Blogging the democratic revolution
“You gathered here armed with nothing but roses and the power of your convictions and you claimed your liberty and because you acted, Georgia is today both sovereignty and free and a beacon of liberty for this region and the world.” And the crowd went wild. “In recent months, the world has marveled at the hopeful changes taking place from Baghdad to Beirut to Bishket. But before there was a Purple Revolution in Iraq or an Orange Revolution in Ukraine or a Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, there was the Rose Revolution in Georgia.” Arms are raised in the air, everyone…
I’m watching Bush’s speech to Georgia now. I’ll write more as soon as it’s over. Huge applauses. There must be a hundred thousand people there!
The ritz and glamour of the V-E Day celebrations in Moscow are coming to a close, and nearly everyone, except my German grandmother, has been watching and opining on what it all means for U.S.-Russia relations. At one moment, you have Bush praising the Baltics and preaching freedom and democracy in Belarus. On the other, you have Putin criticizing American democracy, hailing the Soviet Union and even erecting statues of Stalin. You’d think the Cold War is about to get hot again! Then you see the two watching an impressive military display, smiling and laughing together, and driving around in…
It was the winter of 1982. It was the freezing nadir of the Cold War. Soldiarity’s Revolution in Poland had been bitterly crushed. I was a student in England, passionate about Soviet studies and in the center of great scholarship. As Greenham Common leftists camped out to protest cruise missiles, Ronald Reagan and the U.S. troops there to defend Europe, not far from my university. As Lady Thatcher and Ronald Reagan stood firm. As the Soviet Union under the fearful, edgy, oppressive gray heirs to Stalin of the Kremlin prepared to hit the nuclear button. Never did the world come…
Bush is travelling to Russia to for the 60th anniversary of V-E Day on Monday. I almost used the word “celebrate” in there, but that would not be enirely accurate. Verbal sparring has edged its way up between the United States and Russia, as President Bush and Putin insist upon different views of the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe. President Bush has tried to set the record to that Soviet occupation tyrannical and that Russia needs to work toward democracy. Putin has pressed that while Stalin was a tyrant, the Soviet Union did Eastern Europe a great justice by liberating…
The president has just finished a mini press conference with the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The affection and good humor between the four leaders were palpable. Two of Bush’s statements were particularly telling. In answer to a question speculating on whether the US and Russia would cut a deal in which Russia would ensure that Belarussian President Lukashenko would not be reelected in exchange for American endorsement of the next government, Bush answered that cutting deals on someone else’s future was unacceptable. He noted that hat’s the same kind of deal that sealed the fate of these countries…
Zubr, one of the better known Belarussian opposition youth groups to the west, is about to receive a nice check from the Berkeley chapter of Students for Global Democracy. They organized a Hike For Democracy event, and raised one thousand dollars. Berkeley, California, USA — A group of 30 students at the University of California, Berkeley, organized a Hike for Democracy to raise money for the Belarusian pro-democracy youth movement, ZUBR. On 30 April 2005, the students, in the organization “Berkeley Students for Global Democracy” (Berkeley SGD), hiked 17 kilometers around Tilden Park, a beautiful protected wild area in the…
Today marks the 100th day in office fr Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko: KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine’s pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko on Tuesday marked his first 100 days in office, saying his government remained on track to fulfil the demands of protesters who helped propel him to power. “We haven’t betrayed any of the slogans from Independence Square,” Yushchenko said, referring to the Kyiv city square that became the nerve centre of the popular uprising last year that became known as the “Orange Revolution.” Yushchenko has said that fighting poverty remains his top goal. His presidency so far has brought…
Ahead of the September 2006 presidential elections, the United Civic Party has begun drafting a party platform that addresses all spheres of development within the country. They are hoping to pave the way for a democratic Belarus. The United Civic Party (UCP) has gotten down to developing a program that could be used by a single opposition candidate as an election platform in next year????????s presidential campaign. As UCP leader Anatoly Lebedko told BelaPAN, the document should become a positive alternative to the course of Aleksandr Lukashenko????????s government. ???????We will draw voters if we create an attractive picture of Belarus????????…
Over the past two months there have been protests in Ingushetia demanding the president resign over corruption. So far, things have gone generally peacefully. But read this recent report on RFE/RL and you will see just how corrupt those authorities are, and how they put down the protests by defaming them with fake fliers before arresting them. Prague, 30 April 2005 (RFE/RL) — Police and army troops used force on 30 April to disperse a protest in Nazran, the capital of Ingushetia, and detain its organizers. Officials had earlier warned the protest organizers, including Ingushetian Parliament Deputy Musa Ozdoev, against…
It’s a little opportunist, but the Belarussian opposition has to take advantage when it can! They took the anniversary of Chernobyl and turned it into a rally against Lukashenko. MINSK, April 26 (Reuters) – Police in ex-Soviet Belarus on Tuesday detained more than two dozen protesters who tried to present a petition to President Alexander Lukashenko on the 19th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Belarus’s small opposition, which accuses Lukashenko of systematically violating human rights, traditionally stages its largest protest of the year on the anniversary of the accident which contaminated a quarter of the country’s territory. But given…
One of the most hilarious and scary headlines of the day has been that Putin mourned the downfall of the USSR in his “State of the Nation” address. In his annual state of the nation address to parliament and the country’s top political leaders, Putin said the Soviet collapse was “a genuine tragedy” for Russians. “First and foremost it is worth acknowledging that the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” Putin said. “As for the Russian people, it became a genuine tragedy. Tens of millions of our fellow citizens and countrymen found themselves…
I have been wondering this question for a really long time now, as the main Pora! site I visited hasn’t been updated in quite a while. There has been news of the new student youth movement in Russia called Red Pora!, but that news is sparce. Thankfully, we have orange revolutionary Dan McMinn. He has a great post up outlining the history of the youth movement and where Pora! is going. The Basic Ultra-Abridged Description of Pora Pora sprung up in fall of 2004 as a primarily youth protest organization focused on the election of 2004. During the Orange Revolution,…
I just came across this article in Mosnews saying that $5 million has been set aside in the soon-to-be approved emergency war spending bill for democracy programs in Belarus. The U.S. Senate has approved an extra $81 billion war budget that includes $5 million for programs aimed to support democracy in Belarus, RIA Novosti reports. The programs will be under the control of the State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. The Bureau announced earlier this month that $2 million would be spent on ???????consolidation of democratic parties??????? in Belarus. I started looking around the bill for it,…
Even as he reiterates his commitment to democracy, either he is lying or does not know the definition. The pro-Putin Duma is expected to pass legislation that would further restrict qualifications for parties entering the legislature. Russian MPs have approved a crucial second reading of a controversial law which could increase the Kremlin’s control over parliament. The bill, which is expected to be adopted, would change the way parliamentary deputies are elected. Members of the lower house, the Duma, would be chosen by proportional representation, with parties needing 7% of the vote to get seats. Critics say it will be…
You want it? I don’t have it. But Andy does! Check out Siberian Light for everything that’s happened this week in Russia.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with seven Belarussian dissidents today in Lithuania and assured them that Belarus is on the road to democracy, their biggest chance being the next presidential election. VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Belarusian dissidents Thursday she thinks an end to authoritarian rule in their country is within reach. She drew a rebuke from Russia’s foreign minister for earlier comments about Belarus. After meeting with the seven dissidents, Rice said next year’s presidential election in Belarus offers ééan excellent opportunity” to focus on the need for credible elections in the country,…
Russia billionaire Boris Berezovsky, now called Platon Elenin, says he wants to meet with Viktor Yushchenko to turn over the Melnychenko recordings from Leonid Kuchma’s office. We’re talking ten CDs that supposedly has all kinds of good juicy stuff on them. I have the latest over at Bloggledygook, with a special gift at the end for Robert.
Yesterday I posted that Georgian President Saakashvili will predict where the next revolution will be on April 22 during the next GUUAM summit. Check out what this article has to say. TBILISI. April 19 (Interfax) – Georgia’s parliament plans to adopt an address that will be sent to the people of Belarus this week. “The parliament of Georgia is confident that the fraternal people of Belarus will be able to overcome all resistance which is being put up by internal and external retrograde forces, and this wonderful European country will not be isolated,” reads the draft document. Chairman of the…
Nathan points to an article saying that Georgian President Saakashvili will unveil the next country to undergo a “velvet revolution” at the next GUUAM meeting. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has said that a new velvet revolution will follow the regime changes in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, Rosbalt news agency reports. ???????We have defeated our enemies in these two countries, but there is one more country on our list,??????? he announced at a meeting with the Georgian Prosecutor General????????s Office staff. The president promised to reveal the name of the country at the five-nation GUUAM summit in Chisinau on April 22 that…
More than usual, anyway. The UN Commission on Human Rights just passed a resolution condemning Belarus for abuses. Following the adoption on 14 April of a resolution by the UN Human Rights Commission alleging human rights abuses by Belarusian officials, Syarhey Aleynik, Belarus’s permanent representative to the UN, criticized the document as “another attempt to create a distorted picture of the country’s situation in order to justify the intention of its co-sponsors to interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign state,” Belapan and Interfax-Belarus reported. Aleynik said that the resolution has passed under “unprecedented pressure from the United States,”…
At Bloggledygook I have a post on an accusation by a deputy of the Ukrainian opposition that Viktor Yushchenko had a hand in the sales of X-55 missiles to China and Iran.
The latest drama out of Kiev is that Boris Kolesnikov, a prominent supporter of Yanukovich has been arrested. KIEV, Ukraine — The arrest of a top politician and businessman closely linked to Ukraine’s richest man has sharpened the conflict between President Viktor Yushchenko and the embattled power brokers of Leonid Kuchma, his predecessor. Boris Kolesnikov, a close friend and partner of Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s wealthiest industrialist, was arrested last week for alleged racketeering in a case that Mr Yushchenko’s government says was reported to police in 2002 but ignored until this year. Yuri Lutsenko, interior minister, said at the weekend…
I fell asleep and crashed hard last night before I could make a post on this, but 4000 students protested in Moscow. In the crowd were students from various Moscow universities and several groups from Lipetsk, Voronezh and the Moscow region. Some students came to the rally with their professors. Another rally of 2,700 students was held Tuesday in Nizhny Novgorod. At the Moscow rally, students held banners and posters that read “Hands Off Free Education!” “A Hungry Student Is a Force to Be Reckoned With!” “How About Trying to Live on a Salary of a Young College Professor?” and…
I thought I’d round up the media from last week’s visit by Yushchenko to the United States. One Eyed Cat has two photos up from the rally at the Shevchenko monument. Leopolis has more photos from this rally, which took place in Washington, D.C. Aussiegirl points us to another gallery from the rally. This website has a ton of photos from the banquet held there. More here. Here is video of the speech by Yushchenko with Bush in front of Congress. Orange Chronicles has video from the rally, just look on the left side.