Putin Fears a Repetition of 1905 Bloody Sunday, Ryabchikov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 9 – In perhaps the clearest indication yet that present-day Russia is on the brink of a revolutionary situation, Sergey Ryabchikov says, the Putin regime has banned a church march on the anniversary of the murder of Nicholas II because of its fears that such a march could be a repetition of the 1905 events known as Bloody Sunday.

            On that date more than a century ago, workers marched on the Winter Palace demanding fundamental changes including an eight-hour workday. When the authorities fired on them, that led to the tsar becoming in the minds of the people “Bloody Nicholas” and opened the way to revolution.

            Putin and his camarilla, the Moscow commentator says, obviously fears there is a risk that something similar could happen again, that those marching in memory of the last tsar might choose that occasion to advance demands against the current regime and prompt the authorities to use force against them (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=60E88C4045D90).

            Unless the Kremlin dictator has such fears and believes that he must not take that risk, banning the church march in memory of the Imperial Family this year – it has gone ahead in the past – makes no sense. And that alone suggests that even those in the Kremlin share the views of an increasing number of Russians that the country is moving into revolutionary times.