Putin's high approval ratings not real, says Pussy Riot

[uhnope]

Source: Edmonton Sun

LONDON - President Vladimir Putin may not be as popular as opinion polls suggest in Russia because the public has only limited access to information and the media is tightly controlled, members of the feminist punk protest band Pussy Riot said.

Putin's approval ratings have soared to more than 80 percent since the start of the crisis in Ukraine and remained high despite an economic downturn and currency crisis. Band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina served jail sentences for a profanity-laced protest in 2012 against Putin in Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral, which offended many Orthodox Christians.

"We don't think it's possible to talk about any kind of statistics of support or non-support for the president when people lack information," Alyokhina, 26, told Reuters during a visit to London this week. "Putin's ratings are directly dependent on the content of the television programmes. If you look at the level of propaganda ... it has increased a lot since the start of the Ukrainian revolution," Tolokonnikova, 25, said.

The pair said they felt hopeful for Russia's divided opposition, many members of whom have remained in Russia and continued their political activities although mass rallies against Putin in the winter of 2011-12 faded.

Read more: http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/11/21/putins-high-approval-ratings-not-real-says-pussy-riot

[shenmue]

1. I'm sure they're right

I have a feeling Pooty Poot gives everyone in Russia the creeps, the same as he does elsewhere. The reason people "appear" to support him is, probably, they're afraid to get killed if they don't. They look at what he's doing in Ukraine and figure he'll do the same to them.

[JEFF9K]

2. Putin's approval ratings may actually be higher among ...

American Republicans.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. Ah, the noted pollsters Pussy Riot.

She may well be correct, but hers is just another opinion.

[Raster]

4. True, hers is just another opinion... and one that goes against the KGB partyline.

Pollsters, Pussy Riot may not be. But certainly Russian patriots.

[uhnope]

6. not just another opinion. The opinion of PUSSY RIOT jailed by Putin for singing a song

which makes them a kind of expert in government repression

Love Live Pussy Riot

[tabasco]

9. As is yours,

an anonymous Internet poster.

[samsingh]

5. we can't believe anything coming out of state media

[dawn frenzy adams]

7. Puh-leez!

I thought this Pussy Riot propaganda was over. It has long been revealed that they are funded by the U.S. State Department. They're nothing put a P.R. stunt cooked up by the West. They don't play instruments, and they really don't have any songs. The name Pussy Riot seems to be designed for a dumb American audience- than a Russian one. We act as though throwing them in prison for what they did in that church was harsh and cruel. Yet, if that would have occurred here, the penalties would have been worse. The Dixie Chicks entire career was destroyed because they said 'they were, sorry Bush was from Texas.' Furthermore, we have the largest prison population in the world. We shoot citizens 40 times because we claim their wallet was a gun. We shoot teenagers while walking from a store. We shoot teenagers in the back while running from the police. Instead of being concern with what the rest of the world is doing, (and believe me it isn't because our country believes in the dignity of humanity), why don't we solve America's problems of injustice?

[uhnope]

8. very interesting. please tell us more

about what Putin wants us to think

[EX500rider]

13. "It has long been revealed that they are funded by the U.S. State Department" lol

Here's their Wikki page, please point out the "funded by the State Dept" part:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pussy_Riot

Or let me guess, it's a secret only you and RT and Putin know...

Also a US band would not have gone to prison for years for what they did.

And the Dixie Chicks "entire career" was not destroyed, the Bush fracas happened in 2003 yet:

As of 2014, Dixie Chicks have won 13 Grammy Awards, including five in 2007 for Taking the Long Way—which received the Grammy Award for Album of the Year—and "Not Ready to Make Nice", a single from that album. By May 2013, with 30.5 million certified albums sold, and sales of 27.2 million albums in the U.S. alone, they had become the top selling all-female band and biggest selling country group in the U.S. during the Nielsen SoundScan era (1991–present)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks

[geek tragedy]

17. LMAO. nt

[Cha]

18. Rofl

[chrisa]

22. Can't tell if this is dry sarcasm, but if so, it's right on.

[joshcryer]

10. Wishful thinking.

Putin has created a new ultra-nationalism that makes it likely the polls support him.

He might even get elected one day.

Pussy riot is in their own bubble.

[Ash_F]

12. They are not saying the polls are wrong.

They are saying the people are being mislead. Article title is a bit misleading.

[joshcryer]

15. Fair enough.

I admit I didn't read the article.

You're right on that count.

[Ash_F]

11. The daily show did a bit on Russia a while ago.

It is way more right wing than I expected. Flat tax. No protection against religious or ethnic discrimination in hiring. Many, many problems.

It sounds like a teabagger's paradise.

[uhnope]

14. yep...Putin is basically a RWer which is why FOX and others like him

and why the Putin supporters on DU are obvious frauds with their fake Sanders and Warren logos

[joshcryer]

16. Their anti-Americanism blinds them.

They think that if Putin is against America it must be a good thing, no matter his policies. I've seen people defend the anti-gay law here, for crying out loud.

[Cha]

19. "Teabagger's Paradise".. precisely, Ash..

[LeftyMom]

20. Jeff Sharlet's work in Russia earlier this year was great too.

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/big-issues/201402/being-gay-in-russia

One aspect of the story of what's going on right now that's under-reported is the influence of American RW Christians in Russia. A lot of weird American sects turned up to evangelize as soon as the cold war wound down, and Russians took some already weird and hateful religions and made them weirder and more hateful under the nearly total non-supervision of their denominations' leadership.

My area is full of Russian immigrants who are "Russian Baptist" (which is a misnomer, it's an offshoot of the Assemblies of God with some Pentecostal Holiness doctrines added in) and they're entirely convinced that POCs and gay people are infested with demons and that their evil is contagious. They're also as opposed to mental health care as any Scientologist. It makes for a real fucking weird crime blotter, needless to say.

I can't imagine living with neighbors who believe that way in a country where the laws will back them up when they decide to get violent. It's a fucking scary thought.

[Exultant Democracy]

21. We elected George Bush twice and boy did the people love him when he landed on the aircraft carrier.

If Bush had been what he was pretending to be he would have stayed popular too. Putin is everything that the Bush was supposed to me. Tough as shit, the capital D decider, and he can break a bears neck from fifty paces with a look.