On April 13, some 10,000 people turned out in Moscow for an anti-Kremlin rally to denounce Russian state television's coverage of the Ukraine crisis—which portrays the new government in Kiev as a "fascist junta" under the control of the US. Some of those who took part in the "March of Truth" carried blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags. One woman, wearing a traditional Ukrainian wreath of flowers on her head, held a sign with President Vladimir Putin's picture and the words: "Stop lying." Among those who spoke to the crowd was Andrei Zubov, a history professor who was fired from the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations last month after criticizing Russia's military intervention in the Crimea, comparing it with Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria on the eve of World War II. Zubov told the crowd that by lying to the Russian people on television, the government is leading the country toward "an abyss." (AP, April 13; Global Voices Online, March 27; Reuters, March 24)
Moscow has seen repeated anti-war protests since the Ukraine crisis began.
Russian cops crack down on protesters
Moscow police detained (and later released without charge) 25 participants at a seminar on Ukrainian-style political protests, in what Moscow Times calls "a sign that authorities are looking to sniff out early signs of internal dissent in Russia." The Dec. 2 seminar was titled "Maidan: Organizing the Space of Freedom." Putin's apologists will no doubt be weighing in shortly to inform us that the affair was tainted with money from George Soros or the NED or somesuch. But there is plenty of reason to expect a renewed protest campaign against Putin, his supposedly high ratings notwithstanding. At least 5,000 Russians marched through Moscow on Nov. 30 to protest plans to lay off thousands of doctors and close hospitals in the capital as the economy tanks due to sanctions and low oil prices. (AP)
5,000 imperialist dupes? Really?