Vote for me or face 'humiliation': Putin
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MOSCOW (AFP) - - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned Russians to vote for his party in elections or face a return to "humiliation" as a prominent critic accused him of leading Russia toward dictatorship.
In a televised address, Putin urged voters to back United Russia, warning that the liberal opposition would return Russia to the "humiliation, dependency and disintegration" it suffered after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Kremlin leader spoke just hours before former chess champion turned Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov, just released after five days in prison, denounced Putin's leadership.
"This regime is entering a very dangerous phase that is turning it into a dictatorship," Kasparov told journalists.
United Russia is forecast to win a big majority in the State Duma lower house of parliament in general elections on Sunday. The tiny liberal parties are not expected to win a single seat and complain they are victims of heavy-handed Kremlin tactics.
"We should not allow back into power the people who... want to change and muddle Russia's development plans," Putin said ahead of the vote.
The 55-year-old Kremlin leader warned against the "dangerous illusion" of believing his legacy was safe and also appeared to confirm he would step down next year.
The television address had been closely watched for any sign of Putin's plans after he completes his second term next year, when the constitution requires he must relinquish the presidency.
Former chess world champion Kasparov who now leads The Other Russia opposition coalition vowed to continue fighting Putin's policies and accused him of resorting to fear and repression ahead of the weekend vote.
"Fear is the only chance this regime has to survive."
Kasparov complained that he had been denied free access to a lawyer during the five days that he spent in a Moscow prison for taking part in an unauthorized rally at the weekend.
Controversy over the fairness of Sunday's polls was growing amid what Kremlin opponents describe as a crackdown aimed at fixing the election results.
US President George W. Bush said he was "deeply concerned" at the break-up of rallies in Moscow and elsewhere in the country. EU countries and Amnesty International also criticised the Kremlin.
Although as president he cannot actually take a Duma seat, Putin heads the electoral list of United Russia, which is presenting the parliamentary election as a referendum on the ex-KGB officer's highly popular rule.
Putin has repeatedly said he intends to retain a major role, prompting speculation that he might hang on to power, or at least retain influence through a handpicked successor.
"The result of the election will be the preliminary stage for Putin to make decisions," said Kasparov.
He said Putin would have to decide "whether he is ready to turn into a full-blown dictator and if he is still trying to pretend that he has some sort of democratic clout."
Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev also expressed concern in comments quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency
Calls from United Russia for Putin to stay on as "national leader" were confusing, he said. "Maybe they have already decided what it means, or maybe they will surprise us with something else, although nothing would surprise me."
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) earlier this month called off its election monitoring mission for the Russian elections, citing a lack of cooperation from Moscow, a claim Russia denied.
In Madrid, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said Washington firmly opposed a Russian proposal to reform the OSCE's election monitoring arm -- its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights -- ODIHR -- because it would weaken the key body.
"The US will protect ODIHR," Burns told reporters in Madrid, where he is attending the OSCE's annual meeting. -
Dunno why, a feeling a deja vu when reading the article...
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Read Carroll Quigley's lectures on Russian history, they will give you an insight into the Russian people, I highly recommend it:
Antecedents Of The Soviet Regime In Russia
History Of The Pre-Revolutionary Origins Of The USSR 1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley -
What i feel is that Russia is already going backwards at the current rate.
Putin seems to be acting like the Tsarists from previous centuries.
A side note, would anyone hold him responsible for Litvinenko's assassination? I would. -
Must have been influenced by LKY's methodology.
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Russia gained back its internal stability and national strength under Putin at the price of democracy.
Not a bad deal I say under the chaotic post-Soviet situation of the 1990s.
An analysis:
The Emerging Russian Giant Plays its Cards Strategically
http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Geopolitics___Eurasia/Russian_Giant/russian_giant.html
Putin and the Geopolitics of the New Cold War
http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Geopolitics___Eurasia/Putin/putin.html
The KremlinÂ’s Clan Warfare: The Putin Era Ends
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=13442&IBLOCK_ID=35&phrase_id=7273 -
Also see this extremely informative official Russian News Agency site, the quality is quite high:
RIA Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/ -
Russia's free press ranking is close to that of Singapore's ranking.
...and Putin's critic Garry kasparov was jailed for five days recently after an unauthorized protest march. -
Russia is different from Singapore. There are active forces trying to undermine Russian state interests.
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Yea add that to the vodka, the weather and the people and Russia is 'really' different from SingaporeOriginally posted by Poh Ah Pak:Russia is different from Singapore. There are active forces trying to undermine Russian state interests. -
Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:
Just wonder what Dr Chee Soon Juan thinks of that site.
Also see this extremely informative official Russian News Agency site, the quality is quite high:
[b]RIA Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/
[/b] -
I don't see much progress if any for Russia.
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I don't see much progress if any for Russia.
Not much progress in which area? Human rights? Press freedom? Rule by law? Crime rate? Corruption? Political stability? Miliatry power? Global influence? Economic growth? Demography? -
In imperial Russia, 80% were peasants and serfs. Then Communists rule for the next 70 years.
Twice in one century - 1917 and 1991 - their governments collapsed almost overnight, with people seemingly indifferent to their fate. In both cases, governments forfeited their right to exist.
So, the majority of RussiansÂ’ mentality and behaviour change very slowly. If Putin tell them that democracy is weak, its anarchy and lawlessness, theyÂ’ll buy it.
Only one fifth of Russians know the importance of human rights. -
i try not to say I experience the deja too.Originally posted by Jontst78:Dunno why, a feeling a deja vu when reading the article... 
In any case,
No one should be so AUDACIOUS as to BELIEVE that he or his family and clones and cloowns owns any country at any time of human history.
Of course, idiots and IGNORANTS will always exist as is natural.
This should never be an excuse to let such behaviour prevail or thrive.
There is a SAFETY catch - THE PEOPLE.
But like anything, its not whether there is no such power endowed.
Not having the WISDOM to understand the meaning of DEMOCRACY will lead to DESPOTISM, ANALISATION and SADAMISM plus Jong Ill'sm and even COMMUNISTIC PERVERSONALISATION and MARCISM.
THE only way to prevent the above from happening is that
THE PEOPLE must learn the importance of them taking ownership of their RESPONSIBILITY for DEMOCRACY.
No one owes no families nothing. Everyone as long as well compensated should not think he is above the PEOPLE.
The PEOPLE Deserves what they ask for.
What you ask for is what you will get. the power of the tidal wave will erode any stubborn rocks in time. -
i try not to say I experience the deja too.Originally posted by Jontst78:Dunno why, a feeling a deja vu when reading the article...
In any case,
No one should be so AUDACIOUS as to BELIEVE that he or his family and clones and cloowns owns any country at any time of human history.
Of course, idiots and IGNORANTS will always exist as is natural.
This should never be an excuse to let such behaviour prevail or thrive.
There is a SAFETY catch - THE PEOPLE.
But like anything, its not whether there is no such power endowed.
Not having the WISDOM to understand the meaning of DEMOCRACY will lead to DESPOTISM, ANALISATION and SADAMISM plus Jong Ill'sm and even COMMUNISTIC PERVERSONALISATION and MARCISM.
THE only way to prevent the above from happening is that
THE PEOPLE must learn the importance of them taking ownership of their [u]RESPONSIBILITY for DEMOCRACY.[/u] Must never expect to be led in this respect. Self responsibility. Begins with self.[/u]
No one owes no families nothing. Everyone as long as well compensated should not think he is above the PEOPLE.
The PEOPLE Deserves what they ask for.
What you ask for is what you will get. the power of the tidal wave will erode any stubborn rocks in time. -
Money may just buy someone running a election some votes.
After all , i heard of such rumors.
money does have a strong impact on a person's morality.
Money can buy the soul and a persons righteousness.
*above remarks completely excludes sg context.
Why? u should know. -
'Humiliation'...he's talking about humiliation at the hands of other countries.
Have you seen their propaganda? Here's an example from their youth wing:
http://lrtranslations.blogspot.com/2007/02/nashi-manifesto-revealed.html
And in May he compared the USA to The Third Reich. Of course they're no angels, but it's telling that he's berserk.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/09/news/russia.php
After using strong-arm tactics against Russia's smaller neighbours, and claiming a huge chunk of the natural resources in the Arctic region, what's next?
He accuses other countries of fascism when they so much as move a monument, yet their own nationalistic political agenda isn't very different from Hitler's... -
One Cold War Was Enough: Russia Needs Our Help, Not Our Condemnation
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7498
"What Does Putin Want?"
http://fbc.binghamton.edu/commentr.htm -
And your point is? That we should overlook their aggressive foreign policy?Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:One Cold War Was Enough: Russia Needs Our Help, Not Our Condemnation
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7498
"What Does Putin Want?"
http://fbc.binghamton.edu/commentr.htm -
What about USA's aggressions?
We must not be biased. -
Neither of them are angels, in case you missed that in my other post.Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:What about USA's aggressions?
We must not be biased. -
This is what some Russian interlectuals think of Putin.
Putin is an enemy of free speech.
Since Putin took office, in 2000, more than a dozen Russian journalists have been murdered, as have several opposition politicians. The cases remain “unresolved.”
Speaking about Kasparov, former KGB general Oleg Kalugin has remarked: "I do not talk in details—people who knew them are all dead now because they were vocal, they were open. I am quiet. There is only one man who is vocal, and he may be in trouble: former world chess champion Garry Kasparov. He has been very outspoken in his attacks on Putin, and I believe that he is probably next on the list."
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oil magnate, who dared to fund opposition parties, pronounce his own political ideas, and attempt to cut pipeline deals with China without Kremlin permission, is now serving an eight-year term in Penal Colony No. 10, in eastern Siberia.
Putin has partially restored the old Stalinist methods. The difference is Stalin used mass repressions. He would imprison and execute hundreds of thousands, millions. In PutinÂ’s case, it is more selective: individuals who he finds too hostile or harmful for his rule. Putin has actually put the country back to the authoritarian state; itÂ’s not as bloody but just as criminal as StalinÂ’s regime. -
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oil magnate, who dared to fund opposition parties, pronounce his own political ideas, and attempt to cut pipeline deals with China without Kremlin permission, is now serving an eight-year term in Penal Colony No. 10, in eastern Siberia.
The real significance of the Yukos Affair
The defining event in the new Russian energy geopolitics under Vladimir Putin took place in 2003. It was just as Washington was making it brutally clear it was going to militarize Iraq and the Middle East, regardless of world protest or UN niceties.
A brief review of the spectacular October 2003 arrest of Russia`s billionaire ‘oligarch’ Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and state seizure of his giant Yukos oil group, is essential to understand Russian energy geopolitics.
Khodorkovsky was arrested at Novosibirsk airport on October 25, 2003, by the Russian Prosecutor General`s office on charges of tax evasion. The Putin government froze shares of Yukos Oil because of tax charges. They then took further actions against Yukos, leading to a collapse in the share price.
What was little mentioned in Western media accounts, which typically portrayed the Putin government actions as a reversion to Soviet-era methods, was what had triggered Putin`s dramatic action in the first place.
Khodorkovsky had been arrested just four weeks before a decisive Russian Duma or lower house election, in which Khodorkovsky had managed to buy the votes of a majority in the Duma using his vast wealth. Control of the Duma was to be the first step by Khodorkovsky in a plan to run against Putin the next year as President. The Duma victory would have allowed him to change election laws in his favor, as well as to alter a controversial law being drafted in the Duma, ‘The Law on Underground Resources.’ That law would prevent Yukos and other private companies from gaining control of raw materials in the ground, or from developing private pipeline routes independent of the Russian state pipelines.
Khodorkovsky had violated the pledge of the Oligarchs made to Putin, that they be allowed to keep their assets - de facto stolen from the state in the rigged auctions under Yeltsin - if they stayed out of Russian politics and repatriated a share of their stolen money. Khodorkovsky, the most powerful oligarch at the time, was serving as the vehicle for what was becoming an obvious Washington-backed putsch against Putin.
The Khodorkovsky arrest followed an unpublicized meeting earlier that year on July 14, 2003 between Khodorkovsky and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Following the Cheney meeting, Khodorkovsky began talks with ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, Condi Rice`s old firm, about taking a major state in Yukos, said to have been between 25% and 40%. That was intended to give Khodorkovsky de facto immunity from possible Putin government interference by tying Yukos to the big US oil giants and, hence, to Washington. It would also have given Washington, via the US oil giants, a de facto veto power over future Russian oil and gas pipelines and oil deals. Days before his October 2003 arrest on tax fraud charges, Khodorkovsky had entertained George H.W. Bush, the representative of the powerful and secretive Washington Carlyle Group in Moscow. They were discussing the final details of the US oil company share buy-in of Yukos.
Yukos had also just made a bid to acquire rival Sibneft from Boris Berezovsky, another Yeltsin-era Oligarch. Yukos/Sibneft, with 19.5 billion barrels of oil and gas, would then own the second-largest oil and gas reserves in the world after ExxonMobil. Yukos/Sibneft would be the fourth largest in the world in terms of production, pumping 2.3 million barrels of crude oil a day. The Exxon or Chevron buy-up of Yukos/Sibneft would have been a literal energy coup d´etat. Cheney knew it; Bush knew it; Khodorkovsky knew it.
Above all, Vladimir Putin knew it and moved decisively to block it.
Khodorkovsky had cultivated very impressive ties to the Anglo-American power establishment. He created a philanthropic foundation, the Open Russia Foundation, modeled on the Open Society foundation of his close friend George Soros. On the select board of Open Russia Foundation sat Henry Kissinger and Kissinger`s friend, Jacob Lord Rothschild, London scion of the banking family. Arthur Hartman, a former US Ambassador to Moscow, also sat on the foundation`s board.
Following Khodorkovsky`s arrest, the Washington Post reported that the imprisoned Russian billionaire had retained the services of Stuart Eizenstat - former deputy Treasury Secretary, Undersecretary of State, Undersecretary of Commerce during the Clinton Administration - to lobby in Washington for his freedom. Khodorkovsky was in deep with the Anglo-American establishment.
Subsequent western media and official protest about Russia`s return to communist methods and raw power politics, conveniently ignored the fact that Khodorkovsky was hardly Snow White himself . Earlier, Khodorkovsky had unilaterally ripped up his contract with British Petroleum. BP had been a partner with Yukos, and had spent $300 million in drilling the highly promising Priobskoye oil field in Siberia.
Once the BP drilling had been done, Khodorkovsky forced BP out, using gangster methods that would be unlawful in most of the developed world. By 2003 Priobskoye oil production reached 129 million barrels, equivalent to a value on the market of some $8 billions. Earlier, in 1998, after the IMF had given billions to Russia to prevent a collapse of the Ruble, Khodokorvosky`s Bank Menatep diverted an eye-popping $4.8 billion in IMF funds to his hand-picked bank cronies, some US banks among them. The howls of protest from Washington at the October 2003 arrest of Khodorkovsky were disingenuous, if not outright hypocritical. As seen from the Kremlin, Washington had been caught with its fat hand in the Russian cookie jar.
The Putin-Khodorkovsky showdown signaled a decisive turn by the Putin government towards rebuilding Russia and erecting strategic defenses from the foreign onslaught led by Cheney and friend Tony Blair in Britain. It took place in the context of a brazen US grab for Iraq in 2003 and of a unilateral Bush Administration announcement that the USA was abrogating its solemn treaty obligations with Russia under their earlier Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, in order to go ahead with development of US missile defenses, an act which could only be viewed in Moscow as a hostile act aimed at her security...
http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Geopolitics___Eurasia/Russian_Giant/russian_giant.html -
The timing of that arrest, and the difference between the initial charge and the intent, don't make then squeaky clean either.