Vladimir Putin

By Sue Turton in Europe on May 21st, 2012

In the run-up to Vladimir Putin's inauguration I wrote to Mikhail Khodorkovsky to ask what he thought of the return to the Kremlin of his nemesis.

The former oil magnate, who was Russia's richest man before being sent down on charges of embezzlement and tax evasion, has been locked up for nine years. But as the protest movement has grown so has Khodorkovsky's influence on the political stage.

His image appears on protest placards. His continued imprisonment is, according to the opposition and human rights' groups across the globe, an example of the judiciary being controlled by the state.

By Robin Forestier... in Europe on May 13th, 2012
Robin Forestier-Walker/Al Jazeera
Moscow poets and writers led a "controlled walk" on Sunday across the centre of the capital to exercise their right to march without harassment. True to their word the police held back. To avoid a confrontation, nobody carried any placards or shouted much in the way of slogans. 

A Mexican wave of applause rippled along the road from Pushkin Square to Chistiye Prudy as the walkers realised with a frisson of excitement just how many of them were in step. 
By Robin Forestier... in Europe on May 11th, 2012

Thursday saw Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) lose 3.6 per cent on the Micex Moscow stock exchange. It has much to do with what happened 1700m up a craggy mountain thousands of miles away in Java. 

The new Sukhoi Superjet 100 was supposed to be the saviour of the Russian aviation industry, and nobody knows yet why the pilots made the deadly decision to take the demonstration plane down to below 2000m near Indonesia's Mount Salak, where it crashed.

By Sue Turton in Europe on May 1st, 2012
Photo by Sue Turton

We headed out onto Moscow's streets, joining the tens of thousands of May Day marchers, with little concern for our safety.

After all, this workers' rally happens every year and the opposition had decided to delay their anti-Putin protest for the eve of his inauguration next week.

So no need for tear gas masks or stab vests. 

Cameraman Andrey weaved his way through the marchers, trying to get to the front where we had heard President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had joined the procession.

My producer Yulia and I followed him through the melee, laden down with extra camera kit.

But as we passed from one trade union crowd to the next group, a line of plain clothed men who were walking ahead blocked our path.

Andrey had got through and was forging on ahead so we pleaded with them to let us pass: "We're journalists. We need to be with our cameraman." 

But they weren't having any of it.

By Barnaby Phillips in Europe on March 11th, 2012
Photo: AFP
The crowds are dwindling at the protest rallies, the energy seems to be draining away.
By Barnaby Phillips in Europe on March 6th, 2012
Reuters photo

Here's a quick round-up of global reactions to Vladimir Putin's not-so surprising triumph in the Russian presidential elections:

First prize for effusiveness goes to ... Syria, where the official news agency said President Bashar al-Assad "offered in his name and that of the Syrian people his sincere congratulations for his remarkable election".

Another happy man was Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, who sent his personal congratulations to Moscow, saying that Vladimir Putin had "initiated a strategic relationship of co-operation between Venezuela and Russia, connected by a very strong bond of friendship".

There was also a warm reaction from Beijing.

President Hu Jintao sent a congratulatory message, and the Chinese foreign ministry said the election had been "a success".

West's reaction

By Christopher True in Europe on March 6th, 2012
Riot police forcibly pushed some demonstrators down the steps of surrounding metro entrances [Christopher True/Al Jazeera]

It did not take long for Vladimir Putin, the winner of Sunday's Russian presidential election, to reassert his authority over the country's opposition: less than 24 hours in fact.

On Monday evening, about 14,000 people, from across the political spectrum - from nationalists to Communists - had gathered in Moscow's Pushkin Square to demonstrate against Putin's victory.

After failing to disperse after their alloted time for protesting - and in Russia, rules are rules - police used heavy handed tactics to arrest about 250 people, including the informal leader of the movement, anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny.

The demonstration had started peacefully, with a crowd made up of people from all walks of life from students and businessmen to artists and pensioners.

It was an icy cold day, with the temperature falling to minus 11 degrees, and a biting breeze, but the crowd remained in good spirits.

By Jonah Hull in Europe on March 2nd, 2012



Driving through the city that I lived in a few years ago, I was amused to see a poster advertising a summer concert by 1980s rock outfit, the Scorpions.

The Scorpions, I remember, were always turning up in Moscow. They even played at Mikhail Gorbachev's 80th birthday shindig.

Russia must surely be among the last places on Earth where this aging band can still gather an enthusiastic crowd, enough to keep the wrinkly rockers in orange juice and Old Spice.

By Jonah Hull in Europe on March 1st, 2012



The wisdom of the pundits, the free-thinking ones, seems to be that while Vladimir Putin has succeeded in alienating the big city middle classes in Russia, he still confidently holds the support of the regional masses, the workers who make up the electoral majority.

The polls, at time of writing, seem to suggest likewise having risen sharply in Putin's favour, suggesting he will win in the first round and avoid a humiliating run-off.

Having travelled back in real time for days, crossing time zones from east to west that made each day longer than the last, I took a step back into history in the oil town of Tyumen.

I visited a Soviet-era factory to find out if the pundits were right about the workers.

By Jonah Hull in Europe on February 29th, 2012

We have clipped along by train for two days now across the unrelentingly white landscape of frozen southern Siberia.

It's an agreeable way of getting from place to place if, like me, one is lodged in a private first class compartment with a kindly provodnitsa (attendant) like Vera who delivers sweet, black tea and freshly made pancakes before first light.

The majority of my fellow travellers are stacked up on bunks in the very clean but open-plan third class carriages. Many are making the whole six-day journey from Vladivostok to Moscow, though a fair number get on and off at stops in between.

Al Jazeera Live

What's Hot


Recent Comments

This work is licensed under Creative Commons. Please read our attribution policy.