Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Not all heroes wear capes.

This really is a full service blog.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

We’re not going back!

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Republicans don’t trust women.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Russians Protesting Putin’s Managed Democracy

Russians Protesting Putin’s Managed Democracy

by | 105 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Russians, specifically Muscovites, have been protesting Putin’s sham managed democracy. Specifically the banning of opposition candidates in the upcoming elections and the apparent disappearance of billions of taxpayer dollars. The tax proceeds aren’t really missing, it’s just that Russians aren’t allowed to see the balances in Putin’s and his oligarch’s offshore accounts, so they don’t know for sure where their taxpayer dollars went, what it has been invested in, or what it has been spent on. The protests have, of course, led to a significant crackdown by Putin because he’s much more into the managed part of managed democracy than the democracy part. Opposition leader Alexander Navalny was preemptively arrested before the protests even began.

https://twitter.com/dabeard/status/1155145135211966464

And the crackdown was violent.

There are also reports that journalists have been rounded up. Remember, the President has joked with Putin’s about journalists and how to deal with them.

Normally we’d expect the president of the United States to issue a statement, at least, condemning Putin’s actions, providing moral support for the demonstrators, and demanding that their civil rights and liberties be respected. Given the President’s affection and affinity for Putin, as well as other authoritarian leaders, the best we can hope for is that Secretary Pompeo issues a tepid statement. I expect what will really happen is that an unattributed statement will eventually be made by the State Department.

If you, or any revolutionary wannabes, were wondering what real resistance to tyranny looks like, this is what it looks like.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  1. 1.

    Adam L Silverman

    I’m just in from the gym, so I’m going to get cleaned up and get something to eat. Back later.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    If you, or any revolutionary wannabes, were wondering what real resistance to tyranny looks like, this is what it looks like.

    I thought real revolution involved attacking the non-tyranical opposition party for not fighting tyranny the right way.

  3. 3.

    The Dangerman

    ….and the apparent disappearance of billions of taxpayer dollars.

    Trump looks on in admiration.

  4. 4.

    hells littlest angel

    I’ll bet White House staff are working desperately to prevent the Criminal-In-Chief from issuing a statement.

  5. 5.

    satby

    If you, or any revolutionary wannabes, were wondering what real resistance to tyranny looks like, this is what it looks like.

    Looking at you, Wilmer. You fake.

  6. 6.

    debbie

    I don’t know who’s braver, these Russian protesters or the protesters in Hong Kong.

  11. 11.

    zhena gogolia

    I keep trying to remind people that screwing with elections is Putin’s specialty. We are in grave danger for 2020.

  12. 12.

    Gin & Tonic

    Anyway, contrast this with Russia’s neighbor, Ukraine, which Russia views as a poor little brother whom it needs to aggressively look out for. A week ago it held largely free and fair parliamentary elections, in which something like 80% of the sitting members were turfed out. One can argue whether the newbies will be better or worse, but an overwhelming majority of MP’s were not re-elected and there is really no discussion about whether they’ll step down. Russians have to look at that and say WTF, why not us?

  13. 13.

    Mike in DC

    Really admire the protesters in both Russia and China and it would be nice if the rest of the “free” world were more strongly and effectively supportive of the protesters’ efforts.

  14. 14.

    Renie

    I’m surprised and a bit disappointed there have not been any marches planned here after Mueller spoke and news about #MoscowMitch coming out against election security.

  15. 15.

    Roger Moore

    @zhena gogolia:
    Of course it’s always easier to screw with elections when you’re the one running them. One of the few things that’s keeping Trump from completely overturning Democracy here is that elections are still run by state and local governments, which makes completely falsifying them much harder.

    ETA: And it’s not as if Trump is the only one this has stopped. I have no doubt W and Karl Rove would have done far more cheating than they did had it been in their power.

  16. 16.

    patrick II

    Hobbe’s said that where there are competing interests one of those interests must be sovereign, that is able to have the final say. Hobbes decided the final say belonged to the sovereign king. In our country the sovereign tie breaker between equal people is (or at least supposed to be) our constitution and its voted on laws.

    We need to assert the sovereign power of democracy over the monied interests. The makeup of the Supreme Court makes that a very difficult task, but we need to be frank and aggressive — the democratically elected government is the boss. Not the banks, not the large corporations. Those entities have been created and allowed for the greater social good and have exceeded the appropriate bounds of power.

    We should do it while we still can.

  17. 17.

    Chris Johnson

    It’s because Putin is overextended playing whack-a-mole over here and in the UK, to get his way. Goes to show there is a limit: just being a total dick will not get you the victory in the long run.

    Civilization has a way of reasserting itself, all the way back to the Magna Carta and beyond. None of this is new.

  18. 18.

    James E Powell

    Normally we’d expect the president of the United States to issue a statement, at least, condemning Putin’s actions, providing moral support for the demonstrators, and demanding that their civil rights and liberties be respected.

    There’s that word again. Normally. I’m beginning to dread that word because of the kind of things that invariably come after it.

  19. 19.

    Juice Box

    I have never been able to understand why Putin wants to destabilize the UK and the US. Where else is he going to hide that much money?

  20. 20.

    Cheryl Rofer

    My take is a bit different. It’s too easy to believe that the resistance is growing and will ultimately win. I’ll take Sam Greene over Gary Kasparov:

    His thread is quite long. I suggest reading it in full. I’ll post highlights.

    There does seem to be something new going on in this protest. There have been protests about Moscow elections since at least 2012. Here’s Greene’s conclusion:

    I want to go back and focus on this:


    I would like for Kasparov’s (and other commentators I respect) optimism to be justified, but I’ve looked at the breakup of the Soviet Union in detail, and none of this is simple: false starts and quenching of the resistance are part of it. The resistance in Russia is very small right now, and it’s not at all clear that others will join in. We can only wait and see.

    I think that an American President has to be very careful in a statement about a situation like this. Putin undoubtedly believes that the CIA is behind the protests, and there’s no point in giving him what he would consider evidence of that. I can’t easily find an Obama statement about the Bolotnaya protests in 2012. If there were a statement, it would, at most, be a generic statement of optimism that the Russian government will respect human rights. My guess is that there will be nothing, nada, zip from this administration.

  22. 22.

    zhena gogolia

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    My impression is that these protestors are a lot younger than those in 2012. Isn’t that significant?

    Not that I’m getting any hopes up.

  25. 25.

    zhena gogolia

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    They didn’t beat protestors in the streets of Moscow in 2012.

    After that they changed the laws to make it much easier to criminalize protest.

    ETA: I’m responding to your point about Obama.

  26. 26.

    Mary G

    I doubt there will be much about this on Fox News, but I am still sure that there are WH people waving the shiny object of Mueller to keep Twitler from cheering Putin on.

  27. 27.

    jl

    @Cheryl Rofer: I saw no optimism in Kasparov’s comments. And some optimism in Greene’s. What am I missing?

    One reason for no optimism in Kasparov’s comments is that ,as long as Trumpsters and current European elites are in power, Kasparov says he sees no hope. And while Trump may well cook himself, especially if he goes for some strong dollar madness to go with his other moronic economic policies, the centrist European elites look like they will be here for a while (and good I guess, since the most likely alternative right now is dangerous reactionaries). And situation in UK seems hopeless for indefinite future, assuming it continues to exist for much longer.

    Edit: but maybe we should hope for UK to go. EU would be stronger with united Ireland, Scotland and Wales, While the example of brave little England stewing itself into mush trying to revive it glorious Empire status would be a salutary example.

    Edit: IIRC, the whole UK thing started with a real estate deal gone bad in Scotland anyway. Whole business has been sketchy from the outset.

  30. 30.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @zhena gogolia: There are also protests going on in northern Karelia, where Moscow sends its garbage. They don’t want it any more. And the Komi Republic is staging environmental protests, possibly following the path of their linguistic cousins in Estonia in the 1980s. All that could come together, or it could be nothing. Estonia succeeded. Hungary didn’t in 1956.

    Putin has some things to worry about. In the 1980s, Gorbachev didn’t pay enough attention to what was happening in the Baltic States and was caught by surprise. Obviously Putin has to pay attention to what’s going on in Moscow. None of the Russian protests so far are anywhere near as organized as was the resistance in the Baltic States in the 1980s.

    As Greene notes, state violence can strengthen the resistance. We just don’t know yet.

  32. 32.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @zhena gogolia: There could be many reasons for not beating protesters, the most likely being that state violence can help build the resistance. It probably helped that the US had a President who believed in human rights. Mike Pompeo’s “unalienable human rights” initiative seems to be informed partially by Alexander Dugin, a Putin fave.

  35. 35.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @jl: I agree that the tweets up top aren’t particularly optimistic. I am looking at Kasparov’s history. He tends to believe that a brave resistance can take Putin down. I’ve seen him jump to too many conclusions.

  36. 36.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Was/is Gorbachev a good person? Or was he an authoritarian? I know that pop history often paints him in a good light for his perestroika and glasnost policies as well as his role in the fall of both the Berlin Wall and the USSR.

  38. 38.

    jl

    @Cheryl Rofer: ” Mike Pompeo’s “unalienable human rights” initiative seems to be informed partially by Alexander Dugin, a Putin fave.”

    Never heard of Dugin. I’ll look him up on the intertubes. I thought the Trumpster “unalienable human rights” BS was entirely a thinly disguised attempt to make reactionary Christianist fundamentalism a state religion, destroy the separation of church and state, and corrupt the first amendment. But, hey, if Putin is involved, must be really serious sinister shit (snark)

  39. 39.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @The Dangerman: You may have misspelled envy.
    @zhena gogolia: Alsowith envy, because he’d really love to do that kind of shit personally, cheered on by his worshipping cult members.

  40. 40.

    Roger Moore

    @Juice Box:

    I have never been able to understand why Putin wants to destabilize the UK and the US. Where else is he going to hide that much money?

    I think there are two big motivations for Putin:

    1) He wants to destabilize NATO and the EU, which he sees as the biggest obstacles to renewed Russian hegemony in their traditional sphere of influence.
    2) He wants to block foreign efforts at things like the Magnitsky Act that make it difficult for Russian oligarchs to use their money outside Russia.

    For both of those things his best option is to install a Russia-friendly government wherever he can, and simple disruption is a second best option. The key is that both the US and UK were in the opposite situation before his disruption attempts. The US passed the Magnitsky Act and was enforcing very effective sanctions related to the invasion of Ukraine, and the UK was becoming less friendly toward Russian money.

    I think the situations in the US and UK are somewhat different. Disrupting the UK by getting them to leave the EU will both disrupt them and probably make them more welcoming to Russian money as EU money moves from London to places that are still in the EU. So Brexit is a pure win for Russia, especially if it installs a kleptocrat-friendly Tory government. The US is a bit less important to Russia as a place to stash money but is obviously more important as a geopolitical foe. That means straight disruption would have been good enough, but actually managing to install a Russia friendly government was an absolute home run.

  41. 41.

    Jay

    @Juice Box:

    Pootie Poot did the math. He can’t make Russia great again, but he can weaken the West.

    Dragging others down raises your rankings when you can’t raise up.

    And the ogliarches money is still safer in the West than in Russia.

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    What is happening in Moscow is precisely what Donald dreams of doing.

  45. 45.

    Jay

    @jl:

    Dugin is basically the guy who arranged Russian kickstarting of Nazi parties and gangs in the West. He’s been an actor for “evil” since the ‘90’s.

    He is of course, batshit cray-cray.

  46. 46.

    Mike in NC

    What we’re getting with Trump can best be called “mismanaged kakistocrisy”.

  47. 47.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Juice Box:

    I have never been able to understand why Putin wants to destabilize the UK and the US. Where else is he going to hide that much money?

    If shitbirds like Pootie-Poot thought that far ahead, they wouldn’t be despots/oligarchs/kleptocrats. They’d invest in their own countries and make them actually great. Mancur Olson wrote about the difference between “roving bandits” and “stationary bandits”. Pootie-Poot is fundamentally a roving bandit.

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Roger Moore:

    2) He wants to block foreign efforts at things like the Magnitsky Act that make it difficult for Russian oligarchs to use their money outside Russia.

    Yes! Exactly! Something approaching a global Magnitsky Act makes Putin angrier than Hillary calling bullshit on his re-election.

  49. 49.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Roger Moore:

    Does Putin believe in human-caused climate change? Because if he did, he should realize that it won’t matter in a few decades what Russia’s sphere of influence is. Hell, he could see severe effects of climate change in his lifetime, as old as he is. The world will be on fire, and his efforts at global disruption are only making that horrific future more likely and worse

  50. 50.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Gorbachev was and is a committed Communist. He wanted to make the Soviet Union better under Communism. But he didn’t recognize that the system couldn’t take perestroika and glasnost. People in the Baltic States, for one, used perestroika and glasnost as cover for developing political parties and resistance. Even within Russia, where they were practiced in somewhat better faith, they unbalanced the system.

    I give Gorbachev immense credit for letting the satellites (Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, and East Germany) go without violence, and minimizing the violence of the breakup of the republics into independent nations. I recall serious concern that he might use nuclear weapons. But after 15 people were killed in Lithuania, he backed off somewhat, although there were attempts at occupation in other republics.

  53. 53.

    Jay

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    Gorbachov was a realist. A bit of an idealist.

    He thought that if the USSR could be what it claimed to be and if the 5 Year Plans could be made real and not just bureaucratic CYA, the USSR could be “saved”.

  54. 54.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @jl: I have not seen Dugin explicitly mentioned along with Pompeo’s initiative, but fundamentalist hate-rights backed up by legalism is what Dugin does, and the American right has learned from him.

  55. 55.

    Roger Moore

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    Does Putin believe in human-caused climate change?

    I think there is a lot of crazy Russian thinking that climate change is good for them. They think about ice free ports on the Arctic and being able to grow wheat in Siberia, and not about the massive disruption to the rest of the country.

  56. 56.

    rattlemullet

    The photos look hauntingly like America to me, the only difference I can see is the ones being beat are not black. Face it or not America is a police authoritarian state.

    The republicans are a crime cartel stealing the riches of the tax payers. Starting with the savings and loan debacle with Reagan, Gulf War I under bush senior, Gulf War II under his non elected son, the financial collapse under the same idiot, and now under another non elected individual #1. Blatantly stealing the tax payer riches with the for the wealth tax cut, lining his coffers with tax payers money to play golf and shady deals with autocrats and dictators with the help of Moscow Mitch and his Chinese politburo wife. America is doomed with the Supreme Court rigging the death of democracy through gerrymandering.

    Learn from protest of the Viet Nam War, learn from the women the day after trump was inaugurated and learn from Puerto Rico. Take to the streets by the millions. I think it our only hope.

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    @Chris Johnson:
    What is new is that as this goes on the weapons of the state are a lot stronger and deadlier than of the protestors. None of those Russians in the videos has a weapon but they are being beaten severely by large groups of men, who have weapons much more deadly at hand. The cost of protesting, securing, overcoming whatever you want to call Vlad’s efforts to steal everything will increase and while today many suffered badly, it will get worse. The same is true over here. The police have been militarized, the military, in the form of the National Guard can be called in. That many governors might not do that will be small comfort to those who live in the states whose governors will. And in the US there are not an insignificant number of people who agree with trump. It’s not a cut and dried democratic situation or necessarily like history.
    This is sort of a new concept, that we have now a world population that might be prepared to fight for a better world, if given no other choice, one that is far more democratic and equal than currently exists. And we may find out how powerful all those dollars/rubles/whatever actually are. If enough of those men with clubs find out they aren’t really that powerful a lot changes.

  58. 58.

    Jay

    @Chetan Murthy:

    While it will open up the North East Passage and allow exploitation of Russia’s portion of the Arctic Sea, it won’t make Siberia more habitable. They are already over 100, 100 hectare forest fires running uncontrolled in Siberia and whole villages and military installations are sinking into what used to be permafrost.

  62. 62.

    Ruckus

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
    Vlad is also old enough to not worry about it as much as say you. At his age one starts to get the idea that living forever is not going to happen, no matter how much money one has stolen. You can take it with you but you can’t do anything with it when dirt napping. Even with the best health care he’s probably only got 30 yrs. This may be his high water mark, this go round for biggest historical despot.

  63. 63.

    jl

    @Jay: Thanks for info. If true, explains a lot. Not all strains of Christian fundamentalism are corrupted with a commitment to white supremacy (some Pentacostals are the opposite, for exampe). But the version dominant in the US, which the (I assume from all evidence I see) know nothing corporate news actors advertise tirelessly as ‘real Christianity’ is thoroughly infected with it.

  64. 64.

    debbie

    @Jay:

    This is a pleasure to read:

    (W)e would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy the Oval Office, the mocker of war heroes, the gleeful grabber of women’s private parts, the serial bankrupter of businesses, the useful idiot of Vladimir Putin and the guy who insisted there are “good people” among murderous neo-Nazis that he’s still not fooling most Americans into believing he’s even slightly competent in his current post. Or that he possesses a scintilla of integrity. Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one.

  65. 65.

    jl

    @Jay: Dayum. I like that phrase, has a ring to it. Has the makings of good movement slogan. Good editorial too.

    Edit: from what I just read about the paper, and the mission statement of the board, that ain’t a bunch of dirty commies, not at all.

  66. 66.

    Jay

    This is what solidarity looks like: North Carolina police arrested 27 people Friday for trying to prevent an Immigration and Customs Enforcement van from leaving with a Mexican man during an immigration appointment.https://t.co/zmXj5M6QOO— agitator in chief (@soit_goes) July 27, 2019

  67. 67.

    B.B.A.

    Does it matter? I was under the impression that the vast majority of Russians still support Putin. He rigs the elections because he wants to, not because he has to.

  68. 68.

    Jay

    it’s a choice not to call racism racism, to treat politics as theater, it’s a choice to reproduce false claims, it’s a choice to have all-white management and editorial staffs— Talia Lavin (@chick_in_kiev) July 27, 2019

  69. 69.

    sdhays

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Oh I’m sure Dump wishes he could unilaterally make a law saying all tax dollars go into his bank account.

    Trump thinks that’s what Article II says. And the Republican Senate will not contradict him.

  70. 70.

    Jay

    .@ENBrown "Demanded he sign a paper saying that his sister was really his cousin.He was told that he would be taken to jail and they were going to charge him for human trafficking and sex trafficking,” Julia’s mom, Thelma Galaxia, told NBC. https://t.co/C53aEuqJTL— MrsRobinson (@Coyoteri) July 27, 2019

  71. 71.

    sdhays

    @Juice Box: Brexit is very much about maintaining Russian oligarch’s dark money haven in Europe. EU regulations continue to put the squeeze on them, but once the UK has left the EU, all of those pesky regulations will be gone and the UK will be like a giant Cayman Islands.

    The US could cause Russian oligarchs to lose a lot of money very quickly if it wanted to. A destabilized and weakened US is much less of a threat.

  72. 72.

    chris

    @jl: Dugin has written a number of books but one of them has become sort of the bible of Putinism. It was also making the rounds among the alt-right, Spencer, Goldy et al., a couple of years ago.

    As ever the prescient Adam L. Silverman mentions it here in 2015.

  74. 74.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @B.B.A.: Putin just pulls the nationalistic populist crap… Russia foam finger #1 Russia foam finger #1. Stupid people are everywhere.

  76. 76.

    Jager

    There must be a few disaffected, old, Russian Special Ops guys, who have been screwed on their pensions, who could teach the protesters more than one way to take on those riot cops.

  77. 77.

    Jay

    anti facists at work,……

    meanwhile, food not bombs did their weekly thing with a little extra protection from anti-fascist community members & another 20-30 fine folks generally made the racists invisible in the corner while engaging the public with more flyers. it was not an "all out" but "it worked". pic.twitter.com/6RqtjmAgR0— dan kellar (@dankellar) July 27, 2019

  81. 81.

    Adam L Silverman

    @chris:

    As ever the prescient Adam L. Silverman mentions it here in 2015.

    That guy’s making me look bad!

  82. 82.

    Jay

    @chris:

    Democracy is burning ,……

    But please pedant and explain how you do not understand because of the c instead of the s.

  83. 83.

    Dan B

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: There has been speculation that Canada and Russia would benefit from global warming but that is very unlikely. As others have posted the forests are on fire and the fires worsen nearly every year. Permafrost is not just melting it’s collapsing catastrophically over immense areas. Buildings are collapsing as are roads, and even forests are looking drunken. On top of it much of northern soils are thin and poor. Some areas may benefit but most will become less habitable.

    Russia trades in oil and natural gas so Putin is unlikely to believe in Global Warming or the Clomate Crisis.

  89. 89.

    Jay

    @Dan B:

    Peat is deep, but it ain’t soil, where you know, it’s not just a scrape over the Northern Sheild solid granite.

    In 100 years or so, might be some soil.

    In the meantime, the costs of granite coutertops will fall.

  94. 94.

    Amir Khalid

    @The Lodger:
    @chris:
    Jay takes it personally if you mention the idiosyncracies in his spelling. He takes particular exception to being lectured on how they make him hard to follow, so sometimes I do that to amuse myself.

  97. 97.

    ema

    @Jay:

    Unfortunately:

    Trump Supports Labeling Antifa A ‘Major Organization Of Terror’

    President Donald Trump lent support to labeling Antifa a terrorist organization Saturday, calling the group a collection of “gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs.”

  98. 98.

    Amir Khalid

    @Jay:
    “Malay” is an ethnicity. To describe something about the nation, you say “Malaysian”.

  99. 99.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Roger Moore: To keep control of the US federal government in perpetuity you don’t need to rig every election. Only just enough of the ones in swing states where the state governments are on your side and will cooperate. The opposition strongholds can have free elections and you’ll still run everything on the national level; opposition voters can sort themselves into irrelevance.

  102. 102.

    Ruckus

    @Amir Khalid:

    How does anyone see 14-year-old boys as a potential threat to the US?

    Trump was a 14 yr old boy, once a long time ago. His potential as a threat to the US is pretty large. Oh wait, is massive. Besides someone may catch cooties from them. No one knows how they just know that it’s possible.
    The other possible concept, is that trump is a racist moron. Of course it’s possible that it’s both reasons.

  104. 104.

    J R in WV

    @Amir Khalid:

    So the US refused visas for 11 Guatemalan kids who were supposed to play for their country in the CONCACAF Boys Under-15 Championship.in Florida. I am mystified: How does anyone see 14-year-old boys as a potential threat to the US?

    Racist bastards who know their top boss is also a stone cold racist see everyone brown or Spanish speaking as an existential threat to their white purity overlordship, and feel free to indulge their racist hatred…

    Not pretty, but there it is in all it’s stinking glory, like a giant corpse-flower at the botanical garden.

  105. 105.

    john

    If you, or any revolutionary wannabes, were wondering what real resistance to tyranny looks like, this is what it looks like.

    I guess. This looks like many protests in the US I have attended. Peaceful protestors, violent police. It never seemed to make much difference here but I certainly hope the Russian people are more successful.

    Here’s video of US protests of the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in Portland, OR for comparison:
    https://archive.org/details/vftr_dayx/vftr_dayx_1.5m_vp3.avi

Comments are closed.