Tariff Protests in Eastern Port Rattle Kremlin

The New York Times ^ | February 16, 2009 | CLIFFORD J. LEVY

[ihatedemocrats]

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia — Vladimir Kirillov and Vitaly Sukhinin and their co-conspirators once had little interest in politics. They were rat-a-tat-tat salesmen here in Russia’s Far East who did a thriving trade in secondhand vehicles imported from Japan. But then the government reacted to the financial crisis by imposing steep tariffs on their industry.

[...]

[PapaBear3625]

The government grew so alarmed in late December that it took the extraordinary step of sending special riot police officers to Vladivostok from Moscow, nine hours away by plane, to break up one rally.

It's interesting that Putin would be afraid of protests thousands of miles from Moscow, enough to take special measures to violently disrupt them.

[1010RD]

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