Politics a la Russian style...with an Opposition, so-called, operating in a somewhat enigmatic and unorthodox parallel universe.
"If Russia is, as Winston Churchill said, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, then it is time to add another layer. In the past year or so, a parallel universe has sprung up in the country, one catering to the tens of thousands of Russians who have banded together to oppose the continuing rule of Vladimir Putin.
They have their own media. They read the weekly magazine Bolshoi Gorod, watch the hip independent TV channel Dozhd, and listen to the liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy. They go to their own cafes, peopling tables at the French-style bistro Jean-Jacques. On Friday nights they can be found at Mayak, a smoky bohemian stronghold, and on Saturday nights they go to Zavtra to hear each other DJ from their iPods.
Now, they have their own mini-democracy. On Monday night, the opposition wrapped up three days of voting for a 45-member "coordinating council", a new body designed to lead the movement beyond regular protests. It will help field candidates in local elections, support political prisoners, and help spread the message about the "crooks and thieves" who sit in the Kremlin, to use a phrase coined by the movement's best-known leader, Alexei Navalny.
It was a weeks-long experiment in building democracy from the ground up and trying to expand the opposition into something beyond those few Moscow cafes. As part of the elections, the opposition organised 16 straight days of debates on Dozhd, a platform for the more than 200 candidates to put forward their views."
"If Russia is, as Winston Churchill said, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, then it is time to add another layer. In the past year or so, a parallel universe has sprung up in the country, one catering to the tens of thousands of Russians who have banded together to oppose the continuing rule of Vladimir Putin.
They have their own media. They read the weekly magazine Bolshoi Gorod, watch the hip independent TV channel Dozhd, and listen to the liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy. They go to their own cafes, peopling tables at the French-style bistro Jean-Jacques. On Friday nights they can be found at Mayak, a smoky bohemian stronghold, and on Saturday nights they go to Zavtra to hear each other DJ from their iPods.
Now, they have their own mini-democracy. On Monday night, the opposition wrapped up three days of voting for a 45-member "coordinating council", a new body designed to lead the movement beyond regular protests. It will help field candidates in local elections, support political prisoners, and help spread the message about the "crooks and thieves" who sit in the Kremlin, to use a phrase coined by the movement's best-known leader, Alexei Navalny.
It was a weeks-long experiment in building democracy from the ground up and trying to expand the opposition into something beyond those few Moscow cafes. As part of the elections, the opposition organised 16 straight days of debates on Dozhd, a platform for the more than 200 candidates to put forward their views."
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