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Posted on 01/25/2011 1:53:33 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
AFP - As Russia's ruling tandem lashed out at militants and poor security for the Moscow airport blast, enraged bloggers countered Tuesday that the authorities only had themselves to blame.
With nationally-watched television channels under tight state control and only a handful of newspapers daring to criticise the Kremlin, the Internet has become one of the few outlets for public dissent in Russia.
Some bloggers even alleged the authorities staged the Domodedovo airport blast that killed 35 to bolster their support early in a crucial year ahead of 2012 presidential elections.
"Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Of course we will elect you for a new term, just don't blow us up any more, please!" blogger KorabelReal addressed Prime Minister Putin on his Twitter account.
"This was a ordinary start to a pre-election year," wrote KremlinRussia, one of Russia's most popular Twitter blogs kept in first-person voice as parody on President Dmitry Medvedev's Twitter KremlinRussia.
"Vladimir Vladimirovich and Dmitry Anatolyevich, resign... you obviously are not meeting your responsibilities...this is shameful for you," a comment to the blast's coverage in Gazeta Ru said, signed Givenchyru.
Many Russian bloggers recalled the Moscow apartment building blasts in 1999, when Putin issued one of his most famous quotes: "We will chase terrorists everywhere... catch them in the toilet and wipe them out in the outhouse."
Three months later Putin was announced acting president, and another three months later he was elected, promising to bring order and security to Russia. "Will you punish everyone who crapped? Will you wipe them out in the outhouse? I'm just asking," wrote winnukem on Twitter, addressing Medvedev.
One theory has explained the 1999 blasts as a security operation to install Putin at the helm of the country. The theory's proponent, Alexander Litvinenko, a former security officer, was later killed in London by polonium poisoning.
"Putin received practically unlimited power," wrote blogger Mikhail Maglov, "he limited media freedoms... he took our right to vote for governors... But here is the result: from 2000 to 2009 the number of acts of terror increased sixfold."
Bloggers also said the blast conveniently redirected people's attention from the recent clashes in Moscow involving nationalists and football fans, and the sentencing of former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky to another six years behind bars.
"As soon as society begins to worry, an act of terror happens in Russia, erasing people's memories," wrote blogger thedot-ru on a Livejournal blog. "I see a trend here."
Many people said the blasts proved an absolute failure of the main Russian media to deliver crisis coverage.
On Monday, all Russian channels carried on with their normal program schedules, with Channel One interrupting briefly two hours after the explosion for a special report.
Popular blogger Alexei Navalny wrote that one can "witness the final death of television and traditional media as a source of information in a crisis situation."
Twitter feeds burst with messages tagged 'domodedovo', with many bloggers ridiculing Medvedev, an active user of the tool, for "finding out from Twitter about what is going on in Domodedovo."
"Dmitry Anatolyevich, enough toying with twitters, iphones, WTO etc," wrote koheme_andrew on Twitter.
"Why is (Interior Minister Rashid) Nurgaliyev still minister?" asked Steppl_. "There has not been one dismissal of a senior official in the FSB security service or the interior ministry in the past 10 years."
Russian bloggers often cite corruption and the ineptitude of the authorities and were also especially irked by the authorities' inaction during the heatwave and wildfires that hit European Russia last summer.
“Enraged bloggers” is just plain funny.
There you go! You want to know the diference between Russia and the US, in Russia terrorist set off a bomb kill people and the bloggers blam their leaders. In America terrorist set off a bomb and kill people and the leaders blame the Bloggers.
....wonder if these attacks will eventually lead Russia back to the old Commisars?....how long do you think uncle Joe Stalin would put up with Muslims?
Frankly, I see the hand of Keith Olbermann in this deal ~
*Mr. Chekov, get us the hell out of here...
*Ay Cap'n - warp 2 in 5 seconds...
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