A long standing New Years Eve tradition in Red Square is for Russia’s president to deliver an address at midnight. The address is broadcast throughout Russia on television and radio. More Russians will hear this address than any other speech delivered by the President during the year. This makes disrupting the event very attractive to dissidents. That may also explain why attending dissidents were quickly arrested last night.

Police detained dozens of anti-Kremlin activists, including an 82-year-old Soviet dissident dressed as Santa Claus’ female helper, at a New Year’s Eve rally on Moscow’s main shopping street Thursday.

Hundreds of riot police surrounded a Christmas tree in the centre of the city and arrested the opposition activists as they gathered to defend their right to peaceful protest. (Reuters)

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In a radical departure from the previous President Putin’s policy of not recognizing publications who were critical of him, Dmitry Medvedev recently granted an interview to Novoya Gazeta. Noyava has been outspoken in its criticism of both Putin and Medvedev’s policies. While it’s not know what ground rules were imposed on the interviewer, this gives many hope that a return to tolerance of loyal opposition may be possible.

A complete English translation is avaiable on the Russian President’s web site.

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Russian President Dmitry Medevedev has decided to shake up personnel in an effort to improve conditions and squelch dissent.  The Russian government has been receiving more criticism from its citizens while it’s economy has worsened. In January industrial output declined 20%.

Medvedev ousted the governors of the Oryol, Pskov and Voronezh regions and the Nenets autonomous district and proposed that Gordeyev become the Voronezh governor, the Kremlin said.

No successor was immediately named to the Agriculture Ministry, where Gordeyev has served since 1999.

Gordeyev welcomed the shuffle, saying a decade was a long time to serve as minister and his reappointment coincided with his own wishes.

“For almost 10 years, I have been ruling a major economic sector, the agricultural sector. Based on managerial criteria, I think this is the maximum term for holding an office,” Gordeyev said, Interfax reported.

By firing four governors in a single day, Medvedev appears to be trying to show the population that he is involved actively in managing the country, said Rostislav Turovsky, a regions analyst with State University — Higher School of Economics. (Moscow Times)

Medvedev hinted that he was ready to make tough personnel decisions in a televised address Sunday.

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The Putin / Medvedev government’s intense adversarial stance towards the west is a relatively new phenomenon that reached its peak with in invasion of Georgia. Just about every American I know is troubled by the rhetoric on both sides, and this is particularly true for those of us with Russian friends and family. Many Russians have residual resentment for the decade of the 90’s when they integrated (somewhat) into the world economy and established a market economy of their own.  During this period there was a small flood of people from the west who visited Russia, most enjoying a cheap exotic vacation while many looked for opportunities to invest in the new economy. Not all of us were polite. This could be the origin of  deep resentment many of Russia’s new ruling class feel towards us.  Not every Russian is comfortable with their government’s rhetoric, but very few are willing to publicly speak out. This is not the case with poet and author Lev Rubinshtein.

I know now who is yelling the loudest and the most forcefully about those “cursed nineties,” when Russia was “trampled in the mud,” and people “wiped their feet” on her, during the epoch of Russia’s Great Humiliation by the Horrible West. I know, who strains themselves most of all while hysterically recounting the Worldwide Russo-phobic conspiracy. [A conspiracy] led, as is easy to guess, by that infernal America, for whom Russia’s undeniable greatness– as a country with unrecognized constructive-destructive possibilities and an inexhaustible oil-and-gas-based spirituality– is the single, though insurmountable barrier to global domination. I know who they are. (complete text at The Other Russia)

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