27 Feb 2012 | Russia
More than 30,000 people encircled Moscow in a human chain along Sadovoe Kolco, a 10-mile long road surrounding the city yesterday.
Protesters were calling for fair elections and for the ousting of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Arguably, the biggest surprise of the protest was its participants. What was once referred to as a “hipster-revolution” has become a broader movement. Yesterday’s human chain united people across social class, age, gender and even political creed. There were hard-core leftists but also liberals and disillusioned former Putinistas. There were mothers and fathers with their children (and dogs, too). There were, of course, youngsters – but also many, many elderly people as well.
Kaya Ivanovna, a 80-year-old former librarian found out about the protests from the radio. “There are many more prohibitions, and all the interesting TV programmes that made us reflect and discuss were shut down. I want real change”.
The unusual protest started at 2pm and continued for a couple of hours under the abundant snow covering the capital. Moscow, a usually grey and unwelcoming city, yesterday displayed a ten-mile-long smile.
The only note of unrest in an otherwise peaceful demonstration was the impromptu action organised by the opposition party Left Front in Revolution Square. The unauthorised protest triggered scuffles with the police and the ultra-nationalist group Nashi.
Index was there and filmed the Left Front’s leader Sergei Udaltsov’s statement before the clashes and arrests started. “We are here to celebrate our own Maslennitsa [the Russian spring feast celebrated yesterday]”, he said. “We want to get rid of the political winter, and we want a new political spring to come to Russia starting from today”.
Meanwhile, thousands of Russians are preparing to serve as election observers for the elections to be held on 4 March. Referring to the huge number of registrations the daily newspaper Vedomosti referenced “A country of observers”.
The next protest action is planned for election day 4 March but many believe that 5 March will be the day when the movement “for fair elections” will see its biggest demonstration yet.
Tena Prelec is a freelance writer and consultant at the ESOP Centre, London.
24 Feb 2012 | Uncategorized
In an article in the New Statesman in January 2011, Neil Clark wrote the following: “Belarus has one of the lowest levels of social inequality in the world. Lukashenko wins elections not through fear, but because he has delivered social protection and rising standards of living.”
After reading Andrew Wilson’s, Belarus, The Last European Dictatorship, most readers will be left with little sympathy for the ruthless Lukashenko regime, which Mr Clark praises in that article.
By exploring Belarus’s history, and religious and cultural beliefs over several centuries, Wilson tries to come to terms with its present political game of balance between Russia (who has given the country 50 billion dollars in subsidies since 1991) and the West, who it has been courting on and off in recent years.
Wilsonsays that the key to Belarusian history is that it lies at the cross roads of many cultures, and that Belarusians have a long tradition of bandwagoning — of seeking out and joining the stronger side.
In World War 2 Belarus suffered the most casualties out of any European country; nearly half of the entire population was either killed, or sent to labour camps in Germany, and out of 270 towns and cities, 209 were burnt to the ground and nearly 1.2 million buildings destroyed.
It takes Wilson halfway though the book for him to reach what he really wants to talk about: Belarus’s current president, Alexander Lukashenko, who he introduces on page 148 as: “quite literally, a bastard, and a pig farmer.”
Wilson gives an account of how Lukashenko has built up, and continues to run an authoritative state in Belarus.
In one instance, we are given a direct quote from the president, from a private meeting he had with Prime Minister, Mikhail Chyhir back in 1994: “Nobody will be going to the square here. Here there’ll be tanks and machine guns, and no one will dare step out. You can do whatever you like.”
Wilson lays down the bare facts for any would-be sympathisers to this regime, deterring any myths that have been created on the left that paints Belarusas as some kind of Cuba of the East, or a country with strong social solidarity.
As a dictator, Lukashenko does everything in his power to wipe out opposition which attempts to threaten his reign on absolute power. In Belarus, the years 1999 and 2000 became known as the years of the disappearance, as Lukashenko’s opponents suddenly vanished off the face of the earth. These included his former interior minister, Yury Zakharanka, who had criticised Lukashenko’s shadow budget that year, and Zmister Zavadzki, a camera man who was the only person allowed to film Lukashenko in his first three years as president.
Wilson also claims that Lukashenko is a serial election stealer.
Apart from 1994, which he concedes was a free and fair election Wilson maintains that President Lukashenko has converted plausible pluralities of the vote into fraudulent super majorities in all elections since.
In recent years, Amnesty International had campaigned hard to the get the EU to persuade Belarus to drop the death penalty. Lukashenko toyed with the idea, and then held two executions for convicted murders in 2010.
The method employed: a single bullet in the back of the head.
The one downfall of this book is the time that Wilson spends dedicated to early Belarusian history, dating from 900 to the present day; while fascinating in its content, it leaves less time to discuss the current regime, which Wilsonis is clearly an authority on.
Given the levels of human rights abuses committed in Belarus, more first hand accounts from Belarusian citizens might have added a little weight to Wilson’s already convincing argument. None the less, this book is a powerful read to remind us that Europein the 21st Century is still not free from tyranny.
23 Feb 2012 | Europe and Central Asia, News
Pussy Riot is a feminist punk collective from Moscow. They hide their faces under coloured balaclavas, use nicknames to remain anonymous and perform unsanctioned concerts in peculiar places. Since their emergence last autumn Pussy Riot have performed in underground station, in shops and on trolleybuses and detention centres’ roofs.
Pussy Riot came to the attention of Russia’s anti-extremist police in late January, when they performed an anti-Putin song in the Red Square right in front of Kremlin. The performers were arrested and had to spend several hours in a police cell.
But this week’s “concert” brought them real public attention after they performed what they called a punk prayer “Mother of God, send Putin away” in Moscow’s biggest Orthodox Cathedral. It is the Cathedral high-ranking officials usually attend on the biggest Orthodox holidays. The leader of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, is a Putin supporter.
The band got into the cathedral just like regular parishioners, but then started dancing and shouting out anti-Putin words:
KGB head is the biggest saint, who leads protesters to pre-trial prisons … The Patriarch believes in Putin. He should rather believe in God … Mother of God, become a feminist… Send Putin away
The group managed to evade the cathedral’s security, and no one was arrested. Even if one of them did get arrested, she would be quickly replaced, the women explained to journalists. Pussy Riot has no leaders or permanent participants — they are just an anonymous group of punk feminists fighting authoritarianism.
23 Feb 2012 | Russia
Pussy Riot is a feminist punk collective from Moscow. They hide their faces under coloured balaclavas, use nicknames to remain anonymous and perform unsanctioned concerts in peculiar places. Since their emergence last autumn Pussy Riot have performed in underground stations, in shops and on trolleybuses and detention centres’ roofs.
Pussy Riot came to the attention of Russia’s anti-extremist police. In late January they performed an anti-Putin song in the Red Square right in front of Kremlin. The performers were arrested and had to spend several hours in a police cell.
But this week’s “concert” brought them real public attention after they performed what they called a punk prayer “Mother of God, send Putin away” in Moscow’s biggest Orthodox Cathedral. It is the Cathedral high-ranking officials usually attend on the biggest Orthodox holidays. The leader of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, is a Putin supporter.
The band got into the cathedral just like regular parishioners, but then started dancing and shouting out anti-Putin words:
KGB head is the biggest saint, who leads protesters to pre-trial prisons … The Patriarch believes in Putin. He should rather believe in God … Mother of God, become a feminist… Send Putin away
The group managed to evade the cathedral’s security, and no one was arrested. Even if one of them did get arrested, she would be quickly replaced, the women explained to journalists. Pussy Riot has no leaders or permanent participants — they are just an anonymous group of punk feminists fighting authoritarianism.
Arguably, the biggest surprise of the protest was its participants. What was once referred to as a “hipster-revolution” has become a broader movement. Yesterday’s human chain united people across social class, age, gender and even political creed. There were hard-core leftists but also liberals and disillusioned former Putinistas. There were mothers and fathers with their children (and dogs, too). There were, of course, youngsters – but also many, many elderly people as well.