Putin's new Soviet

In country after country over the past decade we have seen brave men and women protesting against their oppressive governments and demanding free and fair elections, basic rights and the rule of law. Not all have succeeded and some in desperation have themselves become violent in the pursuit of their aims. But the flow of people willing to risk their limited freedom and even their lives to make their protest seems endless. Yesterday tens of thousands took to the streets of central Moscow to call for new elections in place of those that returned Vladimir Putin to the presidency for a third term last December which they say were fraudulent. Realistically, they have little chance of making any impact on Putin or his agents, but they feel there is a fundamental point that must be made even as their leaders are arrested at their homes and their passports confiscated.

In a TV appearance Putin said “Russia must not be weakened by social shock...We cannot accept anything that weakens our country or divides society.” So now a demonstrator can be fined more than six thousand pounds for “causing damage” -- trampling on a grass verge perhaps?
Russia will probably not revert to the Stalin days but a great deal of what was gained when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 is slowly being eroded under Putin's narrow KGB vision.