Re: Why does this man hate freedom? NBC

Does Putin still have that Super Bowl ring he took from Robert Kraft?



On Nov 30, 4:34 am, Tom Poynton <tom.poyn...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Perhaps Bush can look into his soul and find the answer...

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2219492,00.html

Fraud, intimidation and bribery as Putin prepares for victory

State workers forced to vote in effort to rig result for president

Luke Harding and Tom Parfitt in Moscow
Friday November 30, 2007
The Guardian

The Kremlin is planning to rig the results of Russia's parliamentary
elections on Sunday by forcing millions of public sector workers
across the country to vote, the Guardian has learned.

Local administration officials have called in thousands of staff on
their day off in an attempt to engineer a massive and inflated victory
for President Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party. Voters are
being pressured to vote for United Russia or risk losing their jobs,
their accommodation or bonuses, the Guardian has been told in numerous
interviews with byudzhetniki (public sector workers), students and
ordinary citizens.

Article continues
Doctors, teachers, university deans, students and even workers at
psychiatric clinics have been warned they have to vote. Failure to do
so will entail serious consequences, they have been told.

Analysts say the pressure is designed to ensure a resounding win for
the United Russia party and for Putin, who heads its party list. The
victory would give him a public mandate to maintain ultimate power in
the country as "National Leader" despite being unable to stand for a
third term as president in March.

In a televised speech yesterday Putin implored the nation to turn out
and vote for United Russia, saying: "I count on your support." The
president enjoys genuine popular backing but a spokeswoman for Golos,
an independent organisation monitoring the elections, said "big
pressure on voters across the country" was being used to balloon the
result for United Russia.

"We are seeing a new phenomenon where voters are forced to get
absentee ballots under threat of being sacked or being denied
bonuses," she said. "People are then instructed to vote at their
workplace where everything is tightly controlled." The spokesman said
the pressure applied to private businesses as well as state-run
enterprises.

Students have been told they risk the prospect of failing exams or
being removed from courses if they do not vote for United Russia.
Alexander, a journalism student at Oryol State University, said: "It's
been made very clear that students who don't get absentee ballots and
vote the right way could lose their place in the dormitory."

Anna, 31, a schoolteacher in Ulan Ude, said: "We were called to the
staff room in my school about a month ago and asked to sign a formal
declaration promising that we would vote for United Russia. I told
them that I wanted to vote for another party, but they told me to sign
it in such a manner that there was no way to refuse. They hinted I
could lose my job."

A librarian in Buryatia region said she had been promised a premium on
her salary if she voted for United Russia.

The Kremlin insists Sunday's elections will be free and fair, despite
inviting only 400 international observers to monitor the poll, which
is taking place in 95,784 polling stations across the world's biggest
country. This month the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in
Europe's office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)
cancelled its mission to Russia after Moscow refused to give its
experts visas.

Asked whether the Kremlin was planning to manipulate Sunday's election
Vladimir Churov, the head of Russia's central election commission,
told the Guardian: "They will be the most free, most transparent, and
most suitable elections for citizens."

However, while state television has made no mention of electoral
violations, websites and independent newspapers outside state control
are seething with reports of attempts to pressure voters to turn out
for United Russia.

Bloggers on Russia's most popular social networking site, Livejournal,
have posted numerous accounts of intimidation. One in Murmansk wrote
that he was told that if he didn't vote for United Russia "the
management would get it in the neck".

Another in Yekaterinburg wrote: "Today my wife came home in shock. As

the boss of a state company she has been told that all her workers
living in different parts of town must take absentee ballots and go to
vote in Kirovsky district. She has to go and sit all day on December 2
and call round everyone in her collective. Then she has to provide a
list of who has voted." She then received a directive warning her to
add anybody who didn't vote for United Russia to a list, and later
those people would be "called to the office" of the local
administration.

The Kremlin has cast Sunday's State Duma vote as a referendum on
Putin. Although Putin is obliged to step down as president next May, a
landslide victory may be used to legitimise his return to power,
possibly as early as the summer.

The president's personal popularity remains high. But support for
United Russia is less solid. Independent experts say the party's true
ratings are around 35% - well below the 55% figure suggested by state-
controlled opinion polls.

In a leak to Russian media this week, one senior election official
said that regional governors had been told to deliver at least 65% of
the vote for Putin's party, an "unrealistically high" total that could
be achieved only through electoral fraud and by compelling people to
vote.

"The elections are going to be falsified," said Mikhail Delyagin, an
economist and the director of Moscow's Institute on Globalisation
Problems. "The elections that took place in the Soviet Union were less
falsified than this one."

He added: "All those who depend on state salaries have been forced to
go and vote. This means workers on all levels of state power working
for local government, all the military, and those who are in prison or
psychiatric hospitals. Of course people have the possibility to lie.
But there is enormous psychological pressure."

Regional election workers would also stuff ballot boxes - as they had
done on previous occasions - boosting United Russia's vote by about
20%, he estimated. These results could be refined still further by
using the election commission's central computer. "You can falsify as
much as you want. But the result must be truthful-looking," he said.

Putin's decision to associate himself with United Russia's election
campaign - and to stand as a candidate at the top of the party's
federal list - has contributed to the scale of the fraud, analysts
said.

"The scale of pressure is due to nervousness within the Kremlin
administration since it announced that this is no longer a
parliamentary election but a referendum on Putin," Fyodor Lukyanov,
editor-in-chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs, said.
Lukyanov said he believed the amount of fraud on polling day would be
small. "This is normal in contemporary advanced authoritarian systems.
They are smart enough to organise the vote in quite a proper and
correct way," he said.

Coercing people in advance was a more effective tactic, he added. "The
consequences [of not voting for Putin] are not perhaps as bad as they
promise. But there is psychological pressure, of course. I had thought
Russian authoritarianism was much softer. We will see."

The squeeze on public sector workers follows numerous rule changes by
the Kremlin to Russia's electoral system. Under a new law, all parties
need 7% of the vote to enter parliament - up from 5% last time.
Additionally, several democratic opposition parties have been banned
from taking part. The Kremlin has also abolished constituency voting -
in effect wiping out the last critics from the current Duma. It has
also scrapped minimum turnout.

Critics allege that United Russia has received disproportionate media
coverage on state-controlled TV while opposition figures have been
blacklisted. Putin's speech at a US-style election rally in Moscow
last week, in which he denounced Russia's opposition as "jackals", got
16 minutes on the main evening news.

"These elections are a farce," said Vladimir Ryzhkov, an independent
MP banned from standing. The Kremlin liquidated his Republican party
earlier this year, claiming it didn't have enough voters. "I call it a
Kremlin biathlon. In a normal biathlon the sportsmen shoot at targets,
but in the Kremlin biathlon, not only do the sportsmen shoot at their
targets, but the judges shoot at the sportsmen," Ryzhkov said. "Half
of Russia's politicians can't run. It's selection before election."

Yesterday the central election commission dismissed suggestions that
public sector workers had been told they had to vote. Churov told the
Guardian he regarded the allegation as a "provocation" put about by
the opposition. "This is just propaganda," he said.

He also claimed it was "not possible" to manipulate results stored in
the commission's central computer, nicknamed Elections. Voters could
find out the result at their individual polling station by dialling
5503 on their mobile phones, he said.

It wasn't Russia's fault that the OSCE had cancelled its mission, he
added. "I was waiting for the head of the ODIHR in Moscow. But instead
he flew off to Washington," Churov complained.

Kremlin aides openly acknowledge that their aim is to push smaller
parties out of parliament. "We have moved towards the purification of
the legislature," said Putin's deputy spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

Case studies

Ivan, power station worker, Ufa
Every worker is being forced to take an absentee ballot and instructed
to vote at one particular polling station with the rest of the
workforce, all together for United Russia. It will be very easy for
them to count who has turned up, who hasn't, and how they've voted. On
every shift, in every department we are constantly being told that if
you don't comply you'll get the sack.

Yelena, nurse, Ulan Ude
Every week we have a work briefing in our poliklinik [doctor's
surgery]. They are always pressing on us to vote for United Russia.
The head doctor ... says that if we don't vote for United Russia we
won't get our Putin pribavki [federal funds added to nurses'
salaries].

Dasha, 19, student, Moscow
I was hanging out with my friends in Novogireyevo [in Moscow] near the
metro. There were six of us. We were approached by a car. A young man
came out. He started talking to us about the elections and said if we
wanted to vote for United Russia we could get 500 roubles. I didn't
agree but four of my group did. They filled in some kind of form -
name, surname and passport data. They were given the numbers of
polling stations where they should go and vote and get the cash.

Anastasiya, 40, librarian, Buryatia
There was a meeting in the village where all doctors, teachers, nurses
were gathered by the culture department of the local government ...
The doors were closed and we were like hostages. We were told write a
declaration saying "I, name and surname, pledge to vote for United
Russia and these are my passport details ..." We were told that if
United Russia got a high percentage in the village we would get a
bonus on our salaries.

Natalia, 29, Novosibirsk
Some activists from United Russia came to my home. They asked if I was
going to vote for their party. I said no because I don't agree with
its ideology. And they replied, Well, look, there's blacklist of
people who aren't voting for United Russia. We know where you live and
we are going to add you to that list.

Masha, student, Vladimir
We were told - you study in a state university, so you should vote for
the state party. I don't know what to do. I wanted to vote for another
party. But it was so difficult to get into university, I don't want to
be thrown out.

· Some names have been changed

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