Calls for Putin to Resign

[eaglethebeagle]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Calls for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to resign and drop his presidential bid flooded his campaign website within minutes of its launch on Thursday, prompting administrators to limit public access.
Putin's spokesman and campaign official Dmitry Peskov said the website fell victim to a hacker attack in its early hours and some of the anti-Putin messages were spam. He denied that any messages were blacklisted for political reasons.
"All this fuss with calls for resignation is a kind of computer game that children are playing at. It has nothing to do with constructive dialogue," Peskov said.
Putin also unveiled his draft program for the March presidential poll, which acknowledged Russians' desire for faster change but barely touched on issues such as corruption and political reform, the subject of many voters' complaints.
Putin faced the biggest rallies of his 12-year rule last month when tens of thousands of people, many affluent and educated city dwellers, took to the streets to protest against alleged fraud in the December 4 parliamentary election.
Putin remains Russia's most popular and influential politician but his popularity has been shrinking since he decided last September to return to the Kremlin after a four-year stint as prime minister.
"Vladimir Vladimirovich, I suggest that you do not turn the situation into a revolution and resign from the post of prime minister and also take your candidacy off the presidential race," read a message posted by Svetlana Sorokina.
"Leave politics, please. It is obvious that power is like a drug but it would be a decent move," wrote Andrei Antinenko.
Many of the messages were taken off the public website but retained their public Internet links. They were then quickly discovered by journalists and bloggers who posted blacklisted messages on their websites.
Anti-Putin messages accounted for at least one third of all the messages posted on the site before access was blocked.
"You have been in power for twelve years. It is enough. Everything you could do, you already did. One should not rule for ever. The country will not survive another term of your presidency," read one of the blacklisted messages.
FIRST ROUND VICTORY
Some pro-Putin messages contained calls for censorship of media and the Internet and a ban on foreign funding for non-governmental organizations. Many were complaints about local bureaucrats not doing their jobs properly.
A fall in Putin's approval ratings, recorded by pollster VTsIOM, to 51 percent in December from 61 percent only a month before, raised the possibility of a second round of voting if Putin failed to win more than half the votes in the first round.
The 59-year-old prime minister, who has carefully cultivated a "tough guy" image, was also booed at a sports event he attended and is regularly ridiculed on the Internet and even in some television programs.
Putin responded to the rising wave of discontent with allegations of foreign funding for the opposition and his trademark crude jokes, comparing white ribbons worn by protesters to condoms.
This further angered the opposition and overshadowed the political liberalization plan proposed by outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev in response to the protests. Putin later softened his tone, saying he was ready for a dialogue.
Peskov said Putin's campaign headquarters were aiming for a victory in the first round of the presidential poll.
"We are sure that he will be president. We have no doubts about it," he told reporters. "Bad are the campaign headquarters staff who do not believe in their candidate's victory in the first round," he added.
The election program published on Putin's campaign website acknowledged that some Russians wanted faster change than he had been able to deliver in his 12 years in power.
"The citizens of the country want faster development, a life in line with the best global living standards, participation in dealing with the problems the country is faced with," it said.
It also said that low labor productivity was the main challenge facing Russia in the next 10 years, but said little about issues such as corruption and political reform.

(Reporting by some Russians that would prefer to remain anonymous)

[Sixx]

That criminal should be put in prison....much like some of our politicians.

[BrendenF11]

Much like a lot of our politicians, and yes he should.

[eaglethebeagle]

I was joking about the reporters wanting to remain anonymous but in Russia being a reporter can be life or death dangerous as we know. The thing that is interesting is how once socialism takes place it is impossible to remove without a revolution which could be coming for them. Now spinning that with regard to America obama is doing his best to transform us into a socialist country and he is doing it very well. The article about the individual numbers for internet access is government control. He is going to destroy America if he is reelected.

[eaglethebeagle]

MOSCOW (AP) — Tens of thousands of Russians flooded downtown Moscow on Saturday to demand an end to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's rule, braving sub-zero temperatures to keep the protest movement alive one month before a presidential election that Putin is still expected to win.
The protest — which drew 120,000 people, according to organizers — was the third mass demonstration since Putin's party won a parliamentary election Dec. 4 with the help of what appeared to be widespread fraud.

The election and Putin's presumptuous decision to reclaim the presidency proved the last straw for Russians increasingly unhappy with the creeping authoritarianism during his 12-year rule. The protest rallies — which have brought together liberals, leftists and nationalists — are the biggest in Russia since the the demonstrations 20 years ago that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
On Saturday, people wearing the white ribbons that have become the symbol of the protest movement and chanting "Russia Without Putin" braved temperatures as low as minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 degrees Celsius) as they marched about one kilometer (less than a mile) to a square across the river from the Kremlin where their rally was held. Thousands of police monitored the peaceful protest without intervening.

"There are now so many of us that they cannot arrest us all," said 56-year-old protester Alexander Zelensky.
He and his wife, Alyona Karimova, said they had begun preparations to emigrate to Canada in the fall, but then changed their minds and decided to stay in the hope that Russia will eventually move toward democracy.
"This is going to be a gradual process, but we believe it will eventually lead to democracy and free elections," said Karimova, who was wearing a long mink coat and a sign around her neck telling Putin to return to his native St. Petersburg.
An anti-Putin protest also took place in St. Petersburg on Saturday, drawing 5,000 people, and smaller rallies were held in several dozen other cities across Russia.
A separate rally in Moscow in support of Putin drew no more than 20,000 people. Most of them were teachers, municipal workers, employees of state-owned companies or trade union activists, who had come with co-workers on buses provided by their employers.

Most of the pro-Putin protesters were reluctant to speak to journalists. Yekaterina, a 25-year-old postal worker who gave only her first name out of fear she would be fired, said she had been ordered to attend the rally and was told she would be paid as if it were a work day.
The anti-Putin protests have been driven by members of the educated and urban middle class.
Putin has ignored many of their demands, including for a repeat election, but he has sought to assuage their anger by making vague promises to introduce liberal reforms and to guarantee a fair presidential vote on March 4.

The protest leaders hope to stage another rally a week before the election to keep up the pressure on Putin.
To counter the protests, Putin has focused on consolidating his core support group of blue-collar workers, farmers, public servants and the elderly. He also has tried to discredit the protesters by casting their leaders as Western lackeys working to weaken Russia.
The opposition has also drawn some criticism for including Communists and nationalists in its ranks. Separately from the massive march, Saturday also saw a small Moscow rally by anti-Putin figures who want to keep their distance. But the thrust of their demands was the same as at the larger gathering.
Putin talks about stability ... we don't need the stability of the cemetery," longtime dissident Valeria Novodvorskaya told the rally of about 250.
The presidential race pits Putin against three leaders of parliamentary parties, who have run against him in the past, and one fresh face: the billionaire owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, Mikhail Prokhorov. Prokhorov joined Saturday's protest, but did not speak from the stage.

None of the contenders is expected to pose any serious challenge to Putin, whose ratings are now hovering just below the 50 percent needed for a first-round victory. If Putin fails to win an outright victory, he would face a runoff three weeks later, most likely against Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov, a rival he could easily defeat.
Protesters at Saturday's rally denounced the race as illegitimate, pointing to the tight controls Putin has imposed over the political scene that have destroyed all genuine political competition.
Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the opposition Yabloko party who was barred from the presidential race, said the fight will not end after the election. "We are defending the future of our country," he said from the stage. "Our foes will soon see that it's only the beginning."

As the afternoon sun started to fade, the rally ended with the call of "Not a Single Vote for Putin" and demands for legal reforms that would open the way for fair political competition and for new parliamentary and presidential elections. The protesters also demanded the release of political prisoners and punishment for those involved in the vote-rigging.
Before heading home, the protesters released white balloons — a symbol of peaceful protest.
____
Nataliya Vasilyeva and Jim Heintz contributed to this report.

[eaglethebeagle]

It is the recipient of a $20 billion facelift programme to build spectacular new bridges, modern highways and prepare the city for a prestigious global summit.
But don't expect all residents of Russia's Trans-Siberian railway terminus city of Vladivostok on the Pacific to thank Russian strongman Vladimir Putin as he seeks to return to the presidency in March 4 elections.
"We are tired of Putin after all these years," Vladivostok resident Andrei Yukhtanov, 42, said angrily as he left the train station on his commute to work as a barman in the centre.
Russia has pumped billions of dollars into reviving the Far Eastern port city, which fell into neglect in the years after the USSR's fall with buildings crumbling to the point of collapse and highways riddled with pot holes.
But many locals say they have seen nothing but empty promises from Putin and his party United Russia, which is regarded with particular suspicion as defending the interests of the elite in Moscow seven time zones away.
Vladivostok's Primorye region gave his party United Russia only 33 percent in the parliamentary polls on December 4, one of its weakest scores nationwide.
The 600,000 residents of Vladivostok gave it even lower support of about 23 percent of the vote, trailing behind the Communist Party.
This is despite the facelift ahead of the city's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in September which includes the building of two gigantic bridges the authorities hope will prompt comparisons with San Francisco and Istanbul.
"Everything is rising! Prices on food, heating, gasoline," said 72-year-old Nikolai, a critic of United Russia who has been disillusioned after being a party member for eight years.
Like many other residents of Russia's largest Pacific Ocean city, he complained that the cost of living has become higher than in Moscow, while salaries remain low.
"In the Soviet times, more was done for the people," he said, pledging to vote for Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov.
"Almost nobody in my circle voted for United Russia in the parliamentary elections," said Valeria Loiko, a reporter for weekly newspaper Konkurent, calling it "the party of crooks and thieves."
Vladivostok enjoyed a high profile in the Soviet era as Russia's naval capital, an exclusive and well-supplied city that was closed to foreigners before 1991.
But with the disintegration of many military industries, the quality of life fell along with its population, and the economy began to rely on imports from China and Japan.
Putin was the driving force behind Vladivostok's plans to host the APEC conference this September, a first for Russia, promising to breathe new life into the city.
One of the bridges, designed to be similar to California's Golden Gate bridge, will reach over the Eastern Bosphorus strait to the former military base on Russky island, where the summit will be held.
Since 2007, the city has become a vast construction site, but residents say they have not seen the benefits despite investment of $20 billion into its development.
Konstantin Mezhonov, a regional leader of the Just Russia party, said the unpopularity of United Russia has to do with "promises that were not fulfilled during 10 years", namely rising inflation and high cost of public services.
"It is time that Putin steps down and lets someone new take the reins," said Anatoly Yakovlev, a 64-year-old professor who voted for the strongman both times he ran for president in 2000 and 2004.
Although most Russians are convinced that Putin will once again seize the presidential seat, Yakovlev is considering casting his vote for the newcomer billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov who currently only has a single-figure rating.
"Many people support him because he is new to politics," he said.

[eaglethebeagle]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin praised Cold War-era scientists on Thursday for stealing U.S. nuclear secrets so that United States would not be the world's sole atomic power, in comments reflecting his vision of Russia as a counterweight to U.S. power.
Spies with suitcases full of data helped the Soviet Union build its atomic bomb, he told military commanders.
"You know, when the States already had nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union was only building them, we got a significant amount of information through Soviet foreign intelligence channels," Putin said, according to state-run Itar-Tass.
"The were carrying the information away not on microfilm but literally in suitcases. Suitcases!"
Putin's remarks referred to the dawn of the Cold War more than half a century ago, but they echoed a message he has made loud and clear more recently: that the United States needs to be restrained, and Russia is the country to do it.
It has been known for decades that there were spies among the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, the U.S. atomic bomb design operation. Putin suggested those who helped Moscow build its bomb acted out of concern for humanity.
"It was the cream the scientific world that was gathered in America, and I personally have gotten the impression that they consciously gave us information on the atom bomb," Putin was quoted as saying.
"They did this consciously because the atom bomb had been used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and scientists from mankind's intellectual elite at the time understood what unilateral possession of such a weapon might lead to."
A need for Russia to act as a counterweight to U.S. power has been a continuous theme of Putin's time in office since he - himself a former Soviet spy - became president in 2000. He stepped down in 2008 to become prime minister but is poised to reclaim the presidency in an election on March 4.
Last year he criticized the United States for helping Libyan rebels oust Muammar Gaddafi. Lately he has suggested Washington has similar designs on Syria, where Russia has vetoed U.N. action. Earlier this month Putin said the world faced a growing "cult of violence".
(Writing by Steve Gutterman)

[eaglethebeagle]

MOSCOW - Vladimir Putin has accused the United States and its Western allies of supporting the Arab Spring revolts in its own interests and strongly warned against a military intervention in Syria.
Putin said in an article published Monday in the Moscow News daily that the Western push for sanctions against Syrian President Bashar Assad's government was "cynical." He insisted that both the government and opposition forces should pull out of cities to end bloodshed.
Putin defended a Russia-China veto of a U.N. resolution condemning Assad's crackdown on protests, saying that Moscow wouldn't allow the replay of what happened in Libya, where a NATO air campaign helped Libyans end Moammar Gadhafi's regime.
He also warned strongly against any attack on Iran, saying its consequences would be "catastrophic.

[eaglethebeagle]

MOSCOW (AP) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned against military intervention in Syria or an attack on Iran in scathing criticism of the West on Monday as he laid out his foreign policy priorities less than a week before Russia's presidential election.
Putin said the West had backed the Arab Spring to advance its interests in the region, and that instead of promoting democracy the revolts had given rise to religious extremism.
Anti-Western rhetoric has been a key part of Putin's campaign, aimed at rallying support among his core electorate of blue-collar workers, farmers and state employees widely suspicious of the West after years of government propaganda.
In criticizing the Arab Spring and accusing the U.S. of trying to encourage a similar uprising in Russia, Putin on Monday played on patriotic feelings by posturing as a defender of national interests in the face of potential unrest.
His lengthy article, brimming with criticism of the United States and its Western allies, was the latest in a series of manifestos Putin has published in Russian newspapers ahead of Sunday's election. Although none of the other four candidates poses a challenge and Putin is all but certain to win, he has been rattled by an unprecedented outburst of public discontent in Russia.
Putin defended the Russia-China decision earlier this month to veto a United Nations resolution condemning Syrian President Bashar Assad's crackdown on protests, saying that Moscow wouldn't allow a replay of what happened in Libya, where NATO airstrikes helped Libya's rebels oust Moammar Gadhafi's regime.
"Learning from that bitter experience, we are against any U.N. Security Council resolutions that could be interpreted as a signal for military interference in domestic processes in Syria," Putin said in the article published in Moscow News.
He said that any attempt to launch military action without U.N. approval would undermine the world body's role and hurt global security.
"I strongly hope that the United States and other nations will learn from the sad experience and won't try to resort to a forceful scenario in Syria," Putin said. "I can't understand that bellicose itch."
Activists estimate that close to 7,500 people have been killed in the 11 months since the Assad regime's brutal crackdown on dissent began.
Putin said both the Syrian government and opposition forces must pull out of populated areas to end bloodshed, adding that the Western refusal to demand that from Assad's opponents was "cynical."
Syria is Russia's last remaining ally in the Middle East. Moscow has maintained close ties with Damascus since the Cold War, when Syria was led by the current leader's father, Hafez Assad.
Putin said that Russian companies have lost ground in the countries engulfed by the Arab Spring uprisings and are being replaced by firms from the nations that backed the regime change.
"That raises the thought that the tragic events to some extent had been driven not by concern about human rights, but a desire by some to redistribute markets," he said. "We mustn't watch that with an Olympian calm."
Putin also warned against an attack on Iran.
"Russia is worried about the growing threat of a strike on Iran," Putin said. "If it happens, the consequences will be truly catastrophic. Their real scale is impossible to imagine."
He said the international community must acknowledge Iran's right to conduct uranium enrichment in exchange for placing the program under close supervision by the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Iran has insisted that its controversial uranium enrichment program is aimed at producing energy and medical isotopes, but the West believes it's a cover for developing nuclear weapons.
"The West has gotten carried away trying to 'punish' some nations," Putin said. "It reaches out for sanctions or even a military club at the drop of a hat."
He said the Western emphasis on using force could encourage more countries to seek nuclear weapons in a bid to protect themselves: "If I have a nuclear bomb in my pocket, they wouldn't touch me because it would cost them. And those lacking a bomb should wait a 'humanitarian' intervention."
Putin also accused the U.S. of using non-governmental organizations as an instrument of "soft power" aimed at destabilizing regimes.
"It's necessary to draw a clear distinction between the freedom of speech, normal political activities on the one hand, and illegal instruments of soft power on the other," he said, adding that U.S. attempts to interfere in Russian elections have strained ties.
The statement follows Putin's earlier claims that the U.S. was behind the protests against his rule.
In Monday's article, Putin again criticized the U.S.-led plans for a NATO missile defense system in Europe, saying it's aimed against Russian nuclear forces.
"The Americans are obsessed with the idea of ensuring absolute invulnerability for themselves, which is utopian and unfeasible from both technological and geopolitical points of view," he said. "An absolute invulnerability for one means an absolute vulnerability for all the others. It's impossible to accept such a prospect."

[eaglethebeagle]

Russia's security services say they've foiled a plot by Chechen separatists to assassinate Russian leader Vladimir Putin, according to Russian media reports on Monday. The alleged hit job revelation comes a week ahead of Russian presidential elections that Putin is expected to easily win.
Two suspects, reportedly acting under the leadership of Chechen warlord Doku Umar, "were arrested in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odessa after an accidental explosion Jan. 4 while they were trying to manufacture explosives at a rented apartment," the Associated Press reported Monday, citing Russian state television channel One. They were reportedly "preparing to kill Putin in Moscow immediately after Sunday's election."
Russia watchers in Washington said while the timing of the public revelations of the hit plot may be "managed" by the Kremlin, they did not believe it likely that the charges were entirely trumped up to benefit Putin's presidential elections prospects.
"It may be as simple as what takes place in every country in the world: By and large, governments try to manage the timing of information getting out to the public to their advantage," Matthew Rojansky, deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Yahoo News in an interview Monday. "The very benign interpretation is maybe they were waiting for the pieces to fall into place."
The alleged would-be assassins were originally arrested by Ukraine's security forces in the city of Odessa last month. Russian security services then conducted their own investigation, reports said.
Ukraine's security services are unlikely to have ginned up the alleged assassination case in order to boost Putin's presidential aspirations, Rojansky said. "The idea that [Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovich would do an electoral favor for Putin...it's a stretch, I think," he said, adding that Yanukovich's and Putin's relationship has cooled over the past year.
Putin, a former KGB colonel, served as Russian president from 2000-2008. Barred by Russian law from serving a successive third term, he then moved over to be Russian prime minister from 2008-2012. His decision last fall to stand in Russia's presidential elections this March generated rare protests in Russia. And protests started again this past weekend in anticipation of the election. But almost all analysis suggests Putin will easily defeat the other candidates to win a six-year term as Russia's next president.
On Monday, Putin took to the pages of "Russia Today" to sketch out his foreign policy vision, in which he argued against military strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and against international intervention in Syria's domestic strife.

[MadeInRu]

Well, as much as they all talk about it, he still has support of about 66% of Russian population. That's a democracy at its best my friends... :) Sad but true.

[eaglethebeagle]

I guess if you believe state run news then all is well. Why not let him lead for another 20 years like Castro in Cuba or quaddafi in Libya? That is what a democracy is all about reelecting the same man over and over as he seems to never lose an election.

Awesome.:eusa_doh:

[eaglethebeagle]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin is all but certain to return to Russia's presidency with the same swagger, bravado and fighting talk against the West as when he entered the Kremlin 12 years ago.
But the country he will get the chance to lead for another six years after an election on Sunday has changed, and he is on a collision course with Western powers and a newly confident middle class demanding a freer and fairer Russia.
"The way he is conducting the campaign at the moment sends a signal reading 'I am sure of myself, I am the strongest of them all, I control everything, I am the leader, nothing has changed.' But this is not true," said Maria Lipman, a political analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Centre think tank.
A few months ago, the former KGB spy was a safe bet to win two more terms and rule until 2024, keeping him in power almost as long of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
All that changed when he bungled the announcement of his presidential bid on September 24 and allegations of fraud in a parliamentary poll on December 4 soured the mood, triggering the biggest opposition protests since he rose to power.
He may now struggle to see out even one full term.
Writing off the 59-year-old prime minister before he has even returned to the post he held from 2000 until 2008 would be reckless: Putin is a survivor and a pragmatist.
He still tops opinion polls as Russia's most popular politician, controls most media, has strong ties in business and the security forces, and many Russians credit him with overseeing an economic boom and making the country strong again.
Opinion polls suggest Putin will comfortably pass the 50 percent of votes needed for victory without a runoff. Political experts say he will reclaim the presidency regardless of whether the vote is clean and whatever the turnout.
Even foreign diplomats in Moscow see Putin as a safer option than the other candidates - billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, Communist Gennady Zyuganov, nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and former upper house speaker Sergei Mironov.
But one senior Western envoy said: "Six months ago diplomats talked about what Putin will do in 12 years' time. Now they talk about whether he will last for six years."
OUT OF TOUCH
The man once described in U.S. diplomatic cables as Russia's alpha dog looks more out of touch than at any time in his career. Tough-guy antics, such as shooting a tiger with a tranquilizer and horse-riding with a bare torso, are no longer guaranteed to impress voters and are openly mocked by some.
When he said on national television in December that he had mistaken the white ribbons worn by opposition protesters for condoms, a fake picture of him wearing a condom pinned to his chest went viral on the Internet within minutes.
"We will have a weak authoritarian national leader," said opinion pollster Lev Gudkov, describing what he saw as a "crisis of confidence" in the authorities.
When Putin was elected president in 2000, Russians craved a strong leader after the anarchy of Boris Yeltsin's presidency.
Now, he faces ever more frequent protests led by Russia's urban middle class who want to live in a modern country with independent courts and no corruption.
As one source close to the Kremlin put it, Putin has been slow to grasp the seriousness of the situation, certainly slower than his younger ally, Dmitry Medvedev, the iPad-carrying president with whom he is about to swap jobs.
"He is at a fork in the road and this situation is not entirely clear to him," said Igor Mintusov, a political consultant involved in several Russian election campaigns.
"Everything was clear to him at the beginning of the 2000s - to preserve Russia, to raise its ambitions and from this came liberal reforms. Now this clarity does not exist."
MAN OF ACTION
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin's domination of Russia began on December 31, 1999, when Yeltsin quit and asked him, as prime minister since August, to stand in until an election.
Putin quickly headed to Chechnya to visit federal troops he had sent to fight Islamist separatists in the southern region. The message was clear: Putin was a man of action determined to restore Russia's dignity, stability and global standing.
He wanted a clean break with an era marred by Yeltsin's erratic behavior, reports of drinking and ill health, as well as endemic corruption and lawlessness.
Russia had defaulted on its debt in 1998 but after Putin came to power, it recorded nine successive years of growth.
His popularity rose as a surge in the price of oil, Russia's main export, fuelled prosperity. Elected president in March 2000, he won a new term in 2004.
"One hundred years ago the sovereign said that Russia had just two allies, the army and the navy," Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said, referring to Tsar Alexander III.
"But in the time since, Russia has increased its allies, doubled them in fact. Today Russia has four allies: The army, the navy, the military-industrial complex and Vladimir Putin."
Putin reined in Russia's restive regions and clipped the wings of tycoons known as oligarchs who gained political power and huge fortunes after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Marina Kuzmina, 46, spoke for many when she defended Putin at a rally last week attended by tens of thousands.
"I came here for stability, for there not to be any revolutions in the future. Personally, my quality of life has really improved," she said.
NO CHANGE
But when Putin addressed the rally, evoking the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1812 in an appeal to national pride, some of those present said it sounded like he had said it all before and that he, and his vision of Russia, were stuck in the past.
When he took over, Putin vowed to protect freedoms of speech, conscience and the media as "fundamental elements of a civilized society".
Instead, he cracked down on the media and smothered criticism. Murders of investigative journalists have rarely been solved and political opponents were long silenced.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oil tycoon with political ambitions, was arrested in 2003 and then jailed on fraud and tax evasion charges.
The organizers of the anti-Putin rallies attended by tens of thousands of people have lost faith in him ever changing.
"This means the same conflict between him and civil society will continue," said Vladimir Ryzhkov, an opposition leader.
Protests are planned in Moscow the day after the election.
"How much can we take?" asked Sergei Shikov, a 40-year-old driving instructor. "We have so much corruption among state employees, police and even plumbers. Putin and his circle sit at the top of it all ... He and his friends are getting richer."
WARNINGS ON UNREST
Putin has allowed the peaceful protests so far, but has indicated that his patience may be running out. He warned this week that opposition figures may try to stoke unrest, a refrain taken up by supporters to underline that the protesters are a minority of Russia's 143 million population.
"I don't think there are really many people who want to push Russia into catastrophic chaos," said Oscar-winning film director Nikita Mikhalkov.
Putin could also face confrontation with the West after whipping up anti-American hysteria during his election campaign, accusing foreign governments of financing the protests.
Moscow has already locked horns with the West over the bloodshed in Syria and with Washington over U.S. plans to site a missile-defense shield in eastern Europe.
Putin may ease this rhetoric once he is back in the Kremlin, but diplomats say he is unlikely to quickly change policies that he has shaped even as prime minister.
Putin hopes his election will end the uncertainty that has put off foreign investors and led to $84 billion in capital flowing out of the country last year.
But investors are seeking a commitment to reforms such as cutting corruption, privatization, restructuring large state companies and a reduction in dependence on energy exports.
Spending promises by Putin during the campaign could return to haunt him as tax rises may be needed to fill state coffers.
LOSING HIS GRIP?
Until September, Putin's grip on Russia seemed firm.
He had risen quickly after working in the city authorities of his home town, St Petersburg, on his return from service with the KGB in then East Germany after the Berlin Wall fell in 1990.
"He had incredible charm which affected men and women, especially women. He could talk a woman into anything," said Lyudmila Fomicheva, press secretary to Putin's former boss, St Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak.
Putin held a senior Kremlin post from 1996 before being appointed head of the FSB security service and then premier.
His popularity remained high, even when he stepped aside to become premier in 2008 because of constitutional limits and ushered Medvedev into the Kremlin , but his relations with West have long been prickly.
This is perhaps not surprising, given his own remark: "There is no such thing as a former intelligence officer." Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said that when he looked into Putin's eyes, he saw KGB.
But Putin's touch deserted him with the announcement on September 24 that he and Medvedev would swap positions this year.
"There were a lot of nice ways for Putin to return but this arrogant, undemocratic job swap alienated so many people, even their own followers, that his ratings started to fall," said Ilya Ponomaryov, one of the protest organizers.
Putin's standing slid further among urban middle-class voters when allegations of fraud emerged after the December 4 election won by his United Russia party.
Initially Putin sought to mock and insult the protesters who took to the streets. He has since held out an olive branch but has not met the protesters or granted any of their key demands.
HOLDING ON TO POWER
To hold on to power, Putin will need to keep the support of the influential political, security and business elites.
There have been no overt signs that he has been abandoned by any of those constituencies although conflicting signals towards the media - glimpses of a more liberal approach accompanied by a backlash against outlets that criticize him - could point to differences of opinion behind the scenes.
Some political analysts say he will have to make concessions to the protesters - perhaps allowing Medvedev only a short time as prime minister before replacing him with a liberal such as Alexei Kudrin, a former finance minister respected by the West.
Another possible concession would be to call an early parliamentary election. This could pave the way for a parliament that offers real opposition for the first time in years as United Russia recedes or becomes defunct.
If he goes too far, too quickly, Putin risks alienating conservatives happy with the status quo.
"He's going to move very gradually towards a more liberalized society but he has to watch his back because some of his people want a crackdown," said Vladimir Pozner, a veteran television journalist and commentator.
"I am not foreseeing 12 more years of Putin anyway. I am seeing a maximum six, but perhaps not even that."
If that happens, Putin may want to groom a successor to grant him immunity from prosecution, just as he did for Yeltsin in one of the first moves of his acting presidency 12 years ago.
(Additional reporting by Jennifer Rankin and Maria Stromova; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

[eaglethebeagle]

the macho man has done it again and I think you can officially define him as a dictator. communism socialism they are never far from one another.

look at him what a fucking pussy.

[kumas1970]

thanks thanks thanks

[serpa6]

If Putin is reelected then well what can we say. If the country supports him he must be doing something right I know the rumors of a rigged election but that comes with any election. Does anyone ever think that the candidates against him could bring the rise of the old Russia I do not think the people of Russia would like that at all. Our president is what he is but i do not think he is a communist He is what he is A no balls Mofo that sways back and forth with either one that will bed him Ever notice when he tries to pass something, other things are thrown in that have nothing to do with issue at hand. Example: What the fuck does a oil pipeline have to do with employment extensions look at the set if that is not thrown in it will not pass look in your back yard before throwing stones. I myself do not like him whatsoever why no balls to pull the hard line the President is suppose to be for the people What would this country do if we had A Teddy Roosevelt clone in office and if i don't have the example right its just a metaphor Think about it

[eaglethebeagle]

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO's top official plans to meet with Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin to discuss ties that have deteriorated over the alliance's plan to deploy a missile shield.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Putin agreed during a telephone conversation on the need for good and stable ties, the alliance said Thursday.
"It was a constructive conversation," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said. "Both (participants) stressed that they're determined to continue cooperation and to meet bilaterally in the not-too-distant future."
The Western military alliance says its planned missile defense program is aimed at potential threats from nations that have, or are acquiring, missile technology. But analysts believe the shield is meant to protect Europe from Iran's medium-range missiles.
Still, Russia has objected to the program, fearing it will eventually grow powerful enough to intercept Russian missiles, thus undermining its nuclear deterrent.
It was not immediately clear whether the meeting will occur before the NATO summit in Chicago in May. The Russian president would normally attend such a meeting of NATO heads of state, but the unresolved dispute over missile defense has thrown that into doubt.
Despite those differences, the two sides have cooperated closely in Afghanistan, where Russia provides one of the main transit routes for supplies to coalition forces in the landlocked nation and trains Afghan counter-narcotics officials. The importance of the overland link from Europe has grown significantly since Pakistan partially blocked NATO supplies from crossing its territory following an alliance airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani border troops in November.
Their navies also have worked together in suppressing piracy off the Somali coastline, and there has been growing cooperation in other areas such preventing terrorist attacks.
The NATO statement said Fogh Rasmussen telephoned Putin on Thursday morning to congratulate him on his return to office and said that he looks forward "to continued engagement and constructive dialogue."
Fogh Rasmussen "emphasized NATO's commitment, and his own personal commitment, to working with the president-elect to establish a true strategic partnership between NATO and Russia, as agreed at the Lisbon summit in 2010," it said.
The NATO chief expressed hope that it would be possible to move forward on cooperation on missile defense, and that such cooperation would benefit both sides.
___
Slobodan Lekic can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/slekich

[eaglethebeagle]

MOSCOW - When riot police forcibly dispersed a crowd that lingered after an anti-Putin protest in central Moscow a day after Russia's presidential election in March, many in the crowd sensed an ominous change in the air.
By the time protestors clashed with riot police May 6, the eve ofPresident Vladimir Putin's inauguration, there was little doubt in most people's minds: Putin's patience with the opposition was over.
The next day, as Putin's motorcade drove through Moscow's deserted streets on the way to an opulent swearing in ceremony in the Kremlin, police raided cafes popular with opposition leaders and detained anyone wearing the opposition's iconic white ribbons. For the next week, police harassed roving groups of protestors who were guilty of little more than gathering without signs in a public square.
The incidents marked a dark shift in the Russian government's approach to the unprecedented wave of protests that have called on Putin to go since December.
Although Putin mocked the protest movement at first, accusing them of being U.S. agents and comparing the white ribbons to condoms, police did not intervene and city authorities granted them permits.
Since Putin's inauguration, however, the Kremlin has pushed through several pieces of legislation and orchestrated an apparent attempt to systematically restrict and intimidate the opposition.
"The government has switched to a repressive mode," Masha Lipman, an analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center, said in an interview. "Punishment for a few, I think, is aimed at intimidating others."
For his part, Putin has said he respects the right of the people to protest, but again mocked their efforts. The white ribbons, he said, were yesterday's protest tactic.
"I am not saying anything against people, who use such symbols. But it hurts my feelings to see people using foreign-developed technologies," he told a youth forum Tuesday.
Lipman says any hope that Putin would pursue reform after last winter's protests was overly optimistic. "Putin's way of governing hasn't changed. But only now he is facing challenges he didn't face before and he wants to remove the challenge," she said.
That effort has only increased in recent weeks.
Several pieces of legislation were rushed through the legislature and signed into law by Putin. Several more are pending. The new laws, which are ostensibly to protect stability and decency, include restrictions on public gatherings, a drastic increase in the fines and penalties for organizing or joining unsanctioned protests and the creation of an Internet blacklist that critics warn could lead to censorship. Others are the re-criminalization of libel, a requirement that foreign-funded NGOs and perhaps soon even media might have to publicly declare themselves "foreign agents" (a term tinged with hints of espionage), and efforts to control the waves of volunteers who rushed to help flood victims in southern Russia.
Police have also raided the homes of several prominent opposition leaders, ostensibly to investigate violence during the May 6 rally, and have detained several dozen others accused of attacking police during the skirmish. Many leaders say they are being followed everywhere they go.
Among those raided and harassed were anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny and television personality Ksenia Sobchak.
Authorities charged Navalny with embezzlement this week in a case that had been dismissed for lack of evidence years ago. He faces up to 10 years in prison. Sobchak, a prominent socialite whose father was Putin's mentor when he was the mayor of St. Petersburg, has been booted from her television shows as her activism has increased.
In another case that is being viewed as a canary in the coal mine for how the Kremlin will deal with the opposition, the trial of an all-female punk rock group began Monday. The group called Pussy Riot is being tried on charges of hooliganism after they performed an anti-Putin anthem on the altar of Moscow's largest cathedral in February.
Their song asked for divine intervention to remove Putin from power. Several prominent Western musicians have spoken out against their detention and Amnesty International has called them "prisoners of conscience." They face up to seven years in prison.
One of the band members Tuesday said they are being made an example for others who might attempt to defy the Kremlin.
"I am taking it as the start of a repressive authoritarian campaign which aims to hamper the public's political activity and build a sense of fear among political activists," Ekaterina Samutsevich said in a statement to the court.
Also Read (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/08/putin-rolls-back-freedoms-ups-efforts-to-intimidate-opposition/)


http://news.yahoo.com/putin-rolls-back-freedoms-ups-efforts-intimidate-opposition-135553753--abc-news-topstories.html

[Stark]

lot of text there brotha