Does Putin = Stalin? … No freedom in Russia
(Fred Weir, CS Monitor, August 31, 2010 )
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Defying a warning from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that anybody trying to stage unsanctioned political rally would be “beaten on the head” by police, hundreds of mainly youthful protesters showed up Tuesday night at Moscow’s fenced-off and police-barricaded Triumph Square to demand that Russian authorities honor their constitutional right of free assembly. . . . “If you get [permission], then go out and demonstrate,” Mr. Putin said in a newspaper interview Monday. “If not, you do not have the right. If you go out without having the right – you are going to get beaten with a club. It’s as simple as that.” . . .
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