NYT: Critics of Putin Gather (Kremlin security arrests participants)

[DeepModem Mom]

Critics of Putin Gather
By C. J. CHIVERS
Published: July 12, 2006


(Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)
Advocates of democracy and human rights in Russia turned out for a conference in Moscow, but so did the Kremlin's security officers.

MOSCOW, July 11 — The Russian security officers, in plain clothes, arrived in the late afternoon at a hotel where a pro-democracy conference was being held, witnesses said.

They swiftly seized four members of a political movement opposed to President Vladimir V. Putin, handcuffed them and rushed them away. Then they turned on a German magazine correspondent who tried to photograph the arrests. One of the officers snatched his camera and left with it, too.

Hundreds of advocates of civil society and opposition figures opened a two-day conference here on Tuesday, protesting the authoritarian streak that they say defines Mr. Putin’s Kremlin and its hold on the Russian state....They said their ideals — including free elections, respect for opposing views and human rights and fair distribution of public wealth — were a counterpoint to Russia’s recent political course....They spoke of Russia’s police abuses, manifest corruption, arbitrariness of law, restrictions on the news media, crackdown on private organizations and centralization of wealth and power around the Kremlin and its loyal elite. They decried the chilling brutality that has accompanied the wars in Chechnya....

***

Participants said more than 40 of their members had been arrested throughout Russia while traveling to the conference here or to St. Petersburg for the Group of 8 meeting. Security officers snatched the four opposition members from the entrance of the Renaissance Moscow Hotel....The protests and the police actions were ignored by Russian news programs, which are securely under the Kremlin’s sway....

***

....when the conference began, senior officials from Western governments were present. One, the British ambassador, Anthony Brenton, even took the stage. He said that “criticism is as important as a competitive economy” to a functioning society, and noted that Britain remained involved in the development of Russian civil society and private nongovernmental organizations, or N.G.O.’s....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/world/europe/12russia.html?hp&ex=1152676800&en=e1733a96d7134dff&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[MisterP]

1. what, Dub's going after Russia now?

[chill_wind]

2. Can't help notice a certain familiar feeling pattern close to home

"....They spoke of Russia’s police abuses, manifest corruption, arbitrariness of law, restrictions on the news media, crackdown on private organizations and centralization of wealth and power around the Kremlin and its loyal elite. They decried the chilling brutality that has accompanied the wars in Chechnya...."

[seasat]

3. I guess this is what Duhbya meant when he said about Putin...

"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialog. I was able to get a sense of his soul. "

Kindred spirits?

[Ghost Dog]

4. Indymedia G8 coverage (hard to do) here:

http://int.ruimc.mutualaid.org/

(Volounteer Russian-English, Russian-German etc. translators called for).