Demonstraties in Rusland. Deel 1

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Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny charged with theft

Anti-corruption blogger is banned from leaving country in what supporters fear is a crackdown on dissent by Vladimir Putin

Russian investigators have charged the street protest leader Alexei Navalny with theft and banned him from leaving the country, threatening a heavy jail term in what supporters say is a growing crackdown on dissent by Vladimir Putin.

Navalny, an anti-corruption blogger who has organised demonstrations that have dented Putin's authority, dismissed the charge as absurd and other opposition leaders accused Putin of using KGB-style tactics to try to silence his critics. Other moves which the opposition depict as a crackdown on dissent include a law increasing fines for protesters, closer controls of the internet and tighter rules for foreign-funded campaign and lobby groups.

Russia's federal investigative committee said in a statement that Navalny, 36, had been charged over the theft of timber from a state firm while he was advising a regional governor in 2009, and he could face a 10-year sentence.

"I have been charged and ordered not to leave," Navalny said after emerging from the investigative committee headquarters, where he had been summoned for the presentation of what he had expected would be a less severe charge.

"This is really quite absurd and very strange because they have completely changed the essence of the accusation, compared to what it was before," Navalny, who has been questioned repeatedly since the case was opened in 2010, told reporters.

He made clear he would not be silenced. "I will continue to do what I have been doing, and in this sense nothing changes for me," said Navalny, a lawyer. "We believe that what is happening now is illegal. We will use the methods of legal defence at our disposal. What else can we do?"

Navalny is one of the few people seen as capable of emerging as a viable leader of the fractious opposition, although critics say he has nationalist tendencies.

He gained prominence by fighting corruption at state-controlled companies and used the internet to do so, appealing to a tech-savvy generation of urban Russians who have turned away from the mainstream media.

Before parliamentary elections last December he helped to energise a struggling opposition, popularising a phrase referring to the ruling United Russia party, then headed by Putin, as the "party of swindlers and thieves".

He was also among the leaders of large protests prompted by allegations of fraud in the election on behalf of United Russia, which saw its big majority in parliament cut to a handful of seats despite the accusations that it had cheated.

Lawyers for Navalny had said on Friday they expected he would be charged over the case in Kirov province. But they had expected him to face a different charge punishable by up to five years in jail, rather than 10.

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Russische kerk wil 'genade' voor Pussy Riot

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'Zonder de rechtvaardigheid van de beslissing van de rechtbank in twijfel te trekken, roepen we de autoriteiten van de staat op genade te tonen voor de veroordeelde personen in het kader van de wet, in de hoop dat zij ervan zullen afzien godslasterlijke handelingen te herhalen', aldus een in Moskou uitgegeven verklaring.

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Pussy Riot trial gives Russia 'the image of a medieval dictatorship'

Even some of Putin's supporters are aghast at the penal term handed out to the feminist punks. Amid a global storm of protest, signs have emerged that they might be released early – but a deep national rift remains

A storm of criticism broke in Russia following the harsh two-year prison sentences given to three members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot for protesting against the government in a Moscow cathedral. Those openly critical of the jail terms included some who are close to Vladimir Putin and others with strong links to the church, increasing pressure on the authorities to treat the trio more leniently.

Three members of the punk collective – Maria Alyokhina, 24, Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22 – were sentenced to serve two years in a penal colony on Friday after being found guilty of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred". A Moscow judge rejected the defence's argument that the band's performance of an anti-Putin "punk prayer" was a form of political protest and ruled that it was motivated by hatred for Russian Orthodoxy.

Alexey Kudrin, a former finance minister who remains a close ally of Putin, said: "The verdict in the case against the Pussy Riot punk band isn't only a fact in the lives of three young women; it is also yet another blow to the justice system and, above all, Russian citizens' belief in it."

Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, another member of the country's minority liberal elite, also attacked the verdict, calling it a "strategic error that terribly damages the authority of the justice system". He voiced the widespread belief that the court case was politically orchestrated: "We don't know who took the final decision – the Kremlin? The patriarch? Probably not the court itself."

Opposition activists have accused Putin of orchestrating the campaign against Pussy Riot. The trio were arrested after a brief performance in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour of a song calling for the Virgin Mary to "chase Putin out". The band formed in response to Putin's decision to return to the presidency, and have gone from being a radical fringe group to becoming the figureheads of a protest movement numbering tens of thousands.

The case against Pussy Riot was widely seen as serving as a warning to other protesters, as well as a means of appealing to Putin's deeply conservative base. A poll released on Friday by the Levada Centre, an independent pollster, found that 44% of Russians believed the case against the band was conducted in a just manner. Most of those polled also believed the case was initiated by groups linked to the Russian Orthodox church.

In a sign that the women might be released early in a bid to ease tensions and boost Russia's international image, the church released a statement late on Friday calling on the authorities to show mercy. "Without putting the correctness of the court's decision into any doubt, we call on the state authorities to show mercy to the convicts, within the framework of the law, in the hope that they will refrain from repeating blasphemous actions," the statement said.

Andrei Isayev, a high-ranking member of the ruling United Russia party, also spoke out against the verdict. "The verdict is harsh. The president still might take a decision. But nonetheless this verdict which, probably, will be taken negatively by some of our liberal intelligentsia, will be taken as just by a significant number of people."

Lawyers for the Pussy Riot trio have said they will appeal. A request for a pardon would require an admission of guilt, which the women have said they will not give.

Even some of Putin's loudest supporters called the verdict a mistake. Tina Kandelaki, a prominent media personality and Putin cheerleader, called the verdict and sentence "information suicide" and "wrong at its very roots".

"For some reason, from the very beginning, Putin's advisers gave the president a new 'Khodorkovsky'," she said, referring to jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose arrest in 2003 signalled Putin's willingness to jail political critics, say critics.

"The millions of dollars of taxpayer money spent in the last few years on fixing the image of our country abroad have been thrown to the wind," she said. "Our image in the eyes of the world is getting closer to a medieval dictatorship, although in reality we are not that."

The case has deepened the rift that emerged in Russian society following the unexpected appearance of a mass protest movement against Putin's return to the presidency. Some in the opposition movement gave dire predictions of what lay ahead.

Referring to the performance art collective Voina ("War"), from which Pussy Riot emerged, opposition Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov tweeted after the verdict: "So, there was the art group War, and now there will be real war. Idiots."

Condemnation also came from western capitals and human rights groups. The US state department said it was concerned by the ruling and urged the Kremlin to review the case. Former foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind said the verdict had done "real damage" to Russia's image internationally. "It creates an image of a neanderthal country which can imprison young people for indulging in silly pranks. It is a huge own goal. Putin will have alienated a large amount of Russian youth in the process."

Amnesty International called the verdict a "travesty". "[It] shows that the Russian authorities will stop at no end to suppress dissent and stifle civil society," Michelle Ringuette, of Amnesty, said in a statement. "Each step in the case has been an affront to human rights."

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Op maandag 20 augustus 2012 19:36 schreef zuiderbuur het volgende:
Liggen de gewone Russen hier eigenlijk wakker van? Beseffen zij hoe erg dit gevolgd wordt in het buitenland?

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Op maandag 20 augustus 2012 19:36 schreef zuiderbuur het volgende:
Liggen de gewone Russen hier eigenlijk wakker van? Beseffen zij hoe erg dit gevolgd wordt in het buitenland?

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Pussy Riot Trial: Hackers Target Website Of Court That Jailed Russian Punk Band

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The website of a Moscow court that convicted three members of punk band Pussy Riot to two years in jail each for belting out a profanity-laced anti-Kremlin song inside a cathedral was hacked on Tuesday.

A slogan denouncing President Vladimir Putin was posted on the site as was an appeal for the trio's release along with a video clip of one of the band's latest anti-Putin songs and a clip by Bulgarian singer Azis, local media reported.

The hack attack - claimed by AnonymousRussia, which says it is affiliated with hacking activist group Anonymous - comes amid a chorus of criticism of the sentences, which Western governments and singers said were disproportionate and opponents of Putin called part of a crackdown on dissent.

A screenshot posted by opposition activist Ilya Yashin on Twitter showed the court's web page topped by an inscription reading: "Putin's thieving gang is plundering our country! Wake up, comrades!"

Another caption called for the release of the band's jailed members - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Marina Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30.

The site of Moscow's Khamovniki district court http://hamovnichesky.msk.sudrf.ru/ was operating normally by noon (0800 GMT) but its hacked version was on display for several hours on Tuesday morning.

Darya Lyakh, a spokeswoman for the court, said a department of the Supreme Court had asked federal investigators to look into the hacking attack.

The high-profile trial ended on Friday with two-year sentences for the three women who were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.

The judge said they had deliberately offended Russian Orthodox believers by storming the altar of Moscow's main cathedral in February where they had sung a "punk prayer" urging the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.

The women said their aim had been to criticize close ties between the state and the dominant Russian Orthodox Church, whose leader offered support to Putin in the run-up to his reelection to the presidency in March after four years as prime minister.

The United States and the European Union called the sentences disproportionate and Washington has urged Russian authorities to "review" the case.

Human rights groups and musicians including Madonna and Paul McCartney have also criticized the trial, but opinion polls indicate few Russians sympathies with Pussy Riot and support from local musicians has been muted.

On Monday, Russia police said they were searching for other members of Pussy Riot and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed Western criticism of the sentences, saying people should not "go into hysterics" about the case.

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Kasparov verrassend vrijgesproken

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Kasparov is een van de bekendste tegenstanders van het Kremlin. Hij had een zware boete of 15 dagen celstraf kunnen krijgen.

'Voor de eerste keer heeft de rechtbank het bewijs van agenten in uniform niet geaccepteerd, wat elke dag in andere rechtbanken gebeurt. Dit besluit zal veel mensen in vergelijkbare omstandigheden helpen', aldus Kasparov.

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Lid van Pussy Riot vrijgesproken in hoger beroep

Een van de leden van de Russische punkband Pussy Riot, Jekaterina Samoetsevitsj (30), is in hoger beroep voorwaardelijk vrijgesproken.

Dat meldt persbureau Reuters. De straffen voor Nadezhda Tolokonnikova en Maria Alyokhina blijven ongewijzigd. Zij moeten alsnog twee jaar uitzitten in een strafkolonie voor vandalisme.

De dames gaven op 21 februari een ‘spontaan’ concert in de Christus Verlosserskathedraal in Moskou om te protesteren tegen de hechte band tussen de Russisch Orthodoxe kerk en het autoritaire regime in hun land. Ze riepen de maagd Maria op Poetin te verdrijven, scholden op de FSB en op seksistische mannen.

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Russische oppositie zet betoging Moskou door ondanks verbod

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Moskou maakt zich op voor de ‘mars der vrijheid’ die oppositieleider Sergej Oedaltsov voor vanmiddag heeft aangekondigd. Het gemeentebestuur van de Russische hoofdstad heeft de anti-regeringsbetoging verboden, maar Oedaltsov heeft gezegd toch te gaan demonstreren.

De vrijheidsmars zou om twaalf uur Nederlandse tijd moeten beginnen op het Loebjankaplein voor het hoofdkwartier van de geheime dienst FSB. Het gemeentebestuur dreigde gisteren dat burgers die gaan demonstreren tegen Poetin rekening moeten houden met “consequenties”. Oedaltsov heeft gezegd dat niemand hem kan verbieden te demonstreren als vrije burger.

De gevolgen van het houden van een verboden betoging zijn niet zo groot geweest sinds het einde van de Sovjet-Unie. Sinds dit voorjaar zijn nieuwe wetten van kracht. Organisatoren van niet gefiatteerde betogingen kunnen nu worden veroordeeld tot 25.000 euro en individuele deelnemers tot maximaal 7500 euro.

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Duizenden demonstranten eisen ontslag Poetin



Circa 10.000 Russen zijn woensdag in Moskou de straat opgegaan om het ontslag te eisen van president Vladimir Poetin. 'Rusland zonder Poetin', riepen demonstranten. Ze willen dat opgepakte activisten worden vrijgelaten die mogelijk lange gevangenisstraffen krijgen.

De activisten worden verdacht van het gebruik van geweld bij protesten vorig jaar tegen Poetins inauguratie voor een derde presidentstermijn. Enkele demonstranten hielden woensdag foto's vast van de 12 activisten die worden vervolgd voor gevechten met de politie.

De oproerpolitie is ingezet om de demonstranten in toom te houden. Agenten blokkeren een brug in de hoofdstad die leidt naar het Kremlin met bulldozers en waterkanonnen.
Bron: Volkskrant

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Tienduizenden Russen betogen tegen Poetin

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Tienduizenden Russen hebben vandaag in Moskou tegen het Oekraïne-beleid van president Vladimir Poetin geprotesteerd. Het was de grootste vredesmars in maanden. De betogers demonstreerden tegen het feit dat Russische militairen en vrijwilligers in Oost-Oekraïne aan de kant van de separatisten meevechten.

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Op zondag 4 december 2011 22:56 schreef Joker89 het volgende:
Het is daarom goed mogelijk dat die voor de partij gevoelsmatig zo belangrijke grens van vijftig procent alsnog op 'miraculeuze' wijze wordt gehaald.

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Op maandag 5 december 2011 11:33 schreef ultra_ivo het volgende:
Het verschil tussen platteland en stad zie je bijvoorbeeld in deze uitslag uit het verre oosten:

итоги голосования по Южно-Сахалинску:
ЕР - 33,20%
КПРФ - 29,88%
ЛДПР - 15,61%
СР - 12,25%
Яблоко - 5,54%
Патриоты России - 1,34%
Правое дело - 0,76%

по Сахалинской области:
"Справедливая Россия" - 11,74% (22 551 голос)
ЛДПР - 15,99% (30 721)
"Патриоты России" - 1,19% (2287)
КПРФ - 23,44% (45 025)
"Яблоко" - 3,44% (6602)
"Единая Россия" - 41,89% (80 446)
"Правое дело" - 0,69% (1321)

In de stad Jusnij-Sachalinsk stemt 33,2% op Verenigd Rusland (=Putin) en 29,88% op de Communisten. In de Oblast Sachalinsk (provincie) stemt 41,89% op Verenigd Rusland en 23,44% op de Communisten. Het is vooral de niet-Communistische oppositie die daar op het platteland slecht scoort.

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Op maandag 5 december 2011 12:20 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

[..]

Vertaal anders gewoon het hele rijtje. Dit kan geen hond lezen.

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Op maandag 22 september 2014 08:26 schreef waht het volgende:
Na bijna honderd jaar is het allicht weer tijd voor een revolutie in dat hol.