KC: RUSSIAN SPRING: The Gulag Archipelago Shook Russian Street

An influential French-language Algerian daily El Watanpublished an article by its journalist Said Rabia about Russia. The article is called “Street roars in Russia: Gulag Archipelago shaken (La rue gronde en Russie: “L’archipel du Goulag” secoué)”. The KC presents its readers a summary translation of the Said Rabia’s article:

“Russia is at the turning point of its history. Former agent of the evil KGB Vladimir Putin is so openly criticized for the first time. And not just criticized.

A wind of uprising, which blows over the Arab world, as it seems, inexorably came to this part of Eastern Europe, which had been hitherto impermeable to the ideals of freedom and democracy.
The episode with Gorbachev and his Perestroika ultimately proved to be only a prelude. Glasnost, or publicity, carried out by the former president of the Soviet Union in late 1990s, which caused the fall of the Berlin Wall, had no continuation.

It’s worse than that. Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin strongman, carried out a sort of a counter-revolution, which eventually led to the establishment of the totalitarian regime that combines intrigue, election fraud, crime and dirty money.

Putin crushed almost everything under him, including the last parliamentary elections, characterized by pervasive fraud. However, his project, which is a clear association with the notorious Soviet Union, has caused anger among the Russians in the context, typical for the uprisings in the Arab world.

Raised by the KGB, Putin recreated the Soviet system. Democracy, freedom and human rights are reefs for him, which he must destroy under the way of his ambitions.
Those who oppose his rule are killed or terrorized. Human rights activists are jailed. Such a big country as Russia, which was thought to have joined a group of countries that respect human rights and followed at last the path of democratic reforms, became once again the Gulag Archipelago”, writes the Algerian newspaper.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center