Anti-Putin demonstration success. Future of "Tsar Vlad" like Gaddafi
by Nina Achmatova
At least 100 thousand march in Moscow for honest elections and democratic reforms. Victory of Prime Minister in the first round of presidential elections increasingly unlikely. Analysts: Putin might be "buried" within the first two years of new mandate.
Moscow (AsiaNews) - More than 100,000 demonstrators defeated the icy cold and distrust of the Kremlin to gather February 4 for the fourth largest anti-government demonstration in the last two months in Moscow.
Despite the -17 °, thousands in the capital, St. Petersburg, the Far East, marched against a looming third term by President Vladimir Putin, favoured candidate in the elections of March 4, for democratic reforms, freedom for political prisoners and an end to fraudulent elections last December, won by the ruling party United Russia.
Beyond the war of numbers - between 120 thousand participants declared by the organizers and just 40 thousand counted by the Ministry of the Interior - it was a success for the newborn and diverse opposition movement, which mounted in the wake of the popular indignation at the return of "Tsar Vlad" to the Kremlin and then exploded after allegations of vote rigging. The meeting of February 4 was seen by analysts as a test to prove the strength of this new opposition, after the big protests in December in Moscow, the largest protests in nearly 15 years in Russia.
Students, families, intellectuals, bloggers, human rights activists, liberal politicians, nationalists and communists again gathered "in defense of Russia's future," as explained from the stage in Balotnahja Square by Victor Yavlinski, leader of the Yabloko party, who has been excluded from the presidential race. The main target of the parade, which took place without police intervention, was again Putin: many caricatures inspired by the Prime Minister, signs like "Down with the cold, down with Putin" calls for an Arab spring on Slavic soil with "Mubarak, Gaddafi, Putin" and voices shouting slogans such as "Putin resign", "Putin shame."
The movement "for honest elections," he promised to return to the streets on February 26, the weekend before the presidential election, the result of which now appears less obvious. Analysts see the looming possibility of a second round, in which Putin will easily beat the Communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov, while demonstrations swell with the arrival of the warmer spring temperatures.
Analysts like economist Alfred Koch, former deputy premier to Boris Yeltsin, warned that Putin as president will still be weakened and this will pave the way for a conflict within the elite in power. His approval ratings has already fallen and once in the Kremlin - Koch points out on his Facebook page – he will have to enact needed and unpopular reforms such as pension reform, which further alienated him from his electorate. According to the economist, within the next two years, two scenarios could predominate: one is that the resignation of Putin, "Gorbachev-style" (perhaps caused by a wing of the Russian leadership that is already distancing himself from the Prime Minister, such as the 'Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and reformer Anatoly Chubais), the other is violent a fate similar to Gaddafi, "pulled down by the crowd." Koch, like others from both the opposition and those in power, admits to believing in the first.
Despite the -17 °, thousands in the capital, St. Petersburg, the Far East, marched against a looming third term by President Vladimir Putin, favoured candidate in the elections of March 4, for democratic reforms, freedom for political prisoners and an end to fraudulent elections last December, won by the ruling party United Russia.
Beyond the war of numbers - between 120 thousand participants declared by the organizers and just 40 thousand counted by the Ministry of the Interior - it was a success for the newborn and diverse opposition movement, which mounted in the wake of the popular indignation at the return of "Tsar Vlad" to the Kremlin and then exploded after allegations of vote rigging. The meeting of February 4 was seen by analysts as a test to prove the strength of this new opposition, after the big protests in December in Moscow, the largest protests in nearly 15 years in Russia.
Students, families, intellectuals, bloggers, human rights activists, liberal politicians, nationalists and communists again gathered "in defense of Russia's future," as explained from the stage in Balotnahja Square by Victor Yavlinski, leader of the Yabloko party, who has been excluded from the presidential race. The main target of the parade, which took place without police intervention, was again Putin: many caricatures inspired by the Prime Minister, signs like "Down with the cold, down with Putin" calls for an Arab spring on Slavic soil with "Mubarak, Gaddafi, Putin" and voices shouting slogans such as "Putin resign", "Putin shame."
The movement "for honest elections," he promised to return to the streets on February 26, the weekend before the presidential election, the result of which now appears less obvious. Analysts see the looming possibility of a second round, in which Putin will easily beat the Communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov, while demonstrations swell with the arrival of the warmer spring temperatures.
Analysts like economist Alfred Koch, former deputy premier to Boris Yeltsin, warned that Putin as president will still be weakened and this will pave the way for a conflict within the elite in power. His approval ratings has already fallen and once in the Kremlin - Koch points out on his Facebook page – he will have to enact needed and unpopular reforms such as pension reform, which further alienated him from his electorate. According to the economist, within the next two years, two scenarios could predominate: one is that the resignation of Putin, "Gorbachev-style" (perhaps caused by a wing of the Russian leadership that is already distancing himself from the Prime Minister, such as the 'Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and reformer Anatoly Chubais), the other is violent a fate similar to Gaddafi, "pulled down by the crowd." Koch, like others from both the opposition and those in power, admits to believing in the first.
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