President Vladimir V. Putin said Thursday that he would sign into law a ban on adoptions of Russian children by American citizens, retaliating against an American law that punishes Russians accused of violating human rights and dealing a potentially grave setback to bilateral relations.
Mr. Putin announced his decision at a meeting with senior government officials on Friday, including cabinet members and legislative leaders. The adoption ban, included in a broader law aimed at retaliating against the United States, was approved unanimously by the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Parliament on Wednesday.
Seriously, though, the U.S. is not happy about this, finding it awful that Russia is putting orphaned children in the middle of a political battle. But the truth of the matter is, there are dozens of families out there which just had their hopes dashed over a transparently political move. Lame.
Rebel female punk band says 2 members flee Russia
Two members of Russia’s anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot have fled the country to avoid prosecution for staging a protest against President Vladimir Putin at a church altar, the band says. Read more from Reuters.
Photo: Members of the female punk band Pussy Riot, from right, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina sit in a glass-walled cage after a court hearing in Moscow on August 17, 2012. (Maxim Shemetov / Reuters)
This is not good. :/ Freedom of speech, lost.
More headaches in Syria: According to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russia is sending attack helicopters to the Syrian government. If this is true, it will undoubtedly set back international efforts to resolve the conflict. Russia, along with China, is Syria’s strongest international ally, and continues to block Western countries’ efforts to take harsher action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. If the US’s intelligence is correct, not only is Russia not taking a harder line against Assad; it’s actually sending him more weapons. Oy vey. (Picture credit: Sergei Zhukov/AFP/Getty). source
Russian protests draw tens of thousands: A day after anti-Putin opposition leaders complained of police searches, protesters took to the streets of Moscow to protest on Russia Day, in honor of the day, 22 years ago, when leaders chose to make Russian laws take precedence over Soviet Union laws. Many of those targeted Monday by police couldn’t take part, but at least one, leftist party leader Sergei Udaltsov, shunned his police summons to join the protests. (Photo: Protesters carry the Russian Imperial flag through the streets of Moscow. Mikhail Metzel/AP)
They rifled through everything, every wardrobe, in the toilet, in the refrigerator. They searched under the beds. Were they looking for our secrets?Russian Left Front party leader Sergei Udaltsov • Discussing the searches that Russian police did on both his home, and those of other opposition figures, on Monday morning. Political foes of Vladimir Putin, who protested heavily ahead of his election as president, are now finding themselves the subject of major crackdowns. Putin recently signed a law increasing fines for public street demonstrations, among other things. ”What we are witnessing today is in essence the year 1937,” said activist Yevgenia Chirikova. “It is an absolutely clear scenario in which the authorities scare the people.”
» But Putin’s shrugging it off: Despite allegations suggesting that Putin benefitted from a corrupt electoral process, Putin’s shrugging it off as a part of the political process. “Of course there were irregularities,” he allegedly told an audience of lawyers. “They must all be weeded out and explained so that everybody understands everything.” Regarding the dispersal of protests, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs turned the West’s own protests back on them, saying the dispersal was ”many times more humane than what we saw with the dispersal of ‘Occupy Wall Street’ and the tent camps in Europe.”
The point of elections is that the outcome should be uncertain. This was not the case in Russia. There was no real competition and abuse of government resources ensured that the ultimate winner of the election was never in doubt.Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe coordinator Tonino Picula • Discussing the results of the Russian presidential election, which strongly favored Vladimir Putin. Picula suggests that the election was “clearly skewed” in Putin’s favor. With 99 percent of the votes counted, Putin gathered more than 64 percent of the vote — this despite passionate, widespread dissent against the Russian leader. Another voting watchdog, Golos, said it had received 3,000 voting fraud reports. What do you think? Does it looks like the election was rigged?
“Oh, you expect to beat me? I’ll crush your votes with my clenched fist!”: So, yeah, Vladimir Putin’s expected to coast to an easy victory today in Russian elections, but not without controversy, with opposition figures upset that their demands that the December parliamentary elections be nullified basically ignored. “It has evolved from ‘We demand a rerun’ to ‘Go to hell,’ ” said Ilya Ponomarev, a prominent protest figure. (photo by Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images)
Creepy Russian political ad of the day: Wherein a scared virgin is relieved to learn from a fortune teller that she’ll lose it, as they say, to former KGB agent and Russian Prime Minsiter Vladimir Putin, who’s running for president this year. Putin already served two terms as Russian president from 2000-2008; he couldn’t run again in 2008 due to term limit laws, so he chilled as Prime Minister for four years while Dmitry Medvedev warmed the seat, and now he’s seeking his old office again. If elected, he could conceivably serve until 2024. Anyway, it’s noteworthy that an ad like this flies in Russia; a similar commercial by, say, Mitt Romney’s campaign in the US probably wouldn’t cut it (imagine Rick Santorum’s response) It’s also noteworthy that there are two more ads with the same pro-“lose your virginity to Vlad Putin” message on the guy’s website. source
To complement the last post, here’s the scale of the protests shown in photographic form. The main one is from USA Today, though uncredited. The other three are from AP. Compare those with this photo. Don’t get us wrong. This is in fact a big deal for Russia, which for the first time in years is rising up against Vladimir Putin. But let’s get the scale right first.
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Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
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This is Moscow, Russia on February 4th, 2012. That date is today.
These are the people protesting the clearly rigged election, resulting in the victory of Vladimir Putin.
This is one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. Can’t wait to see it here
They faced temperatures well below freezing and massed anyway.
Not even the elements will chill humanity’s hearth.
Fact Check: This photo is from 1991. It appears in this Atlantic photo blog entry published in December 2011. (h/t @m_trevithick)
We’d like to pull a quote from thefascistscrapbook’s Tumblr: “To all who have addressed issues about inaccuracy, it appears that similar photos have been taken today. There are mass protests going on as we speak in Moscow with incredible numbers, while this may or may not be from 1991, I insist you check out the shots from today. Sorry for any possible confusion (:”
So, essentially, this guy is saying that he’s leaving it up because there might be a photo like this today. Let’s test that theory. Here’s a photo from the protests today. Big crowd. Not that big. Also, the elections are happening in March. They’re protesting an election yet to happen.
Ever see a photo on the Internet that’s too good to be true? If it’s not sourced, don’t buy it. Simple as that.
The problem is they lack a consolidated program, as well as clear and comprensible ways of achieving their goals, which aren’t clear either. They also lack people who are capable of doing something concrete.Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin • Dismissing his opponents as disorganized and leaderless in comments made days after large-scale Christmas weekend protests in Moscow. Putin, who is running for president in March (after skipping a term due to term limits), says those elections should be transparent and fair, but outright dismissed protester desires for a recount in the Russian parliamentary elections earlier this month. “As a candidate, I don’t need any vote-rigging,” he said. “I want the election to be maximally transparent. I want to rely on people’s will, on people’s trust, and it makes no sense to work if it’s missing.” source (via • follow)
More political figures getting booed at sporting events: You don’t have this market cornered, Jill Biden and Michelle Obama. Getting booed at a NASCAR event? Try getting booed at an MMA event, like Vladimir Putin.
In short, Russia’s foreign minister feels that NATO violated its mandate in attacking Gaddafi’s convoy from the air as he escaped. It also contends that the rebels violated the Geneva convention by killing Gaddafi as they did.
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