Daily Archives: 31 January 2012

Doll ‘protesters’ present small problem for Russian police

Russian Doll Protesters

open quoteRussian police don’t take kindly to opposition protesters – even if they’re 5cm high and made of plastic.

Police in the Siberian city of Barnaul have asked prosecutors to investigate the legality of a recent protest that saw dozens of small dolls – teddy bears, Lego men, South Park figurines – arranged to mimic a protest, complete with signs reading: “I’m for clean elections” and “A thief should sit in jail, not in the Kremlin”.

“Political opposition forces are using new technologies to carry out public events – using toys with placards at mini-protests,” Andrei Mulintsev, the city’s deputy police chief, said at a press conference this week, according to local media. “In our opinion, this is still an unsanctioned public event.”close quote (Read more)

Russian paratroopers make Anti-Putin rock song

open quoteA video of a musical group of alleged former Russian paratroopers performing a song that is sharply critical of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has quickly become a YouTube sensation, The New York Times reports.

By Friday evening, the band had performed the song on a private television channel, TV Dozhd (Russian for ‘TV Rain’). At the time of writing, the YouTube video had more than half a million hits.

Sporting tattoes, berets, and military decorations, the two singers and three back-up musicians leave no stone unturned in letting Putin know exactly what they think of him: a “tyrant” who has “destroyed the military”, AFP reports.

Posted under the title “Putin and Paratroopers,” the song pits the Prime Minister — who claimed in December that he thought the white ribbon (the protest movement’s symbol) was a protest against HIV — against the common man.

Here’s some lyrics, translated by the NYT:

You’re no different from me.
A man and not God.
I’m no different from you.
A man, not some hick.

We won’t let you keep lying, we won’t let you keep stealing
We’re liberated troops who defended the motherland

Ribbons of freedom are positive for all, but for you…
there nothing – just condoms.

On Dozhd, the men said they had received messages of support from all over the country, and had already attended the mass rallies in Moscow last month.close quote (Read more)