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Resistance See other Resistance Articles Title: Russian scientists stage rare anti-government demo Moscow (AFP) - Russian scientists staged a rare anti-government demonstration Saturday as fears mount that they will be next in the line of fire after Kremlin crackdowns on the media, rights activists and the opposition. Several thousand protesters including scientists and intellectuals took to the streets of Moscow to express fears for the future of scientific research, which is becoming mired in red tape and mismanagement. Prominent opposition figures including top activist Alexei Navalny joined the rally. Protesters held up placards reading "Authorities are strangling science", "Nobel laureates are foreign agents" and "Putin cannot solve problems, he is the problem". Astrophysicist Boris Shtern told the rally: "Alas, science is slowly dying. The massive advance of ignorance is being supported by the media and authorities." The protest was originally called in support of a top private foundation whose 82-year-old founder, philanthropist Dmitry Zimin, has come under fire for financing Russian science from overseas accounts. Discontent among scientists has been brewing for months but the crackdown against Zimin's Dynasty Foundation sparked acute anger and disbelief. The justice ministry in late May added the ex-telecoms magnate's Dynasty foundation to its list of "foreign agents" under a law that critics say is designed to muzzle critics of President Vladimir Putin. Zimin, a widely respected former radio engineer who spent millions of dollars supporting scientific research, has threatened to shut down his foundation, demanded an apology from the authorities and temporarily left Russia. An AFP correspondent said more than 2,000 people turned up at the rally, while activists counted some 3,500 participants. Antonina Aleksandrova, a biologist at a cancer treatment centre, slammed the attack against Zimin's foundation whose grant recipients include groups promoting liberal values. "For the country to develop, it needs education," Aleksandrova told AFP. "The Dynasty is an egregious example of how an organisation that played a huge role in this education has been crushed." "It is a significant loss for us all." Some rally participants held books published with the help of Zimin's fund. Physicist Vladimir Olshansky said he found the current atmosphere of "lies and obscurantism" offensive. He said the Kremlin was threatened by free-wheeling scientists and their independent-minded benefactors. "The authorities believe that they themselves know who to give money to." Chemist Efim Brodsky added: "What's happening threatens the country more than science." - 'Only reason to stay' - Critics accuse the Russian government of boosting defence spending at the expense of science, education and health care as tensions with the West run high. Some have said that Russia appears to be losing its competitive edge in space, pointing to a recent string of mishaps. Many supporters praise Zimin as a rare Russian philanthropist who instead of flaunting his wealth like many fellow tycoons chooses to support a young generation of scientists. "Without the Dynasty young scientists would begin leaving the country abruptly," Mikhail Nikitin, a 32-year-old biologist, told AFP, adding that he was finishing a book he was hoping could be published with the help of the fund. "For many young scientists the Dynasty's grants were the only reason to stay in Russia," he said. More than 250 Russian scientists, most of them working abroad, signed an open letter in support of Zimin, saying they were "outraged and extremely worried" by the pressure on the fund and its possible consequences. Zimin's foundation has a 2015 budget of 435 million rubles ($7.7 million at the current exchange rate). "My money is kept abroad," Zimin, who founded mobile telecommunications giant VimpelCom in 1992, told Russian reporters. "But Russia also keeps its money abroad." The Dynasty will convene a meeting on Monday to decide its future strategy. Putin signed the law on "foreign agents" in 2012, after huge opposition protests, and described the legislation as "self-defence" against the financing of political activities in the country from abroad. Scores of rights groups resent the tag carrying connotations of Cold War espionage. Poster Comment: James... Foreign Non Governmental Organizations sponsored by the west are known to be trouble makers throughout the emerging BRIC block. That's probably all that this is about. Supposedly innocent foundations are often run by the CIA. Russia has been known for great science for quite some time. There is no way that Putin, being as pro-development as he is, would want to throw that away. This is just part of the ongoing stream of character assassination against Putin, indulged in by the western media. 4-7 DrFlipChip Most of the scientists mentioned in this article, starting with Zimin himself are Jewish. It could very well be that they are trying to put pressure on Putin and create a public relations showdown under instruction from exiled Oligarchs like Khodorkovsky, Berezovsky etc. Who are all Jewish and have been trying to defame Putin in the Western "free" media as far back as 2005 after Putin put a STOP to their LOOTING of Russia's public properties like Oil & Gas. If this demonstration by Jewish Russian scientists was indeed a propaganda exercise to make the RUssian Govt look bad, then it won't be the first time. The Refusenik movement by the Russian Jews in the seventies was started to pressure the Soviet Govt to stop helping the Arab enemies of Israel. 6-18 Peter 12 hours ago 8 1 Interesting. I wonder who is behind it. The last time there was a major anti-government demonstration in Russia was the Bolshevik revolution. Jews took over the country and the biggest mass murder operation in history began. Christianity was forbidden, the Churches were all burned down or desecrated, nuns were raped and priests were killed en-masse. Tens of millions of Russians and Ukrainians were murdered by the Jewish dominated gov't. One of the authors of this article is "Olga Rotenberg." She is most likely a descendant of one of the Jeuish Bolsheviks. Peter... For all you students out there (like John, Andy and others) go on youtube and search for "putin jews in soviet union" without the quotes. The first two videos are of Putin delivering a speech to a group of Jews. In the speech he says 80 to 85% of the first Soviet gov't were Jews. Winston Churchill, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and many others have written articles or books on the leading role Jeus played in the Soviet Union. The Holodomor in the Ukraine was the murder of millions of Ukrainians by starvation. edal has two sides, every entity has a dual nature. All governments are both servants and enemies of their own people competing for the same resources- power and money. ROughly, you can estimate the enemy component by the percent of GDP stolen by the government from the people. Say, in America a hundred years ago people were giving to their government only 3-5% of GDP, so government was 95-97% servant of the people and 3-5% enemy. Today governments of the West have hundreds of very sophisticated way to steal and redistribute earned by the people money. So, if socialist governments of the West take away 70% of people's earnings then they are 70% enemies of the people and 30% people's servants. Stronger government means weaker people and vice versa. On one hand- Russian scientists demand more individual freedom from the government (as Jefferson correctly defined, freedom is freedom from the government). Individual freedom (free people and free markets) is the only engine of progress in the world and without free market no science can improve people's lives-just opposite, it will inhance the hand of governments, the biggest enemies of their own citizens). On the other hands, Bismark was right when he said that all big countries government behave like bandits while small ones behave like prostitutes. All government qlicues fight each other by all possible means trying to weaken opposing gang of governments and enhance their own position. So, yes, some foreign money is directed at weakening Putin's grip on power while doing exactly the same things to their own scientists and citizens in general. And some foreign money is directed to improving the state of individual liberties (don't mix up with totalitarian leftist propaganda of the Leftist like Obama or European socialist rulers, who are as much enemies of freedom IN THEIR OWN countries as Putin is in his country). Actually, during recent events Putin played more positive role than the Western governments that staged a coup in Ukraine and let their Nazi puppets to start genocide of Eastern Ukrainians and RUssians, which was countered by Putin's actions. Of course, Putin stopped genocide in Eastern Ukraine not because he is a nice guy (he is not) but rather because it is in his geopolitical interests to save his allies from genocide by the West governments backed Western Ukrainian #$%$. In the best interests of people is to have as much individual freedom in all countries around the world. Meanwhile Western governments have opposite from the people's interests and use "human rights" just as an instrument of weakining competing governments. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
A worldwide problem, imo. Thanks for including the good comments.
There are no replies to Comment # 1. End Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
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