A Russian Lady Liberty says “NYET” to Putin

Some people accuse us of hating Russians, but in fact all the people we most idolize are Russians.  We simply hate those who try to destroy those Russians, and the Russians who try to do are the most reprehensible of the lot. 

On May 31, 2009, the Oborona opposition organization led by Oleg Kozlovsky carried out a protest march on Tverskaya Street in Moscow.  The march was a response to Moscow City Hall’s illegal refusal to certify a rally at the city’s Triumphal Square in response to a legal application for permission to do so by the Other Russia coalition led by Garry Kasparov, of which Oborona is a part.

Oborona activists lit flares and unfurled banners calling for Putin to resign; they sought to block traffic on Tverskaya just as unpaid workers recently did in Pikalyovo outside of St. Petersburg.  They were immediately attacked by OMON storm troopers and 30 members were arrested, including Kozlovsky himself. 

After the jump, view photographs of the Oborona activists, including a young woman of rare beauty, being manhandled by the OMON thugs. We ask you:  Who are the patriots, and who the traitors to Russia?

Another Original LR Translation: Spying on Kozlovsky

Translator’s Note: What I find most interesting about this story of dirty little infiltrations and attempts at dirty little tricks against the opposition is how pathetically inept, empty and ignorant the Kremlin’s little hirelings are. Being somewhat older myself, I have not had much contact with young Russians who grew up entirely after the collapse of Communism and the USSR. Looking at the vacuousness and sloppiness of the thinking (if there is any thinking done at all) here and the total deficit of any morals whatsoever, it is clear that the education system collapsed as well. Aren’t these vacuous little hirelings neat miniatures of the supreme Lilliput (in Michael Saakashvili’s wonderful allusion)?

Petersburg Branch of Oborona Uncovers Nashi Spies

Oborona St. Petersburg

Translated from the Russian by Dave Essel

The Petersburg Branch of Oborona has uncovered a number of paid infiltrators working to the order of a secret project called Runners of the President. This project was set up by the pro-Kremlin Nashi movement and has been operating for the last 18 months. Its particular purpose was to collect information on opposition groups and to set them up for provocations during demos. The infiltrators engaged in the latter activity have unfortunately not yet been uncovered. We know that spies of this kind have been infiltrated into other organisations in Petersburg and other towns around Russia.

The paid informers infiltrated into the Petersburg Branch of Oborona, who received about 20000 roubles a month (~$550), were Vladimir Bynkin, who joined Oborona in July 2008 and became a member of the St. Petersburg Branch coordination committee, and Taras Filatov, an activist recruited by Bynkin in December. We also discovered that prior to these people joining, Darya Odintsova, who earlier left the Runners of the President project and ceased being active in Oborona, had also been a paid infiltrator. The three have now been officially expelled from Oborona at a General Meeting of the organisation.

Dossier Details:

EDITORIAL: Kozlovsky’s Army Under Siege

EDITORIAL

Kozlovsky’s Army Under Siege

“I was furious when I heard Putin speaking fairy tales in Davos about how our economy is under control. It is my duty to stand up for my rights. I want to live in a good place. I want my children to grow up in a free country, not a gulag.”

— Yevgeny Antipov, a 21-year-old student in Vladivostok last weekend, insisting that he was not afraid to be marching against the government for the first time.

A Putin supporter makes the only argument he can in favor of his Master. The young lady is probably not convinced. Are you?

Does U.S. President Barack Obama ever intend to speak out on the oppression of basic democratic and liberal values in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, values he supposedly holds dear? Or are Obama’s pretty words just that, and nothing more?

Oleg Kozlovsky and his opposition organization Oborona (“Defense”) continue to face outrageous harassment from the barbaric band of thugs who run the Moscow Kremlin.  Obama continues his repugnant, cowardly silence.  We fear that those who told us to trust that Obama would act once he took power were seriously misled.

The Kremlin’s Jackboots, Marching

It started out like this: A young woman holds a sign which says that a march against the military draft should have occurred on that spot on that day

Oborona reports (staff translation, corrections welcome):

On October 12th in St. Petersburg’s Victory Park Oborona activists Maria Govorova and Daria Kostromina were arrested for standing with signs protesting the cancellation of a protest march against the military draft.

Oborona on the Market Crash: Putin must Go!

An editorial (staff translation, corrections welcome) from Oleg Kozlovsky’s Oborona opposition group on the Russian stock market collapse:

A financial crisis has exploded upon Russia and the world, the Broke out in Russia and the world financial crisis, the predictable result efforts by governments to fund growth through the excessive use of credit.

However, it would be wrong to place all the blame for the collapse of the Russian stock markets on global trends. Vladimir Putin and his ministers for many years have tried to convince us that the Russian economy is reliably protected from such crises. They have bragged about their  budget surplus, near absence of public debit, their large stabilization fund and their secured ruble reserves. Even on October 6th, when the stock market shook the country at its foundations, state television continued to reassure citizens that our economy is significantly more robust than any other major nation.

Yet, it is our stock market that has fallen faster, and further, than any such country amidst this crisis.