Putin's 400,000 strong bodyguard

[Stones of granite]

Hey UG, what's the official line from the Kremlin on Putin's new Praetorian Guard?

From over here it looks like Putin is worried about a popular revolt and has formed this personal guard to save himself from swinging from a lampost once his subjects work out where all there money has gone. Perhaps Putin is a little paranoid about what happened to his vassal Viktor Yanukovych, and of course, unlike Yanukovych, Putin has nowhere he can simply jet off to and hide.

The head of his new Guard force is Viktor Zolotov, one of Putin’s judo sparring partners and a former bodyguard. He has been appointed head of this 400,000-strong force which incorporates interior troops, the elite Omon riot squad, and the SOBR rapid-reaction unit. The head of Russia's presidential security services from 2000 to 2013, and most recently head of the interior ministry troops, Zolotov also spent 20 years as a bodyguard to various Soviet leaders. He will report directly to Mr Putin in his new role. Needless to say Mr Zolotov has been described as a man "totally devoted to and loyal to" Mr Putin.

This “security force” has been training to disperse "protesters" carrying flags that read "Down with corruption" and "Give us back our money". There have been exercises involving hundreds of riot police backed by water cannon and other crowd dispersal equipment which has been filmed and uploaded to YouTube by the pro-democracy group Open Russia. Amongst other locations, these have taken place in the volatile North Caucus region and in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Looks like a worried man.

[UGagain]

Hey UG, what's the official line from the Kremlin on Putin's new Praetorian Guard?

From over here it looks like Putin is worried about a popular revolt and has formed this personal guard to save himself from swinging from a lampost once his subjects work out where all there money has gone. Perhaps Putin is a little paranoid about what happened to his vassal Viktor Yanukovych, and of course, unlike Yanukovych, Putin has nowhere he can simply jet off to and hide.

The head of his new Guard force is Viktor Zolotov, one of Putin’s judo sparring partners and a former bodyguard. He has been appointed head of this 400,000-strong force which incorporates interior troops, the elite Omon riot squad, and the SOBR rapid-reaction unit. The head of Russia's presidential security services from 2000 to 2013, and most recently head of the interior ministry troops, Zolotov also spent 20 years as a bodyguard to various Soviet leaders. He will report directly to Mr Putin in his new role. Needless to say Mr Zolotov has been described as a man "totally devoted to and loyal to" Mr Putin.

This “security force” has been training to disperse "protesters" carrying flags that read "Down with corruption" and "Give us back our money". There have been exercises involving hundreds of riot police backed by water cannon and other crowd dispersal equipment which has been filmed and uploaded to YouTube by the pro-democracy group Open Russia. Amongst other locations, these have taken place in the volatile North Caucus region and in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Looks like a worried man.

Laughable troll.

[rowan]

Let's not talk about all the Western leaders embroiled in this scandal - least of all the Americans, who were curiously omitted, for the most part. Meanwhile, there's actually nothing concrete on Putin. The Western media is extra keen to discredit him now because he made NATO look sick in Syria and foiled all their not-so-covert plans for regime change

[jared_7]

I'm pretty sure journalists went in and did independent polls, and Putin's rating with something like 90%, unheard of in the Western world. Any "revolt" will be a fringe organisation armed to the hilt by the West.

[morepork]

Classic.

[Eugene Wrayburn]

I'm pretty sure journalists went in and did independent polls, and Putin's rating with something like 90%, unheard of in the Western world. Any "revolt" will be a fringe organisation armed to the hilt by the West.

Those ratings are so much easier if you have control of the media and arrest people who dissent. If you lived in a state where dissenters were arrested and murdered and someone you didn't know came to ask you whether you liked the Prime Minister, what would your answer be?

[jared_7]

I'm pretty sure journalists went in and did independent polls, and Putin's rating with something like 90%, unheard of in the Western world. Any "revolt" will be a fringe organisation armed to the hilt by the West.

Those ratings are so much easier if you have control of the media and arrest people who dissent. If you lived in a state where dissenters were arrested and murdered and someone you didn't know came to ask you whether you liked the Prime Minister, what would your answer be?

Why is this security force being assembled to address ongoing protestors? It seems to me as though there wouldn't be any protestors at all if protesting meant death?

[Stones of granite]

Hey UG, what's the official line from the Kremlin on Putin's new Praetorian Guard?

From over here it looks like Putin is worried about a popular revolt and has formed this personal guard to save himself from swinging from a lampost once his subjects work out where all there money has gone. Perhaps Putin is a little paranoid about what happened to his vassal Viktor Yanukovych, and of course, unlike Yanukovych, Putin has nowhere he can simply jet off to and hide.

The head of his new Guard force is Viktor Zolotov, one of Putin’s judo sparring partners and a former bodyguard. He has been appointed head of this 400,000-strong force which incorporates interior troops, the elite Omon riot squad, and the SOBR rapid-reaction unit. The head of Russia's presidential security services from 2000 to 2013, and most recently head of the interior ministry troops, Zolotov also spent 20 years as a bodyguard to various Soviet leaders. He will report directly to Mr Putin in his new role. Needless to say Mr Zolotov has been described as a man "totally devoted to and loyal to" Mr Putin.

This “security force” has been training to disperse "protesters" carrying flags that read "Down with corruption" and "Give us back our money". There have been exercises involving hundreds of riot police backed by water cannon and other crowd dispersal equipment which has been filmed and uploaded to YouTube by the pro-democracy group Open Russia. Amongst other locations, these have taken place in the volatile North Caucus region and in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Looks like a worried man.

Laughable troll.

Awww, is that the best the Kremlin could give you? No plausible explanation for why Putin is taking control of the security apparatus away from the Interior Ministry and taking personal control?

[rowan]

Those ratings are so much easier if you have control of the media and arrest people who dissent. If you lived in a state where dissenters were arrested and murdered and someone you didn't know came to ask you whether you liked the Prime Minister, what would your answer be?

Sounds a bit like the country I do live in, to be honest. But I have more faith in the media here than the corporate media in the west, because it does not simply serve the interests of the regime when it comes to foreign policy and bombing other countries to smithereens.

The Panama Papers project was funded in part by the Ford & Kellogg foundations and the Rockefeller Family Fund. They and the journalists they worked with decided what would be made available and what would be withheld. Vladimir Putin's name is actually not mentioned, though he dominated Western headlines when the story first broke. Meanwhile, Americans are conspicuous by their absence because they can 'legally' avoid taxes in states such as Wyoming and Nevada.

The release of the paers, as mentioned, conveniently follows what has clearly been a huge public relations victory for Russia with their effectiveness in Syria while the Western powers funded the rebels/terrorists and Obama hinted at another interminable war to go with America's collection of them right across the Islamic world.

[UGagain]

Hey UG, what's the official line from the Kremlin on Putin's new Praetorian Guard?

From over here it looks like Putin is worried about a popular revolt and has formed this personal guard to save himself from swinging from a lampost once his subjects work out where all there money has gone. Perhaps Putin is a little paranoid about what happened to his vassal Viktor Yanukovych, and of course, unlike Yanukovych, Putin has nowhere he can simply jet off to and hide.

The head of his new Guard force is Viktor Zolotov, one of Putin’s judo sparring partners and a former bodyguard. He has been appointed head of this 400,000-strong force which incorporates interior troops, the elite Omon riot squad, and the SOBR rapid-reaction unit. The head of Russia's presidential security services from 2000 to 2013, and most recently head of the interior ministry troops, Zolotov also spent 20 years as a bodyguard to various Soviet leaders. He will report directly to Mr Putin in his new role. Needless to say Mr Zolotov has been described as a man "totally devoted to and loyal to" Mr Putin.

This “security force” has been training to disperse "protesters" carrying flags that read "Down with corruption" and "Give us back our money". There have been exercises involving hundreds of riot police backed by water cannon and other crowd dispersal equipment which has been filmed and uploaded to YouTube by the pro-democracy group Open Russia. Amongst other locations, these have taken place in the volatile North Caucus region and in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Looks like a worried man.

Laughable troll.

Awww, is that the best the Kremlin could give you? No plausible explanation for why Putin is taking control of the security apparatus away from the Interior Ministry and taking personal control?

You appear to be suffering from a severe case of Russophobia. You should stop having unprotected intercourse with raving neoconservatives.

[UGagain]

I'm pretty sure journalists went in and did independent polls, and Putin's rating with something like 90%, unheard of in the Western world. Any "revolt" will be a fringe organisation armed to the hilt by the West.

Those ratings are so much easier if you have control of the media and arrest people who dissent. If you lived in a state where dissenters were arrested and murdered and someone you didn't know came to ask you whether you liked the Prime Minister, what would your answer be?

Not only does Putin have stellar approval ratings in Russia (that any western political poltroon would die for), he's probably the most respected politician on the planet in global public opinion.

[rowan]

If he wasn't before smashing ISIS in Syria, and bringing a possible end-in-sight to what appeared to be another protracted Middle Eastern conflict/proxy war, he surely is now.

[Eugene Wrayburn]

I'm pretty sure journalists went in and did independent polls, and Putin's rating with something like 90%, unheard of in the Western world. Any "revolt" will be a fringe organisation armed to the hilt by the West.

Those ratings are so much easier if you have control of the media and arrest people who dissent. If you lived in a state where dissenters were arrested and murdered and someone you didn't know came to ask you whether you liked the Prime Minister, what would your answer be?

Why is this security force being assembled to address ongoing protestors? It seems to me as though there wouldn't be any protestors at all if protesting meant death?

Aye because no one protested in Tsarist Russia or Stalin's Russia, or in Iran or in Lebanon, or in Egypt or in China...

Jesus wept.

[cashead]

I'd like to think that when Putin travels, he'll have the 400,000 travelling around with him.

[UGagain]

Those ratings are so much easier if you have control of the media and arrest people who dissent. If you lived in a state where dissenters were arrested and murdered and someone you didn't know came to ask you whether you liked the Prime Minister, what would your answer be?

Why is this security force being assembled to address ongoing protestors? It seems to me as though there wouldn't be any protestors at all if protesting meant death?

Aye because no one protested in Tsarist Russia or Stalin's Russia, or in Iran or in Lebanon, or in Egypt or in China...

Jesus wept.

I'm struggling to detect a point in that comment.

[UGagain]

Police arrested more than 400 protesters outside the U.S. Capitol on Monday from Democracy Spring, an organization seeking to remove big money from politics and combat restrictive voter identification laws.
The mostly calm and orderly demonstration resulted in arrests for what the U.S. Capitol Police called “unlawful demonstration activity” such as crowding and obstruction.
Organizers vowed to repeat the demonstration every day for a week.
The protest was held “to demand Congress take immediate action to end the corruption of big money in our politics and ensure free and fair elections,” Democracy Spring said on its website.

....and......

Trust in the news media is being eroded by perceptions of inaccuracy and bias, fueled in part by Americans’ skepticism about what they read on social media.

Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public’s view of other institutions. In this presidential campaign year, Democrats were more likely to trust the news media than Republicans or independents.

[caldeyrfc]

Jeeeez it's getting like foxnews on here