Vladivostok Riots over Car Tariffs

The Russian car industry is wobbling, and so, the Medvedev-Putin regime has increased the tariff on car imports. Vladivostok on the Pacific Coast is the port of entry for most Japanese and Korean cars. The increased tariff has hit the local economy particularly hard. Some people make a living driving cars from Vladivostok to the western part of Russia to sell them. The people have taken to the streets, and riot police arrived from Moscow 5,800 miles away to crack heads.

Vladimir Litvinov, a local human rights activist, said the police behaved “like beasts.” Because the protest was not directly political, he claims the police had no reason to break up the demonstration. Mr. Litvinov stated, “We support a civilized resolution to all the problems but when they send Moscow riot police to break up a gathering in our city, and they start breaking arms and legs and heads . . . . People are very, very angry. It's hard to predict what might happen now.” The police contend that the protesters had no permit.

MSNBC reported, “An AP reporter saw at least 10 journalists detained by police, who demanded that several journalists turn over videotapes and photo memory chips. Police wrecked a Japanese TV crew's video camera, and some journalists were beaten and kicked, including an AP photographer.” This is standard operating procedure among police forces around the world when they act with excessive force. They may never have been to Los Angeles but every cop in the world knows the name Rodney King.

Regional police say they have been forbidden from saying how many were arrested, but local organizers suggest as many as 100 people were hauled away as on-lookers mocked the police with chants of “Fascists” (in Russia, there are few insults worse) and “Shame!” Olga Nikolaevna, a 62-year-old retiree, told the press, “Riot police encircled the group ... even those just passing by, and they started taking people away without any sort of comment."

A gathering of about 200 in Moscow to protest the tariffs went off unmolested. One of the protesters there noted, “The Russian people have started to open their eyes to what's happening in this country. The current regime is not acting on behalf of the welfare of the people, but against the welfare of the people.”

The current regime exists for but one purpose, to perpetuate the power of the people in power. Falling commodity prices are going to hurt Russia, and its industrial production was off almost 11% in November. Nothing will come out of the Kremlin for the people, though, except for riot police.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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