Those were the days: Prime Minister Putin was having a better time of it in 2008, when people gave him tigers for his birthday.
Could martial arts enthusiast, tiger wrangler and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin be losing his steely grip on power in his homeland? Could be, judging by the results of Sunday’s parliamentary election in Russia, which resulted in a shaky showing for Putin’s United Russia party and sparked protests and accusations of voting fraud. Other than that, it was a great day for Putin and his party people. —KA
AP via Yahoo!:
With about 96 percent of precincts counted, United Russia was leading with 49.5 percent of the vote, Central Election Commission chief Vladimir Churov said. He predicted that it will get 238 of the Duma’s 450 seats, a sharp drop compared to the previous vote that landed the party a two-thirds majority in the State Duma, allowing it to change the constitution.
Final preliminary results were to be announced on Monday morning, but the count dragged on for longer than expected. Some opposition politicians alleged that election officials may manipulate the vote count to make sure that United Russia gets over 50 percent mark. Mikhail Kasyanov, a former prime minister who is now in opposition, said that Putin badly needs the figure to avoid looking weak.
The monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly wouldn’t say if the irregularities could be at the scale to question if United Russia has an unearned majority. But Tagliavini said that of the 150 polling stations where the counting was observed, “34 were assessed to be very bad.”
Putin tried to put a positive spin on the returns, saying late Sunday that “we can ensure the stable development of the country with this result.” But he appeared glum when speaking to supporters at United Russia headquarters and limited his remarks to a terse statement.
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Did I miss it in the article, or did the article, in its beat-the-pan for the fascist right globally, “forget” to mention that the reduction ini seats of Putin’s party are due to the Communist Party receiving a hair under 20% of the vote?
Oh my, now that doesn’t sit well with the west, now, does it?
I think that the US/UN/NATO alliances and resource grabbing may very likely
rejuvenate the Communist Party in Russia. Surely the continuing global
encroachments and invasions have Russians rethinking about the viability of
Communism, particularly in terms of unification and defense.
The mindlessness and lack of restraint of the US foreign policy should not be
underestimated, any more than its increasingly undeniable tendency to turn on its
own citizens.
Russsia finds itself with few options. Putin and the oligarchs rule as in the days of the Czar, meanwhile the Communist Party is far from Lenin/Trotsky circa 1917 and has even made strange alliances with right-wing nationalist movements in some areas.
May the Russian people one day again fulfill Bakunin’s prophecy:
“The star of revolution will rise high above the streets of Moscow, from a sea of blood and fire, and turn into a lodestar to lead a liberated humanity”
-Mikhail Bakunin
A Big Buyout at the Postal Service
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By Oceanna, December 6, 2011 at 1:36 pm Link to this comment
“Happy Cold War.”
Guess so. It’s a logical or natural consequence.
Report thisBy moonraven, December 6, 2011 at 11:52 am Link to this comment
Did I miss it in the article, or did the article, in its beat-the-pan for the fascist right globally, “forget” to mention that the reduction ini seats of Putin’s party are due to the Communist Party receiving a hair under 20% of the vote?
Oh my, now that doesn’t sit well with the west, now, does it?
Happy Cold War II.
Report thisBy Oceanna, December 6, 2011 at 6:40 am Link to this comment
I think that the US/UN/NATO alliances and resource grabbing may very likely
rejuvenate the Communist Party in Russia. Surely the continuing global
encroachments and invasions have Russians rethinking about the viability of
Communism, particularly in terms of unification and defense.
The mindlessness and lack of restraint of the US foreign policy should not be
Report thisunderestimated, any more than its increasingly undeniable tendency to turn on its
own citizens.
By Robespierre115, December 5, 2011 at 4:37 pm Link to this comment
Russsia finds itself with few options. Putin and the oligarchs rule as in the days of the Czar, meanwhile the Communist Party is far from Lenin/Trotsky circa 1917 and has even made strange alliances with right-wing nationalist movements in some areas.
May the Russian people one day again fulfill Bakunin’s prophecy:
“The star of revolution will rise high above the streets of Moscow, from a sea of blood and fire, and turn into a lodestar to lead a liberated humanity”
Report this-Mikhail Bakunin