Moscow Protests

Moscow protests turn violent, opposition leaders arrested

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Article Analysis

• A large protest demonstration on the eve of Vladimir Putin's inauguration as president.
• Protest turned into a battle with police as some protestors wanted to take their anger to the next level.
• Police were forceful in arrests, some even grabbing protestors by the hair.
• Previous protests had set up agreed upon locations to protest and the police remained cooperative and were even thanked
• The break in pattern likely reflected a sense of anger among protesters upset that Mr. Putin was handily elected to a new term in the Kremlin despite their startling defiance.
• Some demonstrators aimed to turn up the pressure by trying to split off and head to the Kremlin by travelling the bridge.
• Riot police blocked the bridge while protestors formed a chain and chanted a saying "this is our city" and "Putin is a thief"
• Police eventually pushed the crowd back towards the square and many were harshly taken under arrest.
• It is believed that these protests will not cause any change

Defining the Issue

Complex

Interelated



Political	Social/Cultural	Economic
·         Putin become president once again for a 6 year term. ·          Many oppositions protest the new government. ·         Putin does not seem all to phased by the protests and continues forward with the inauguration.	·         Many citizens, protest Putin inauguration. ·         Protest became violent. ·         It appears most citizens are for the new government. ·         Protestors want chance. However, it doesn’t appear that anything will happen as a cause.	·         Economically, everything would be fine due to the protest being local to Moscow and in restrained areas, causing little to no effect on the economy.

Controversial



How did this issue start?	How should it be resolved?
·         This issue primarily started with the newly elected president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. ·         Oppositions protested peacefully to start. ·         Protests escalated and became violent and destruction occurred to local areas.	·         This issue has primarily been solved due to the inauguration taking place the following day. ·         Police arrested the most aggressive protestors. 400 in total. ·         If Putin were to decide to step down at the last minute protestors would react positively but that would be a dream solution

My Opinion
With any new government and newly elected representative of a country, there will be people who oppose it. Only in a dream world would everybody vote for the same person and be happy with that decision. In democratic nations, citizens are given the right to protest. Peaceful protest of course. However, many people disregard that for the primary reason that no one listens to a group of people chanting for change. It’s hard to disagree with that.
            It is to no surprise that citizens are protesting Putin after being in government for many years. What surprised me slightly is that it is stated that police were quite ruthless in their efforts to arrest protestors, even pulling hair. The other side of that of course, is that they were all given the chance to leave peacefully without arrest. So who is right and who is wrong? It’s a tough call to make. Overall, people will always protest and Russia is no exception.