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Despite the cold, about 70,000 people gathered today at Prospekt Akademik Sakharov, to express “no confidence” in the results of the 4 December elections to the RF Gosduma. Participants in the rally “For Fair Elections” were an extremely disparate lot, ranging from Liberals {American-style rightwing “conservatives”: editor} to Communists to “Greens” and Nationalists, unanimously adopted a resolution, which reiterated the main demands of the meeting on 10 December on Bolotnaya Square… cancel the results of the rigged election, to investigate all violations that occurred during balloting, and dismiss Vladimir Churov, the Chairman of the Central Election Commission (TsIK). By 14.00 MSK (10.00 UTC 05.00 EST 02.00 PST), the whole street was full of posters and banners that betrayed their home-made origin in many cases, the number of different slogans defied account. Here are some of them… “Putin – resign!”, “I’m a citizen of a great country”, “Hillary, where’s my reward?”, “No virtual power”, “Russia will be free”, and many others. However, the main unifying slogan of the rally was “Russia… without Putin!” All the demonstrators constantly chanted it. Subsequently, the meeting endorsed a resolution to not to support the current prime minister in the elections slated for 4 March.
Let’s talk about the second “symbol” of the rally. We could call the rally a “day of catcalls”… the crowd hooted down many, and it was for good cause. They hissed Boris Nemtsov… the people haven’t forgiven the “Hamster”. They whistled at Artemy Troitsky, dressed in a self-described “condom” suit. Indignant shouts silenced the speech of chess player Gary Kasparov. However, the loudest boos, even louder than those launched at Prime Minister Putin, went to the architect of the crisis, former Minister of Finance Aleksei Kudrin, the “secular lioness” Ksenia Sobchak, and former Prime Minister Misha “Two Percent Solution” Kasyanov, who came to the rally to “grab a piece of the ratings and exploit the disgruntled citizens. It didn’t work. They didn’t listen to Grigori Yavlinsky, who “discreetly” hinted at his candidature for the Presidency. The destroyer of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachyov, didn’t dare come to the rally… instead, the organisers read out his remarks.
Radio pundit Vladimir Ryzhkov, football commentator Vasili Utkin, and journalist Olga Romanova led the presentation at the rally. There were quite diverse and often contradictory statements on the stage from writer Boris Akunin, “Orange activists” Aleksei Bulk and Ilya Yashin, the poet Dmitry Bykov, and others. People remarked on the absence of consensus shown, when leaders of nationalist movements took the podium, some of those on the stage looked on with undisguised contempt. Meanwhile, KPRF activists “worked” the crowd productively. About 300 Communists broke into two groups, distributing campaign materials; they distributed nearly 10,000 newspapers and flyers.
The KPRF took an active part in the rally even though some of its organisers are anti-communist… there were dozens waving red flags on the square. KPRF cadres came to Prospekt Sakharov to support the people who protested against the rigged election and show the people that the KPRF wants it overturned. We want to make it clear that the KPRF isn’t satisfied with the current state of affairs, as First Secretary Zyuganov said many times during his speech. This rally forces us to only one conclusion… people aren’t interested in the “opinion leaders” grimacing in front of them… quite clearly, those that they applauded two weeks ago, they hissed today. Now, the people are only interested in only one thing… when will Putin and his United Russia leave the political scene?
24 December 2011
Mikhail Surkov
KPRF Official Website
http://kprf.ru/actions/100771.html#
Editor’s Note:
The Western reportage gets it WRONG… as per usual. Mainly, it’s because they rely on Western-leaning English-speaking Russians for information. What’s more, their contacts tend to come from the ridiculously-small cohort of Russian Neoliberals. They simply don’t talk to national-minded, religious, and leftist people (most decent Russians are a combination of all three)… it’s quite that simple. Not all Western journalists are as openly incompetent, Russophobic, and slanted as Sophia Kishkovsky is, but most get it wrong due to their Western biases and presuppositions. What compounds it all is that they spend their time in Peredelkino, not Lyubertsy {by the way, the Patriarchal Dacha isn’t in Peredelkino proper, it’s in nearby Novo-Peredelkino: editor}. Reflect on this… it wasn’t an isolated event… the KPRF website reported rallies all over the country. Of course, the lazy Western journalists never much leave Moscow… that’s why they know NOTHING about the Rodina, and why all their reports are biased and derisive piffle.
In short, the Western stories got it garbled yet again. Don’t forget, 63 percent of all Russians believe that the fall of the USSR was a tragedy. After seeing the warmongering of the USA over the last 20 years, I agree with them… wholeheartedly.
BMD
