Russian Rage

Rage is rising in Russia. Brave citizens of that country have had enough of the Dictator suppressing the voices of the people. There haven’t been such violent outspoken protests in years. Why? There is one year left to Putin's reign and he expects to be re-elected for a 4th term in a position he has held for 17 years. The quality of life for the average Russian citizen is not all that great. With the availability of instant news on our phones and public opinion circulating quickly on social media and rage on twitter feed, emotions run high and spread quickly. The people of Russia is having a wave of anti-corruption rallies that are often violent and the police are brutal in beating brave citizens that just want to march in protest. Hundreds are being arrested at a time in Moscow. Outspoken Putin critics are being assassinated on city streets. The strong arm of the Putin government is devastating.

The government there call the rallies illegal.Tens of thousands of people marched in multiple cities this past weekend. It was the biggest protest in that country in the past 5 years. More than 1,000 people were arrested including the protest leader. Challenging authority in Russia is risky. Many outspoken foes of Putin have been subjected to execution style retribution. Yes, they are murdered or simply go missing. The Kremlin is doing Mafia style hits on its people. It seems that just about anyone who has the balls to say anything negatively about Putin ironically gets poisoned, disappears or is outright killed in public. There is a pattern of suppression now trickling down to abusing the mass population for just being vocal about the carnage of destruction to their economy, money-laundering and the amount of very rich Putin supporters.  The people want to see some of their money being used to serve the people and not the billionaires.

The police response to the protests is swift and brutal beating and jailing anyone they can get their hands on. We live in a global society and the Russian people also have social media and have access to news around the globe.  They are watching carefully the mess that is going on in America involving their leader and his associates influencing our election and influencing the Republican leadership taking out of their intentions to help the people of the Ukraine. We never heard much in this country about Russia during the Obama years but we also watched closely how Putin took over the Ukraine and stripped those people of their pride in their country. Now the Ukraine is a poor military state. The Ukrainian people had a moment of pride when they ousted their Dictator and literally took over his lavish mansion paid by the funds of the taxpayers but then the Russian strong arm took over the Ukraine government swiftly.

The amount of bribes associated with Trump and his hand- picked inexperienced people to run our American government is staggering.  The Russian people are listening and are outraged by the world wide scope of corruption that Putin is spreading over governments all over the world. Our Constitution is an amazing document that puts checks and balances on corruption. Now the tide is changing in America where even Republicans are not siding with other Republicans and aligning themselves with the investigations of White House ties to Russia an investigation that has been going on since July of last year.

God help the Russian people and their bravery to bounce up from oppression and have the courage to speak their minds and hope for a fair and just government for themselves. It seems that much of the world including Africa and the Middle East are hoping for fair and just leadership to emerge. Hope is eternal!