Russian Protestors

From Deutsche Welle:
"Tens of thousands demonstrate against Russia's Putin"

For the first time since Putin rose to power, tens of thousands of Russians are protesting his immense power. Demonstrators braved freezing temperatures to voice their discontent with last weekend's elections. Tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets Saturday to protest last weekend's alleged election fraud and demand an end to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's hold on power. In parliamentary elections last Sunday, Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev's United Russia party won an absolute majority that the opposition claims was exaggerated by ballot stuffing and other manipulation. Police estimated that around 25,000 protesters gathered in Bolotnaya Square, a large open space across the Moscow River from the Kremlin. Organizers and anti-Kremlin lawmakers claimed the number of protesters stood between 50,000 and 80,000, making it the largest protest day the country has seen since Putin came to power in 2000. Additional rallies took place in more than 50 other cities across Russia with at least 7,000 people taking to the streets in Russia's second city St. Petersburg. Organizers also reported 5,000 protesters in the industrial town of Chelyabinsk and up to 4,000 in nearby Yekaterinburg.

^ This is pretty interesting to watch. It is like what happened in 1991 and 1993 (which I was too young to remember.) I have seen small demonstrations - old Communists - but nothing to this scale. For twenty years Russia seems to have been existing rather than living and now ordinary Russians seem to want a change. I don't know if change will happen because of these protests, but hopefully some good will. ^

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15592859,00.html