Quote:
Originally Posted by CCIP
Oh absolutely. I'm following this just the same, I was just sort of hoping that people were already aware of these rallies and their suppression.
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At least our media covers them fairly well, even moment by moment. The way they described the latest rallies in St. Petersburg, it went something like this:
Opposition: "Hi, we'd like to demonstrate peacefully."
Police: "Well we won't give you a permission."
Opposition: "OK, uh, we're going to demonstrate anyway because it's, like, our right and stuff."
Police: "Sure, go ahead. We love illegal demonstrations."
Some people here have said along the lines: "Millions of people and a few thousand people demonstrate, so what?", but a long time reporter with lots of experience from Russia commented that if there is going to be a change, it's going to be either in Moscow or in Saint Petersburg. If I recall correctly, he even compared it to the 1917 indirectly and said that "a few thousand" people are enough if the time is right. He didn't believe in the chance for a democratic change. I don't know, sounded little romantic to me, except maybe for the first part. What do you think, CCIP?
Complete offtopic: sometimes the local way of reporting news from Russia makes me laugh. Around last Christmas I remember a reporter in radio giving the listeners vital information about the demonstrations back then: "There are lots of people here. From the atmosphere it would seem they are displeased with prime minister Putin."
Even more offtopic: every time I think I speak Russian, I'm humbled when I try to listen to the news. Do they have a competition of who speaks the fastest (that link wasn't even nearly the worst I've heard), or what's with the machinegun tempo that doesn't seem to come up anywhere else?