Rare Russian opposition rally says Putin is Stalin

Rare Russian opposition rally says Putin is Stalin

www.reuters.com

"Putin is Stalin! Putin is Brezhnev! Russia without Putin," chanted the crowd, including former chess master Garry Kasparov, one of the Kremlin's harshest critics who co-heads the democratic, pro-western Solidarity movement.

The opposition says Putin has stifled media freedom and democratic rights when he was president between 2000 and 2008. They also accuse him of blind economic policies similar to the years of stagnation under Brezhnev.

He said some 40,000 people have signed his petition asking for the resignation of Putin, who continues to dominate Russian politics after handpickin

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"Russia's Communist Party, the country's second biggest party, cherish May 1 -- known as International Workers Day in the Soviet era -- and some 3,000 marched on Saturday holding bright red banners and hoisting large portraits of Stalin.

Youths and pensioners sang songs praising Stalin and Cuban revolutionary hero Che Guevara in what state television said was the largest Communist rally in Moscow in 10 years.

"People of labor have no other weapons but to come out together to force the authorities to listen to their demands," Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov told Reuters.

"And those demands are pretty simple. We need jobs, we need real modernization and not talk. We need the fight against corruption and bandits.""



This article also shows a second side.

I do not know much about Russia, but I thought I would post this to just inform everyone.

www.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 1-5-2010 by Phlynx]

I am a supporter of putin, but i know whats it is like to live in a labour run uk, where bandits as they say are destroying innocent lifes of people just wanting to live.

As long as they are peaceful i see nothing wrong with this. They have a right to march.

Originally posted by andy1033
I am a supporter of putin, but i know whats it is like to live in a labour run uk, where bandits as they say are destroying innocent lifes of people just wanting to live.

As long as they are peaceful i see nothing wrong with this. They have a right to march.

Are you from Russia?

Originally posted by andy1033
I am a supporter of putin,

Are you Russian!? Tell the thousands of Russian's who can barely afford a loaf of bread because of rampant inflation and poor wages and lacks of jobs that you like Putin and they'll probably tell you to get lost.

but i know whats it is like to live in a labour run uk, where bandits as they say are destroying innocent lifes of people just wanting to live.

I've read some junk about labour in the newspapers recently, but this one is even more ridiculous. I see you're obviously someone who cannot think for yourself and can only repeat newspaper propaganda, and then only apply it to a different news story that has no relevance.

Unfortunately a great number of Brits have lost their brains and therefore their memories (or parents memories) of the tory run 80's, and they'll be the first one's crying out when the tories increase VAT to 20% shortly after the election if they win.

Jumping in front of a train is also a "change". Perhaps when people say it's time for "change", they should consider the actual consequences beforehand.

As long as they are peaceful i see nothing wrong with this. They have a right to march.

I'm sure the Kremlin will love Putin being compared to Stalin because they've tried to cover up his barbaric history, and they see Stalin as a true Soviet hero.

[edit on 1-5-2010 by john124]

Originally posted by john124
Tell the thousands of Russian's who can barely afford a loaf of bread because of rampant inflation and poor wages and lacks of jobs that you like Putin and they'll probably tell you to get lost.

Thousands? And US, UK, France, etc. do not have thousands of people living below the poverty line and struggling to afford basic necessities?

The inflation is not rampant, and hasn't been for a decade.

And the for the majority the wages are fairly decent, and are steadily going up. The unemployement rate is also not worse than many European countries and the US. Russia is not an empoverished country that you make it out to be. I guess you have never been there to be proven otherwise.

Putin does have credible opposition, but the majority are still content with him. There is simply no better or safer alternative right now in Russian politics. The "opposition" who stage these protests are hardly credible - mostly made up of Communists and neo-fascist nationalists.

Originally posted by john124
I'm sure the Kremlin will love Putin being compared to Stalin because they've tried to cover up his barbaric history, and they see Stalin as a true Soviet hero.

How has the current government tried to cover up Stalin's crimes? And he is in no way portrayed as a hero.

On the contrary both Putin and Medvedev both made speeches in the last few months against Russians' glorifying of Stalin. He is recognized as part of Russia's difficult history, and a crucial player in WWII, but no one in government sees him as a hero.

All of the Stalinist and other Soviet crimes have been revealed publicly as soon as USSR fell apart. All of the secret archives have been made available to the public. During Putin's administration there were monuments and memorials put up all over Russia dedicated to the victims of Stalinism.

reply to post by maloy

Thousands? And US, UK, France, etc. do not have thousands of people living below the poverty line and struggling to afford basic necessities?

Sure, but we aren't as poor in western Europe (yet) like Russian's who were already much poorer in the far east, and so the recession hit them much worse.

The inflation is not rampant, and hasn't been for a decade.

news.bbc.co.uk...

unemployment is rising rapidly, as are the prices of basic food and utilities.

OK if not inflation, then why are food prices increasing rapidly that led to several fairly large demonstrations over the past year or so.