Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09VLADIVOSTOK37
2009-03-18 04:14:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Consulate Vladivostok
Cable title:  

RESOLUTION EXPLAINS VLADIVOSTOK DEMONSTRATION AND DEMANDS

Tags:  PGOV ECON RS 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO2294
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDBU RUEHFK RUEHHM RUEHKSO RUEHLN RUEHNAG RUEHPB RUEHPOD
RUEHYG
DE RUEHVK #0037/01 0770414
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 180414Z MAR 09
FM AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1107
INFO RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHZU/ASIAN PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION
RUEHVK/AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 1209
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VLADIVOSTOK 000037 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV ECON RS
SUBJECT: RESOLUTION EXPLAINS VLADIVOSTOK DEMONSTRATION AND DEMANDS
RESIGNATIONS

VLADIVOSTO 00000037 001.2 OF 002


UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VLADIVOSTOK 000037

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV ECON RS
SUBJECT: RESOLUTION EXPLAINS VLADIVOSTOK DEMONSTRATION AND DEMANDS
RESIGNATIONS

VLADIVOSTO 00000037 001.2 OF 002



1. (U) Summary and comment: Post has informally translated
highlights of the joint resolution by members of the Intiative
Citizens of Russia Organization, "TIGR" and the Primorye Branch
of the Communist Party of Russia that was made public at the
March 15 demonstration in Vladivostok. Comment: It is likely
that TIGR is driving the economic points and the Communists the
political points. This is a marriage of convenience. Despite
the anti-Western tone, TIGR wants more integration with the West
and a more liberalized trade regime. The group was formed to
protest high tarrifs that are cutting off imports of foreign
cars, a source of livlihood for many Far Easterners. The
communists have more resources and organization experience but
they are able to benefit from TIGR's more relevent message and
ability to attract younger people to anti-government rallies.
To make sense of this union in political terms would require
some sort of material dialect reasoning that only a communist
could understand. The resolution calls for a return to direct
election for Governors, a stronger safety net for the elderly
and unemployed and it ends with a call for the resignation of
Prime Minister Putin and Primorye Governor Darkin. End summary
and comment.


2. (U) Begin Resolution Highlights: According to statistical
data, all sectors of the Primorye economy are faced with a
reduction of economic activity. Primorye ore and timber
processing industries are in collapse. Port turnover has
declined by 30-50%. Migration out of Primorye is a warning
signal, as 30,000 people have left Primorye. The general
demographic situation is worse than in other Russian regions.

Federal measures for customs fee increases for foreign cars has
had a negative impact on the social-economic climate in
Primorye. We foresee that only changes of the federal economic
course and industrial modernization in Primorye may improve the
situation.

Demands for the President and Russian Government:

Protest meeting participants demand a change from the current
anti-public regime to a Russian national interest protection
regime, a regime of patriots, expressing public will.
Participants demand changing the false western democracy regime,
anti-public democracy for rich people, bandits and bureaucrats,
to a public power regime of justice, freedom and prosperity.

We are not slaves. We do not want to play a raw-exports only
role for the West. We do not want sexual maniacs,
narco-dealers nearby our kids, the death of Russian villages,
explosions in our residences, and dangerous old airplanes."
Supporting a soccer team in England, Keeseville ski resorts, and
vacations in the Bahamas for the rich is a price too high for
the Russian nation.

We demand to answer to the question where is the money of the
Stabilization/Reserve Fund and National Prosperity Fund? We
demand a reply about growing falsifications and violations
during elections. We demand a thorough inspection of the
elections on March 1, 2009 elections. We demand a financial
audit of the Yedinaya Rossia Party. We demand cancellation of
the monetization of privileges for retired people and veterans
and to let them live calmly till the end their lives. We demand
a return to justice for minimum wages payments.

Demands for the Primorye Kray Administration and the Primorye
Legislative Assembly:

We demand to limit housing monthly payments to ten percent of a
month family income as it was during Soviet times. We demand to
know why transportation, energy, heating, and utility tariffs
increase while oil prices go down dramatically. We demand
restoration of jobs for all people fired in the framework of
"anti-crisis measures". We demand payment of all delayed wages,
accumulated by the end of 2008.

We support demands for justice from the TIGR public movement,
such as: a reduction of utility tariffs and oil products;
protection of the Russian Constitution against changes; salary
increases for budget sphere employees: teachers, doctors,
librarians,and not for state service authorities. We demand
pension increases for retired people, real freedom of voice,
cancellation of limitations for public meetings and
demonstrations; an end to anti-public changes in the Criminal
Code of Russia; reduction of customs tariffs for all types of
goods, full implementation of a termless moratorium for the use
of right hand cars; a reduction of the bureaucracy; efficient
anti-corruption measures; a return to "Against All Candidates"
in voting ballots; a return to the direct election of Governors;
and end to the destruction of Army reform; and a right to recall
deputies, governors and mayors.

We demand the resignation of Prime Minister Putin and Primorye

VLADIVOSTO 00000037 002.2 OF 002


Governor Darkin.
ARMBRUSTER