[monkey247]

Marat's back in the Duma today. Watch it live on Vesti.ru (better transmission quality) or UStream.

Yes, I have a lot of time on my hands, like this guy. It's half term, it's Bank Holiday, and therefore 11C outside ...

[mer]

Originally Posted by monkey247

Marat's back in the Duma today. Watch it live on Vesti.ru (better transmission quality) or UStream.

oh, I wish non-russians could understand what a circus is happening today in Duma lol

[monkey247]

Pls tell us, mer! What are they saying? What's going on? Dmitry Gudkov seems to be getting an inordinate amount of air time ...

[mer]

Originally Posted by monkey247

Pls tell us, mer! What are they saying? What's going on? Dmitry Gudkov seems to be getting an inordinate amount of air time ...

it's so called "Italian strike". Opposition in Duma has suggested hundreds of amendments to the law which was approved by Duma today. Basically, opposition is trolling United Russia.

[monkey247]

Originally Posted by mer

it's so called "Italian strike". Opposition in Duma has suggested hundreds of amendments to the law which was approved by Duma today. Basically, opposition is trolling United Russia.

Thanks, mer. Wikipedia gives the equivalent phrase in English. Sounds like a tiresome, plodding bore ... Gudkov certainly seems to be holding the floor this afternoon. (for everyone's general info, he's a Just Russia deputy serving on the State Duma Committee for Constitutional Legislation and State Building)

[mer]

Originally Posted by monkey247

Sounds like a tiresome, plodding bore ...

not that boring in fact. For example one of the amendments was to "change wording from 1000 rubles (the law is about fines for gatherings and meetings) to an average estimated cost of policeman gear" and so on.

[monkey247]

I don't follow! Do you mean the terms of the amount of fine have changed from the one to the other?

[mer]

Originally Posted by monkey247

I don't follow! Do you mean the terms of the amount of fine have changed from the one to the other?

yes, the suggestion was to change the amount of fine and define it by a cost of police gear. it was one of the purposefully idiotic amendments. All of them were rejected of course.

[monkey247]

Thanks, but i still don't get it! Why isn't such deliberate obstruction regarded as tiresome (not to mention childish)? What's the merit in it, or is just the cheap thrill of winding up ER for kicks?

I mean, for those who are stalling procedures, it must have a certain comedy value, but for those who want genuine co-operation across party lines, isn't it a tedious pain in the arse? Or is simply expected/tolerated as part of the legislative process?

I wish I had a Babelfish inside my head!!

[mer]

Originally Posted by monkey247

Thanks, but i still don't get it! Why isn't such deliberate obstruction regarded as tiresome (not to mention childish)? What's the merit in it, or is just the cheap thrill of winding up ER for kicks?

the thing is ER can pass any law they want even if a law is anti-constitutional. In case of today's law ER wants to make it effective before June, 12 when the big protest demonstration is planned. Deliberate obstruction is the only way to prevent it or at least try to prevent it.
ps I guess we should move it to another thread ))

[monkey247]

^ I get it now, thanks

[inez]

The OTHER thing MArat was doing on Friday...from Twitter on the 13th

Maria Antonova ‏@mashant
Marat Safin is in the Duma looking glum and not singing the national anthem.

oops - trouble in Paradise? given what the Duma were doing on Friday 13th regarding passing legislation to even further suppress freedom of speech in Russia, he might well look glum - unfortunately for him, it may be too late to change his mind..... :-( - so he better start singing the "right tune"...and it all seemed like such a good idea at the time...

[greeneyes7]

Maybe that's what's causing him to revert to his previous behavior. I know being in politics in any country can be so frustrating for everyone. I know it is here. Good men with good ideas often get crushed in the load of political rhetoric and often lose heart.

[monkey247]

Does anyone know if Marat is actually an official member of United Russia?

Article from the Telegraph.

Guardian live news feed: "Arrests coming thick and fast now. There have been like 3 dozen since the sentence was announced, bringing the total to =80 by my count".

Wikipedia entry: "Chess champion Garry Kasparov and opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov, who were protesting in support of the band, were detained by police."

Pussy Riot punk trio found guilty of hooliganism by Russian court

12:38PM BST 17 Aug 2012

A Russian judge on Friday sentenced three women from the punk band Pussy Riot to two years in prison after finding them guilty of hooliganism for staging an anti-Kremlin protest on the altar of Moscow's main cathedral.



Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, a philosophy graduate, Maria Alekhina, 24, a charity worker and environmental activist and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, a computer programming graduate, exchanged a few quick smiles as they heard the verdict from inside the glass enclosure reserved for defendants.

They were arrested after performing a chaotic can-can and shouting a few words of a “punk prayer” which included the words, “Mother of God, drive out Putin” during their protest.

Judge Marina Syrova said the three band members had "carefully planned" their February 21 action inside the Christ the Saviour Cathedral. "Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina and Samutsevich committed hooliganism - in other words, a grave violation of public order," she said.

"The court finds them quilty. The court reached this decision based on testimony of the defendants themselves and other evidence."

The judge said the three displayed a "clear disrespect toward society" by bursting into Russia's most important church just weeks before March 4 elections which saw Putin storm his way to an historic third term.

The judge opened the hearing with dozens of passionate band and Orthodox Church followers being held apart by riot police and Western diplomats jostling with reporters for a spot inside the courtoom.

Hundreds of Pussy Riot supporters chanted "Russia without Putin!" amid a heavy police presence. Police rounded up a few dozen protesters, including former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, who is a leading opposition activist, and leftist opposition group leader Sergei Udaltsov.

"Let Pussy Riot and all their supporters burn in hell," one church supporter screamed amid the tumult.

The trio have already apologised for offence caused to Orthodox believers and say their protest was against church leader Patriarch Kirill supporting Mr Putin’s campaign. Critics believe the Kremlin ordered the prosecution.

In a handwritten letter smuggled out of prison on the eve of the verdict, Miss Tolokonnikova said Vladimir Putin could not defeat a growing opposition movement. She wrote that the Pussy Riot trial had united disparate forces of dissent against those who “threaten destruction of the liberating, emancipating forces of Russia.”

There is no personal malice,” she wrote in scrawled blue pen. “But there is a political one. Our term in prison is a clear and distinct sign that freedom is being taken away from the whole country. And that threatens destruction of the liberating, emancipating forces of Russia. That’s what makes me angry.”

[mer]

Originally Posted by monkey247

Does anyone know if Marat is actually an official member of United Russia?

As far as I know he's not. At least he wasn't when he went to elections.