the government fights against the corruption and he takes credit and taunts it over it.


4 posted on 01/18/2018 6:21:35 PM PST by NorseViking
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To: NorseViking

Agree with some points you say.


5 posted on 01/18/2018 6:59:02 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
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To: FreedomOfExpression

Yes, many of them consider Putin the closest thing to Jesus Christ that they can imagine. He has all the traits that are important to them, and they get quite excited if it takes his shirt off.


6 posted on 01/18/2018 7:03:13 PM PST by elhombrelibre (Cogito ergo sum a conservative pro-American.)
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To: NorseViking
Navalny is a fraudster by the way of life and so is his campaign.

Concurring bump...I don't think he's an opposition "leader" either, anymore than Al Sharpton is one.

Rabble rouser is more like it.

7 posted on 01/19/2018 6:49:01 AM PST by mac_truck (aide toi et dieu t'aidera)
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To: mac_truck

“” “” anymore than Al Sharpton is one.”” “”

I haven’t thought of that but you make perfect point. His cheerleaders include an equivalent of the rent is too damn high guy, obamaphone lady and other such characters who are too weird or too far left for mainstream Communist Party.

Yet, McCain and Hillary believes this bunch is robbed by ‘Putin regime’ of winning every election since 2012.

I guess someone is playing US foreign policy makers for fools and getting rich in process.


8 posted on 01/19/2018 8:26:40 AM PST by NorseViking
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To: NorseViking

Lol...if there is a Russian equivalent of the Obamaphone lady, I’d like to see the video.


9 posted on 01/19/2018 8:55:37 AM PST by mac_truck (aide toi et dieu t'aidera)
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To: mac_truck

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wpwGs0Z2QcE


10 posted on 01/19/2018 10:27:44 AM PST by NorseViking
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