Russia

If you've been following the news, you've probably seen coverage on the protests in Russia against Putin's regime. As if we needed to see any more of this on the news, right?

Wrong.

One of my areas of interest inside political science (my major) is international relations as well as international peace and conflict resolution, particularly throughout Europe. So, when Borders was going out of business, I went over to the nonfiction section and picked up as many books as I could on my areas of interest (this is coming to a point, I promise) and I picked up one with an interesting title: 12 Who Don't Agree: The battle for freedom in Putin's Russia. I hadn't really heard anything about Russia outside of a jesus cult I used to belong to-- so obviously I didn't credit them as trustworthy. So, I brought it to the beach for a bit of light reading. ...I felt the need to throw in a Harry Potter reference.

The book details 12 different people who are trying to raise the public's awareness of Putin's domineering administration and attempting to protest against his regime. Several times while reading the book I felt the need to go to the front cover to make sure it was non-fiction. I could not believe that this was actually happening and nothing was being done about it.

I did not know, for instance, that the only legal form of protest in Russia is when a lone person is holding a picket sign. However, the regime will often hire homeless or recruit young Putin supporters to approach the protestor and joining them just long enough for the police to arrest them. They are then detained for a week.
Protests that are approved by the government will be cracked down on by police. It ends up with the unwarranted brutality seen at the Occupy movement protests, except in Russia there's no public outcry because none of it is covered by the press. And that is what finally brings me to my point.

Russia today is no fan of journalists. In fact, Russia is one of the deadliest place for journalists in the world, with over 200 journalists being killed between 1993 and 2009, and the majority of these deaths have been homicide. Anna Politkovskaya's murder garnered international attention in 2006 after numerous attempts on her life were made.

The press has been systematically bought out and silenced by the Russian government, and that is what makes this coverage so impressive. The fact that tens of thousands of people are not only marching through the capital, AND are receiving attention from the press, proves that Russia is moving in a direction that is more just in the treatment of its citizens. (I mean, I'm still a little scared posting this, because in July 2006, "the upper chamber of the Russian parliament - the Federation Council - approved a law which permits the Russian president to use the country's armed forces and special services outside Russia's borders to combat terrorism and extremism." -the full article is here. But still, progress is progress.)


...I'm okay with the political turn my blog is taking.