So I've heard several Russians who are not Putin supporters nor Navalni
supporters, talk about this issue. This is one of these situations in which
it's difficult to know what reality is. However, I gather that Navalni is no
left winger, no freedom fighter. He is just opposed to the elites who support
Putin, but has his own wealthy supporters and in some ways, may be more right
wing. I've read various articles criticizing the poisoning story for a few
years. They question if it was the Russian government who did it and if it was
meant to kill him.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Sunday, February 7, 2021 11:22 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Protests continue in Russia, demand ‘Free Navalny!’
Protests continue in Russia, demand ‘Free Navalny!’
https://themilitant.com/2021/02/06/protests-continue-in-russia-demand-free-navalny/
BY ROY LANDERSEN
Vol. 85/No. 6
February 15, 2021
KSENIA KORSHUN VIA REUTERS
For the second week in a row, tens of thousands demonstrated against Russian
President Vladimir Putin, defying a police crackdown Jan. 31.
The protests, demanding the release from prison of Alexei Navalny, Putin’s main
bourgeois political opponent, are the most widespread in the country in years.
Scores braved temperatures of -40°F in Yakutsk, above. Cops detained more than
5,000 people in 86 cities. Protests ranged from Vladivostok on the Pacific
Ocean to the Kaliningrad enclave on the Baltic Sea.
“Down with the czar!” several thousand people chanted in St. Petersburg,
Russia’s second-largest city. Some of the biggest rallies were in Novosibirsk
and Krasnoyarsk, in eastern Siberia, and Yekaterinburg, in the Urals.
The government doesn’t “allow people to express their opinions,” Masha Ulyanova
told the Washington Post in Moscow. “They are afraid that they’ll lose power
and they will have to live in this poor country that they have robbed.”
Navalny’s imprisonment has become a lightning rod for anger over declining
living standards, decaying health services, Moscow’s military interventions
abroad and its attacks on political rights at home. Wages have declined 10% in
the past seven years.
Thousands trying to rally outside the jail holding Navalny chanted “Putin,
thief!” referring to an extensively viewed video released by Navalny’s
anti-corruption campaign that reported a luxurious Black Sea palace had been
built for the Russian president. Putin denies ownership of the complex.
Navalny was detained when he arrived back in Russia from Germany, where he was
recovering from being poisoned by a military-grade nerve toxin, an attack he
says was ordered by Putin. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison
Feb. 2, for breaching parole terms from a previous frame-up for “embezzlement.”
He is appealing the ruling.
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Okay, thanks
--
Emmett F. Fields “ Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do not
exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is an
attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively, fearlessly,
always trying to understand all things as a part of nature.
” ― Emmett F. Fields