'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the March election, in which he will seek to reclaim presidency, should be transparent and fair, but he rejected demands from swelling numbers of protesters for a rerun of the fraud-tainted parliamentary election.
Violent rampages outside the Kremlin have highlighted the need to strengthen public order and raise police prestige, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday, using the occasion to lash out at liberal critics.
An attack on a Russian opposition leader who testified before Congress last week has refocused attention on a bill to impose a U.S. travel ban on dozens of Russian officials suspected of complicity in the death of a Russian human rights lawyer in a Moscow prison last year.
A key leader of Russia's democratic opposition said this week that Russians are unsure of President Obama's position on support for democracy and human rights in Russia.
"People were different, but their attitude was the same," he said in an interview published Thursday in the daily newspaper Izvestia.
