Moscow Police Chief Questions Civil Liberties

[steven johnson]

Source: Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Moscow's police chief questioned Wednesday whether civil liberties are even practical when authorities need to keep law and order, the latest sign that ethnic tensions in Russia could lead to new democratic rollbacks.

His remarks backed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's comments on a possible restoration of strict Soviet era-restrictions on movement into big cities like Moscow or St. Petersburg, a move that seems to target dark-complexioned people in the Caucasus.

Kremlin critics say ethnic tensions are being deliberately fanned as a pretext to introduce repressive legislation ahead of Russia's 2012 presidential election. They say the measures floated by authorities could cripple attempts to hold peaceful anti-government demonstrations.

A young Slavic soccer fan died earlier this month in a fight with six men from the southern Caucasus, leading to a nationalist backlash that has spilled into racist violence on the streets. A protest outside the Kremlin saw thousands of Slavic hooligans chanting racist slogans, raising their hands in a Nazi salute and beating nonwhites.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/12/22/world/europe/AP-EU-Russia-Ethnic-Tensions.html?ref=world

[somone]

1. They need to improve arrest procedures...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=003_1293034978

[FiveGoodMen]

2. It's the same disease everywhere

[me b zola]

3. How American of him

" Moscow's police chief questioned Wednesday whether civil liberties are even practical when authorities need to keep law and order,..."

[txlibdem]

4. Yeah, I was going to say

Sounds like he's taking his cue from the "Good Ole U.S. of A."

[RZM]

6. *Yawn*

You're not being serious, are you? If you want to point out recent lapses in respect of civil liberties here, that's fine. But to argue that Russia, which has a very weak tradition of civil liberties, is taking cues from the US is really quite bizarre.

[COLGATE4]

5. Russian commitment to civil liberties is less than skin deep historically.