Also, before I get down to business, I just want to let everyone know that my first novel "Birds of Dreams" is available for sale on Amazon Kindle for $2.99--a price reduction for the holidays. In a nutshell, it tells the story of what happens when Reality TV clashes with Reality. Part "Gossip Girl," part "Sex and the City" with a little Bollywood spice thrown in, the novel is a social satire with a colorful cast of characters all vying for a spot on a hot new reality show, or if not that, then at least a shot at something outside of boring everyday anonymity. Look for it on Amazon Kindle. The print edition will be published early next year...
I've been following the protest in Moscow all day and am happy to hear that everything went peacefully. Depending on who you read, the number of protesters ranged from a few thousand to over a hundred thousand. I'm thinking the average was around fifty-thousand. Regardless, it was the largest street protest in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Another protest has been scheduled for Christmas Eve. Protestors are demanding the resignation of Vladimir Churov, the head of the Russian Central Election Commission, and a new round of elections, which is exactly what Mikail Gorbachev, the last Soviet Premier, called for yesterday. I don't know--revolution seems to be in the air this year.
One of the most vocal advocates of social change in Russia--and this protest movement--is a Russian political blogger and Tweeter named Alexey Navalny. Mr. Navalny was reportedly arrested earlier in the week after blogging about the election fraud. His arrest is, in part, what inspired today's protests.
The Lede, a New York Times news blog, published a translation of a letter he wrote from jail addressed to the crowds gathered today in Bolotnaya Square and across the country. I've pasted it here:
"It is easy and pleasant to struggle for one's own rights. And it's not at all fearful. Don't believe all this nonsense about unavoidable disorders, fights with the police and burning cars.
Everyone has the only one and the most powerful weapon that we need: dignity, the feeling of self-respect.
It's simply important to understand that this feeling could not be put on and put off as a velvet jacket. It cannot be turned on with a button in your kitchen full of your friends and turned off when you talk with an official, policeman or member of electoral committee.
There ARE people with dignity. There are many of them. Dozens of them are sitting on tattered mattresses next to me. And I know, thousands of them are now at the Revolution and Bolotnaya squares in Moscow and in other cities of the country.
There are no repressions or clubs. There are no detentions or arrests for 15 days. All this is rubbish. It's impossible to beat and arrest hundreds of thousands, millions. We have not even been intimidated, for some time we were simply convinced that the life of toads and rats, the life of speechless cattle was the only way to win stability and economic growth in reward.
The palaver wisps away and we can see that the cattle-like silence was a gift to only a fistful of swindlers and thieves who became millionaires. This pack and their media valets go on convincing us that the electoral fraud in favor of the party of swindlers and thieves is a prerequisite of availability of hot water in the tap or cheep mortgages. We have been being fed with this for 12 years. We are fed up. It's time to shake off the torpor.
We are not cattle or slaves. We have voices and votes and we have the power to uphold them.
All people of dignity must feel solidarity with each other. No matter where they are at the moment, out in the square, in their kitchens or in a jail cell. We feel our solidarity with you and we know that we shall triumph. It simply cannot be otherwise.
We say: One for all and all for one!"
Amazing stuff. Definitely interesting times ahead!
Ciao.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: "Do you think change is coming to Russia?"
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