Posted on 08/12/2019 2:59:05 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
The biggest protest movement in Moscow in years has gripped the capital in recent weeks as loyalty to Mr. Putin has been waning among Russians who have seen their living standards slip under the weight of chronic economic problems and Western sanctions...approximately 50,000 people had joined the authorized march that took place behind police cordons with hundreds of armored riot police looking on.
Demonstrations have been held weekly since July...
“For a long time I’ve watched the situation in this country get worse and worse,” said Sergei Pushkaryov, 58, a businessman, who said he had protested against Mr. Putin’s re-election in 2012 after he worked as a vote observer and saw election violations in favor of the Kremlin leader.
Attempts by city and federal authorities to quash the protests with brute police force and criminal cases have backfired, causing more people to attend the opposition rallies, despite efforts by state media to ignore the protests and paint those in attendance as traitors and hooligans. Some commentators have even alluded that the protesters are being paid by the U.S. to wreak havoc in Russia.
Earlier this week, a Russian court threatened to take away an infant from a couple that had attended a previous rally. Prosecutors alleged the couple had endangered their child by leaving him with a third person while they were at a protest on Aug. 3.
Moscow hasn’t seen demonstrations of this scale since numerous marches between 2011 and 2013...
This time, however, Russian authorities have been eager to stop the demonstrations as soon as possible to prevent them from piggybacking on other issues that have raised discontent in Russia, including falling living standards and endemic corruption.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Moldova and Belarus are pretty bad as well.
Any former USSR satellite is crappy.
My Russian lunch group meets Wed. I’ll pass along their thoughts on this.
Za ygachy....
Protesters in Russia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and France are angry at their Marxist leaders and want freedom and prosperity.
Here in the US we have freedom and prosperity and Liberals are protesting because they want a Marxist leader.
Crazy.
Interesting take.
French protesters were commies themselves.
https://www.workers.org/2019/04/16/assembly-of-yellow-vests-says-we-must-abandon-capitalism/amp/
Yellow vest protesters started because of an increase in gasoline taxes.
Marxists in France can try to hijack a movement just like they do in the US.
In my reading they were always commies. Some press presented this as a tax protest, but it was always a far left protest. They wanted cheaper things and bigger welfare. Tax was only brought up in conjunction with the new government getting rid of Hollande’s super-high “envy tax” on the rich at the same time and some coverage overemphasized that - they were occupy wall street types not tea party.
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