Russian parliamentary elections - Levada Center banned

[Sire Brenshar]

Russia's last independent polling center Levada Center has been declared a "foreign agent" and will subsequently have to be shut down, according to its director Lev Gudkov. I assume all posters here have some familiarity with the organization as it has been referenced on many occasions on this forum especially in the Ukraine and Crimea thread over the years.

This followed Levada Center publishing a poll in which it showed a fall in popularity for the United Russia party. Im sure I dont have to repeat the other mass surveillance laws Russia has passed the last few months including that which allows people to be jailed for liking or sharing "terrorist" material like pro-Ukraine messages or laws that allows the government to monitor basically everything from phone calls to taking television viewership information.

This is merely the most important of many many things Russia has been doing from ripping off Swedish infrastructure development art to put on United Russia pamphlets to the bizarre banning of Pornhub. A bit more ominous is the ceasefire in Syria, due to end on Sunday as declared by Assad (the day of Russian elections), and as well a unilateral ceasefire declared by the Russia-directed separatists in Eastern Ukraine. My guess is Putin is preparing for mass civil unrest and some power struggle so is staffing his personal bodyguard unit the National Guard (who number some 350 - 400 000 OMON "riot police" and Kontraktniki [of which at least 10 000 are Ukraine vets] among other state security forces).

Russia's center for strategic research has predicted major riots and a rise of a major third party, while for example Caspian Report an amateur geostrategic analyst firm has pointed out Putin's very precarious political position that exists almost solely due to his popular support - which in turn comes from his domination of Russian media. Speaking of which Russian state media including RT might be facing large budget cuts for the years 2017 - 2018, and I am curious is that actually due to budget pressure or is it part of some strategic consideration.

I am more than a bit disappointed that any of this isnt already being discussed here. Surely people see the huge importance of whats happening? Russia's last parliamentary elections in 2011 saw massive street riots that were eventually quelled. What followed was the introduction of many new repressive laws including the current "foreign agents" law that has been put to good use. The absence of more mass rioting will basically prove that Putin has assumed complete control and demonstrate what totalitarianism means in the 21st century.

[Basil II the B.S]

They took money from Soros.
http://soros.dcleaks.com/download/?f=/Russia/Russia 2014 2017 Proposed Strategy.docx&t=eurasia

Of course they'd get banned. Soros is an expert in destabilizing countries for his own personal gains, he's a threat to national security. This thread is a a smearing campaign.

[Ziltoid]

They took money from Soros.
http://soros.dcleaks.com/download/?f=/Russia/Russia 2014 2017 Proposed Strategy.docx&t=eurasia

Of course they'd get banned. Soros is an expert in destabilizing countries for his own personal gains, he's a threat to national security. This thread is a a smearing campaign.

Id be bit more likely to take something like this seriously if it wasnt coming from blatant pro-kremlin, pro-russia source such as DCleaks. Seems to be just sophisticated information warfare done by Russia as "leaks" to push their own interests in media mostly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DCleaks

Soros is named an architect and a sponsor of almost every revolution and coup around the world for the last 25 years. The USA is thought to be a vampire due to him and his puppets, not a lighthouse of freedom and democracy. His minions spill blood of millions and millions of people just to make him even more rich.

Im no fan of him or his policies, but perhaps little bit more objective and professional criticism towards him perhaps? That kind of sensationalist rhetoric works only on easily mislead people. Only missing description of him having white cat on his lap with diamond collar and being part of Spectre.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...rom-nato-soros
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/201...ocrats-n637871

Russia is turning into authoritarian anti-democratic totalitarian country.

[Basil II the B.S]

Id be bit more likely to take something like this seriously if it wasnt coming from blatant pro-kremlin, pro-russia source such as DCleaks. Seems to be just sophisticated information warfare done by Russia as "leaks" to push their own interests in media mostly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DCleaks



Im no fanboy of him or his policies, but perhaps little bit more objective and professional criticism towards him perhaps? That kind of sensationalist rhetoric works only on easily mislead people. Only missing description of him having white cat on his lap with diamond collar and being part of Spectre.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...rom-nato-soros
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/201...ocrats-n637871

Russia is turning into authoritarian anti-democratic totalitarian country.

The hack was almost certainly done by Russians and that's simply because Soros has been pushing the West at war against Russia. Is it biased? Of course it is. It doesn't make the leaks any less legit.
Most leaks these days are out there to outline the questionable actions of Soros and his friends within Western governments and that's because they are actually that bad.
Even Wikileaks has been accused of pushing ''Putin's agenda'', simply on the basis that it exposes the corruption of the West.

Should we start ignoring leaks just because they are part of Russian cyberwarfare? It's not Russia's fault if Soros adopts manipulative and destabilizing tactics and prefers to remain behind the courtain. It's actually important to know who pulls lever in our countries.

If you care about transparency and the truth, then you have to accept the leaks whether you like Russians or not. If you don't, then you are just promoting falsehood.

[Ziltoid]

The hack was almost certainly done by Russians and that's simply because Soros has been pushing the West at war against Russia. Is it biased? Of course it is. It doesn't make the leaks any less legit.
Most leaks these days are out there to outline the questionable actions of Soros and his friends within Western governments and that's because they are actually that bad.
Even Wikileaks has been accused of pushing ''Putin's agenda'', simply on the basis that it exposes the corruption of the West.

Should we start ignoring leaks just because they are part of Russian cyberwarfare? It's not Russia's fault if Soros adopts manipulative and destabilizing tactics and prefers to remain behind the courtain. It's actually important to know who pulls lever in our countries.

If you care about transparency and the truth, then you have to accept the leaks whether you like Russians or not. If you don't, then you are just promoting falsehood.

Fair enough and im glad to see you are honest about it. Anyways the whole deal appears fairly shady due the origin and obvious biased onesided pushing. And considering how much Russia also likes to straight up lie as propaganda measure and spread falsehoods to cause so many smoke layers to make it hard to anymore see whats real, i have my reservations towards material like this. Also Russia's track record of assassinating whistleblowers and journalists that have criticised current russian leadership (polonium and novaja gazeta journalists) causes trust issues.

Im not gonna go dig through that massive cache of .pdf's though, so would have to be atleast some nutshell version before id check it even out.

[snuggans]

Russia's last independent polling center Levada Center has been declared a "foreign agent" and will subsequently have to be shut down, according to its director Lev Gudkov.

This followed Levada Center publishing a poll in which it showed a fall in popularity for the United Russia party.

yep, i've been warning about United Russia for years, of course as soon as Levada merely reports survey results which Putin doesn't like, they of course react in the authoritarian manner

the link between Putin and United Russia has always been there, so of course if either of them isn't doing well it's cause for concern for them

[chriscase]

Please restrict your comments to the topic at hand and avoid references to other members.

[Love Mountain]

Russia's last independent polling center Levada Center has been declared a "foreign agent" and will subsequently have to be shut down, according to its director Lev Gudkov. I assume all posters here have some familiarity with the organization as it has been referenced on many occasions on this forum especially in the Ukraine and Crimea thread over the years.

This followed Levada Center publishing a poll in which it showed a fall in popularity for the United Russia party. Im sure I dont have to repeat the other mass surveillance laws Russia has passed the last few months including that which allows people to be jailed for liking or sharing "terrorist" material like pro-Ukraine messages or laws that allows the government to monitor basically everything from phone calls to taking television viewership information.

It was only a matter of time seeing as how Putin has become increasingly more paranoid in the last few years of Western influence in Russian areas. The funny thing is that the Levada Center has only continued to provide proof that Putin's regime is still largely popular and that few alternatives to him exist. When other polls report Putin's approval as 70-80% and Levada shows 50-60%... I mean that's not even a negative. It means that your population is still largely approving your autocracy. This was definitely a mistake on Putin's part.

This is merely the most important of many many things Russia has been doing from ripping off Swedish infrastructure development art to put on United Russia pamphlets to the bizarre banning of Pornhub. A bit more ominous is the ceasefire in Syria, due to end on Sunday as declared by Assad (the day of Russian elections), and as well a unilateral ceasefire declared by the Russia-directed separatists in Eastern Ukraine. My guess is Putin is preparing for mass civil unrest and some power struggle so is staffing his personal bodyguard unit the National Guard (who number some 350 - 400 000 OMON "riot police" and Kontraktniki [of which at least 10 000 are Ukraine vets] among other state security forces).

A speculation based on largely nothing. Riots in Moscow in response to Crimea were only natural. A lot of Russians wanted to see Moscow and Berlin come together on the issue of Ukraine. And no... protests in Russian regions are unlikely to happen. Hell, I'd say there is no chance of a large scale protest comparable to Maidan.

Russia's center for strategic research has predicted major riots and a rise of a major third party, while for example Caspian Report an amateur geostrategic analyst firm has pointed out Putin's very precarious political position that exists almost solely due to his popular support - which in turn comes from his domination of Russian media. Speaking of which Russian state media including RT might be facing large budget cuts for the years 2017 - 2018, and I am curious is that actually due to budget pressure or is it part of some strategic consideration.

Putin's popularity hardly stems from Russian propaganda, you give it far too much credit. Russian people are incredibly cynical and always approach media with a great sense of skepticism. Putin's popularity stems from his actions and the relative economic prosperity compared to the 90s.

I am more than a bit disappointed that any of this isnt already being discussed here. Surely people see the huge importance of whats happening? Russia's last parliamentary elections in 2011 saw massive street riots that were eventually quelled. What followed was the introduction of many new repressive laws including the current "foreign agents" law that has been put to good use. The absence of more mass rioting will basically prove that Putin has assumed complete control and demonstrate what totalitarianism means in the 21st century.

What is there to discuss? In the last 5 years Russia has initiated a general crackdown on certain aspects of Internet access in Russia. Sometimes they make sense sometimes they don't... I don't know why Russia cracked down on some Russian based torrent trackers and pornhub. But I can totally see why other sites were.

[Abdülmecid I]

Thread closed, as the OP does not include any linked article concerning the topic at hand. Please, send me a private message with suggestions about improving the OP, so that the thread can be reopened.