Internal dissent within Russia

 ISW:

...

The Kremlin began implementing new laws against spreading “fakes” about its war in Ukraine and increasingly seeks to convince Russian citizens that any opposition to the war is treason. Moscow’s Presnensky Court detained a Russian citizen in the first criminal case for spreading “fakes” about Russian military activities in Ukraine on March 22.[6] The pro-Kremlin political party “A Just Russia” encouraged civilians to persecute anti-Kremlin dissent by launching a website on March 21 to report authorities’ “intentional shortcomings” and turn in “traitors.”[7]

The Kremlin continued measures to control the domestic information space by regulating YouTube and Google News. YouTube unblocked the Russian State Television and Radio Fund channels in Russia on March 24, complying with a Roskomandzor demand made on March 19.[8] Roskomnadzor also blocked Google News on March 23 and claimed that the platform provided “fake information” about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[9] The Kremlin will likely attempt to coerce other Western companies to retain or restart operations in Russia in exchange for complying with Russian government censorship

Isolated signs of dissent are appearing among Russian government officials. Russian Special Representative for Relations with International Organizations Anatoly Chubais resigned on March 23 and has likely left Russia. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov announced the “dismissal” of Chubais later in the day and maintained Chubais did not resign over Ukraine on March 24.[10] Chubais was the chief of staff for former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and is the highest-ranking official to publicly break ties with the Kremlin after the invasion of Ukraine.[11] Bloomberg also reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina’s resignation sometime shortly after the invasion of Ukraine.[12]
...

Some of the dissents have been open such as the appearance of a woman with a sign urging stopping of the war.  There is also evidence of several Russians leaving the country.  I think other people dissenting have gone silent.  The previous post gives some of Putin's inner circle who are no longer seen as active.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains

James Robbins: ... Bin Laden suggests that President Bush should allow Zarqawi’s body to be returned to his family in Jordan, but this is a matter that is up to the Jordanian government, which so far has not shown much interest in facilitating a homecoming. Bin Laden mocks King Abdullah II, calling him a Coalition minion, and asking “w hat scares you about Abu Musab after he’s dead? You know that his funeral, if allowed to happen, would be a huge funeral showing the extent of sympathy with the mujahedin.” A large crowd would definitely turn out, though most people would be on hand to demonstrate their anger and disgust. Last November’s hotel bombings in Amman , masterminded by Zarqawi, are still fresh in people’s memory, and mentioning them to Jordanians has the same visceral impact as memory of the 9/11 attacks does here. Jordan has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards those who choose to mourn the country’s least favorite son, and four opposition members of parliament who paid con
Read more