Why Protest?

Why are they protesting in Russia? Thousands of the people have had enough of the corruption and want a change. However the protests have resulted in the arrest of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny    who is a lawyer who went to Yale University and is a political activist who has the courage to be an outspoken opponent of Putin. Alexei exposed the corruption on TV to the Russian people of the amount of money and expensive the prime minister spent on himself out of taxpayer money. Money that is needed for services to the Russian people. His arrest is serious in that now he will not be able to run for election against Putin next year.

The Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has a 45,000 square foot mountain ski house, a gigantic country house complete with its own man-made lake, another 30,000 square foot home in the Moscow suburbs, a 17^th Century villa in Tuscany complete with its own vineyard and   two giant luxury yachts. Not bad for a guy who is supposed to be a public servant of the people. In addition to all those properties, Dmitry’s main estate has a multi layered cascading swimming pool, a greenhouse, three helipads and a house built for his ducks. Yes, a duck house to go along with another of his man-made lakes. Alexei the activist exposed this over the top opulence to the Russian people in a TV special report.

Many of the protestors carried plastic ducks and put ducks on their protest signs. They are appalled at the revelation of Dmitry’s   excessive life style on just a government’s salary. He thinks that the taxpayer’s money is his personal pot of gold. About 60,000 people took place in last weekend’s protests in 82 Russian cities and towns across Russia. The last time Putin was re-elected in 2012 there were massive protest then too. Putin then passed a law stating that says that you are not allowed to protest the government anymore unless the government allows the protests. Huh?

The people chanted, ”Russia without Putin, Russia will be free.”  This weekend Alexei was arrested along with thousands of protestors charged with illegally organizing protests. They are giving him a criminal conviction that is very serious in that it would bar him from going on the ballot. That is a serious sad chain of events that will only help Putin to get re-elected again. Another causality of brave people who dare to oppose Putin and his thugs that have completely taken over that country and are now attempting to take over America, Europe or anyone who dares to stand in their way. Alexei is Putin’s most prominent critic.

So, why care with Russia’s problems? It is important to the American people to see the type of strong arm corruption the Russian leaders are imposing on their own people. It is important because our newly elected Donald wants to be such allies with these creeps. It is important to stop the strong ties that Trump and his thugs have with Russia in this country before they can damage us completely. Putin hated Hillary for questioning his election back in 2011 and now he did whatever he could to destroy her campaign and succeeded. Michael Mcfaul the former United States Ambassador to Russia knows about Putin’s paranoia to anyone that dares to oppose him.

Putin’s insecurity is apparent in that he has never been able to negotiate with his own people about issues. His tactics can’t blame Hillary anymore. He has to deal with his own people that have had enough of his crap.  Putin has always been able   to crack down and punish any opposition to his thoughts but not anymore. Let’s hope the brave people of Russia can survive Putin’s punishment and that the new corruption can unfold here in America too.