[Unknown Target]

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/n2fos/civil_war_is_about_to_ducking_start_in_moscow/

Any Russian-speaking/Russian citizens in the area want to comment?

On the media blackout note, it seems not?

http://rt.com/news/rally-moscow-election-police-173/

More news:

Moscow police clash with anti-Putin demonstrators
Massive protests in Russia, evidence of stolen election, media blackout
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_RUSSIA_ELECTION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-12-06-09-18-58
 
 
 
Russia shaken by anti-Putin rally
http://www.france24.com/en/20111206-russia-shaken-anti-putin-rally
 
Russia's Putin faces new protest
Putin promises changes...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-russia-election-idUSTRE7B019B20111206
 
 
Troops Pour Into Moscow
Thousands demonstrate against government after Russian elections (Video)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/russian-army-troops-move-into-moscow-after-election-protests-video/2011/12/06/gIQAexPBZO_blog.html
 
 
Putin's party barely hangs onto its majority
http://news.yahoo.com/putins-party-barely-hangs-onto-majority-092734694.html

[NGTM-1R]

Arab Spring.

Russian Winter.

Somehow appropriate.

[Mika]

Business as usual. The difference that I can see is that Putin's party lost a sizable fraction of the vote. Probably hinting that the Russians are getting fed up with the current politics, but there's no guarantee to what would happen if the United Russia party loses the majority.

The national media here mentioned that this might be a good time to start following carefully what's going on in Russia at the moment. Too bad our ministers have somewhat alienated themselves from the Russian political system.

[SypheDMar]

Arab Spring.

Russian Winter.

Somehow appropriate.

Something Summer.

Western Fall?

I'd like to know what's going on with Russia as well since I don't hear much of it anymore.

[Unknown Target]

Business as usual. The difference that I can see is that Putin's party lost a sizable fraction of the vote. Probably hinting that the Russians are getting fed up with the current politics, but there's no guarantee to what would happen if the United Russia party loses the majority.

The national media here mentioned that this might be a good time to start following carefully what's going on in Russia at the moment. Too bad our ministers have somewhat alienated themselves from the Russian political system.

How are large scale protests in Russia business as usual? It's my understanding that, while the country tries to look democratic, the United Russia party is actually rather repressive - I say that while giving a more than casual glance at the numerous journalists and reporters who were disappeared over the last few years for revealing corruption in Putin's administration. The country is really repressed, large demonstrations like this are not common at all.

Also, Spyhe, the media already "coined" the "American Autumn" (ugh). Siamese Summer?

[NGTM-1R]

Because Russia has, and always had, massive internal political tensions. It's a very large country that never had modicum of ethnic homogeneity and has historically used violence to repress its citizens. You can't go five feet without tripping over a historical grievance against the government or another ethnicity, and the improvements the new government is making are not fast enough to match the rate at which pressure builds.

The country is best compared to a violent schizophrenic who's gone off his meds. Eventually the amount in the bloodstream is going to fall below therapeutic levels and they'll go bonkers.

[Nuke]

yay! another revolution in russia! looks like the cold war is back on!

[Mongoose]

*starts singing RAH-RAH-RASPUTIN*

[Unknown Target]

Video evidence of voting fraud:

http://observers.france24.com/content/20111206-russia-election-fraud-caught-video-ballot-stuffing-erasable-ink-putin-protests

Also, NGTM-1R, while it may be business as usual for Russia to repress its citizens, it's not business as usual to have large scale demonstrations. Rebellions and whatnot happen rarely, and while they're more common than in, say, the USA or England, they're certainly not the de facto state of affairs.

I think referring to this as a "normal" occurring marginalizes the people's grievances and understates the significance of them showing up in force to protest.

[Mika]

I don't think the protests are that uncommon in Russia, the difference is that the media is nowadays more eager to report them and that protesters think that this actually might have an effect. If anything, the Russian protests have actually become less violent, a thing I contribute to increase in wealth and to the fact that this time people have something to lose as well. I think that they formerly dubbed protests as popular uprisings and shot the protesters, so that's progress for you.

I'm aware of how United Russia is seen from the West as a repressive party. I see it less repressive than its predecessors, and I don't believe that any of the other parties would be more democratic compared to what they have now. But if anyone thinks Russia could be westernized in a couple of decades, they are wrong. I have my doubts about EU policies towards Russia, EC has been complaining and condemning human rights violations for quite a while, but since the economy is on a downward spiral in Europe, I don't hear such vocal comments anymore. That tends to portray EC in a rather gruesome light as well. 

The thing of which I don't have a clear opinion is whether Putin has actual power or not. Hmmm, I need to talk about this with my Russian colleagues at work.

[NGTM-1R]

Also, NGTM-1R, while it may be business as usual for Russia to repress its citizens, it's not business as usual to have large scale demonstrations. Rebellions and whatnot happen rarely, and while they're more common than in, say, the USA or England, they're certainly not the de facto state of affairs.

Oh, I'm not saying it's normal to have protests in Russia at all; I'm saying that it's been a lit fuze since the fall of the Soviet Union. Russia has no familiarity with methods of reducing civil tension that don't involve the use or threat of military force, an option that is simply no longer possible for use in European Russia if they want anyone to take them seriously. This will be where the learn, hopefully.

[Nemesis6]

Meanwhile, at RussiaToday...
"Terrorist-sympathizing chechen-lovers attack great, white mother russia with assistance of NATO Jews under disguise of "protest""

[Wobble73]

Arab Spring.

Russian Winter.

Somehow appropriate.

Something Summer.

Western Fall?

I'd like to know what's going on with Russia as well since I don't hear much of it anymore.

Indian Summer?

[Unknown Target]

Meanwhile, at RussiaToday...
"Terrorist-sympathizing chechen-lovers attack great, white mother russia with assistance of NATO Jews under disguise of "protest""

Hilary Clinton gives "signal" to protesters, according to Putin.

http://news.yahoo.com/putin-accuses-clinton-encouraging-protesters-093312730.html

I wonder how many believe him? When in doubt, blame the US?

[Scotty]

I'd wonder more how many don't care if it's true or not, and just want to blame something.

[Flipside]

It can get rather amusing watching the 'bogeyman' get blamed for everything. Thing is, Putin neatly sidesteps several questions that answer raises, such as 'Why are there tens of thousands of your citizens angry enough to defy the government in the first place?', and 'Why was corruption in the Government an issue before the elections, what is it about the allegations of vote-fixing that makes you conclude, so rapidly, that someone else must be behind it?'

Thing is, Russia's voting record in the recent Arab Spring uprisings has not made them many friends in the Arab community, if they respond, after that, to these demonstrations in too heavy-handed a way, it stands a chance of making them look very bad on the political stage across most of Europe, and probably pretty large sections of the Middle East as well.

[SpardaSon21]

Russia looked good on the public stage before this?  I thought everyone knew Putin was a power-hungry ultra-nationalist dictator.

[Mika]

It can get rather amusing watching the 'bogeyman' get blamed for everything. Thing is, Putin neatly sidesteps several questions that answer raises, such as 'Why are there tens of thousands of your citizens angry enough to defy the government in the first place?', and 'Why was corruption in the Government an issue before the elections, what is it about the allegations of vote-fixing that makes you conclude, so rapidly, that someone else must be behind it?'

Thing is, Russia's voting record in the recent Arab Spring uprisings has not made them many friends in the Arab community, if they respond, after that, to these demonstrations in too heavy-handed a way, it stands a chance of making them look very bad on the political stage across most of Europe, and probably pretty large sections of the Middle East as well.

Why would Russia care about that?

[Flipside]

For the same reason China cares about it's reputation with regards to Human Rights and gets annoyed when it is attacked. There's two words why China won't get involved with all this stuff, Tiennaman Square, Russia probably has more than a few skeletons in its cupboard of the same type, and doesn't want to broadcast a reminder of that to the world.

Anyone who thinks Russia just 'doesn't care' about stuff like that has obviously not been paying attention to world politics. Russia is just as dependent on good trade and political relationships as every other country in the world.

[Mika]

For the same reason China cares about it's reputation with regards to Human Rights and gets annoyed when it is attacked. There's two words why China won't get involved with all this stuff, Tiennaman Square, Russia probably has more than a few skeletons in its cupboard of the same type, and doesn't want to broadcast a reminder of that to the world.

Anyone who thinks Russia just 'doesn't care' about stuff like that has obviously not been paying attention to world politics. Russia is just as dependent on good trade and political relationships as every other country in the world.

I think that in this case you are mistaken. If you follow news from there, you'll start to notice that the Western companies investing in Russia have got their assets nationalized, leaders killed, or faced other unpredictable problems like tolls instated by local police officers and mafia. Since this happens still today, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that they really don't care. Human life has value there, but the value is rather cheap,  though it depends on the place where you live.

Western human rights values simply do not hold in China or in Russia. The question can be reversed though, do you actually see any embargoes towards China or Russia due to their human rights abuses? There aren't, so West isn't really interested in improving those things there. Whatever protest you hear from EU or USA, it is simply empty words and China and Russia know that.

I will warn about one thing: if EU commission protests too loudly towards Russia, it will be specifically cold winter in Central Europe. Or some other problems with trading is likely to occur - like suddenly jumping prices.