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Tag: Field of Mars
International Women's Day in St. Petersburg: Defying the Ban
Feminist activists queuing to picket at International Woman's Day protest on the corner of Malaya Sadovaya and Nevsky in Petersburg. Photo by AnFem
AN-FEM
The Banned Eighth of March, Petersburg
Once upon a time, the danger and risk in men's lives were considered the basis of their alleged superiority over women. Only those who walked the razor's edge looked danger and even death in the face and were thus spiritually elevated.
"My body is my business." Picketer at International Women's Day protest in Petersburg. Photo by AnFem
When today, International Women's Day, the Petersburg authorities have used the pretext of events that did not even take place, including the Shoulder to Lean On Festival, to prohibit women from publicly speaking out about the issues that matter to them in any way, all that remained for them was step onto their own razor's edge and take to the streets, risking their own safety and freedom, and thus one more time (if someone has not heard the argument) assert that archaic segregation is unacceptable.
Because, under these circumstances, each step is a small victory. Among other things, it is a victory over oneself and one's own fear. Each step is a reclaimed meter of urban space that should belong to people, but does not belong to them. It is a small step towards freedom, a step toward oneself — through the political, through the raucous intrusion into the chronotope of a spring day somewhere in the middle of an ugly regime. A small step into our common holiday. No one is free until everyone is free.
Photo reportage by AnFem
"On March 8, I think about women political prisoners, not spring." Picketer at International Women's Day protest in Petersburg. Photo by AnFem
Female Activists Hold Flash Mob Dance on the Field of Mars to Protest Violence Against Women; Pickets Held on Nevsky Prospect
Bumaga
MBKh Media reports that a feminist protest rally has taken place on the Field of Mars during which female activists played drums and performed chants protesting violence against women.
The rally featured a dance flash mob. The girls [sic] chanted such lines, in particular, as "The patriarchy is a judge / that judges me for being born. / And my punishment is / violence day after day." As MBKh Media reports, the Petersburg women borrowed the idea from Chilean feminists.
Feminist activists performing a flash mob dance and chant on the Field of Mars in Petersburg. Photo by AnFem
In addition, a series of pickets took place on the corner of Nevsky Prospect and Malaya Sadovaya, reports the web publication Sever.Realii. The picketers protested domestic violence and the law against "promotion" of homosexual relations, and in support of female political prisoners. Protest organizers had originally planned a rally [on Lenin Square], but city authorities refused to sanction it.
Thanks to AnFem for the photos and the first text. Translated by the Russian Reader
By hecksinductionhourin censorship, feminism, petrograd, photographs, protest March 8, 2020 March 8, 2020 485 WordsLeave a comment
If a Tree Falls in the Forest, Does It Make a Sound?
The Field of Mars is in the center of Petersburg, but it is conveniently isolated from well-populated residential neighborhoods and high streets. Unless they are extremely well attended, most political rallies held on the famous former parade grounds and revolutioanry mass burial site go unnoticed by the vast majority of Petersburgers. Photo courtesy of Andrew Shiva and Wikipedia
Up the River: The Smolny Will Expand List of Venues for Political Rallies
Mikhail Shevchuk
Delovoi Peterburg
As soon as he took up his duties as acting governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov announced plans to amend the law on political rallies.
"We need to make changes and introduce order, so there were will be no violations on either side," he said at a meeting of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights in October.
The Smolny has now drafted amendments to the law. The principle of "Hyde Parks," that is, of specially designated places where Petersburgers can vent their indignation without prior notification of the authorites, remains in force. However, the Smolny has proposed establishing a minimum number of such places, eight in all.
The current law on political rallies does not specify the number of venues. City hall publishes the list of political rally sites in an ordinance. Originally, in 2012, the Field of Mars (or, rather, a small part of it) was designated the city's "Hyde Park." Two years later, four more venues were added: Udelny Park, Polyustrovsky Park, Yuzhno-Primorsky Park, and 30th Anniversary of October Gardens. The Field of Mars was struck from the list last year.
Yuzhno-Primorsky Park is located in the far southwest of Petersburg. It is four kilometers from the nearest subway station, and three kilometers from the nearest suburban railroad station. Map courtesy of Yandex
Theoretically, it is possible to organize demonstrations in other places, but city hall usually refuses to sanction the rallies under various pretexts, suggesting to organizers they use one of the designated "Hyde Parks." As a matter of principle, however, the opposition avoids the "Hyde Parks," which are all situated in the city's outskirts. Instead, they prefer to assemble at such traditional sites for political rallies as Lenin Square, Pioneer Square and, sometimes, even Palace Square, although they risk fines and forcible dispersal by police.
The maximum number of people who can attend a political rally held without prior notification of the authorities would range from 200 to 500 people under the amended law. As under the old law, State Duma MPs, members of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, and members of the city's municipal district councils would be able to hold meetings with constituents on the streets.
Officials would now calculate how many people can attend a political rally at a particular venue according to the norm of one person per square meter. Lenin Square and Pioneer Square would thus be able to accommodate rallies attended by as many as 10,000 people. Organizers would also be obliged to inform officials of canceled rallies under the threat of a fine of 5,000 rubles for individuals and 100,000 rubles for legal entities.
"It's not the number of sites that matters," said Andrei Pivovarov, leader of the local office of Open Russia. "And no one has ever been fined for going over the maximum number of attendees. One venue would be enough for us, but as long as it is in downtown Petersburg. If the venues are going to be in the outskirts, city hall could give us a dozen such places, but we would try to protest downtown anyway."
However, Pivovarov said that if the new list included the Field of Mars, Lenin Square, and Pioneer Square, the opposition would be quite satisfied and make use of these venues.
St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly member Maxim Reznik also named the two squares. He said the number of people attending a rally and the convenience of Petersburgers were more important than a particular place. The opposition was always ready for dialogue, he said. However, if the regime made a point of tightening the screws, dissenters, Reznik said, would choose the paddy wagon, that is, they would choose to attend an unauthorized rally rather than cancel it.
By hecksinductionhourin petrograd, politics, protest, regime, rights, urban December 4, 2018 December 4, 2018 695 WordsLeave a comment
Free and Fair, or, The All-Russian University of Justice
Tests on Protest Rallies and Compulsory Voting in Workplaces: What Is Happening in Petersburg's Public Sector Institutions as the Election Nears
Vladislav Chirin and Sofia Volyanova
In early March, a test about the law on protest rallies was distributed to lecturers in Petersburg's tertiary educational institutions. Pupils at Petersburg schools have been forced to take the same test, while employees of schools and hospitals report they have been forced to apply for absentee ballots and vote at different polling stations under threat of punishment.
Bumaga has been monitoring the goings-on in Petersburg's public sector institutions in the run-up to the March 18 presidential ballot. In the following article, we discuss what violations have already surfaced.
Schoolchildren Required to Pass Test about Law on Protest Rallies
Pupils at a school in the Vyborg District told Bumaga that on March 6 all groups had been excused from classes in order to take a test on protest rallies. In particular, the pupils were quizzed on whether participants of public events had the right to bear arms and under what circumstances demonstrations could be held on Palace Square and Nevsky Prospect.
"Tests like this have been handed out in Petersburg schools. This is only the second page of the test, featuring questions about the Field of Mars, invitations to protest rallies via the internet from persons unknown, etc." Post courtesy of Telegram channel Somebody Else
According to senior pupils at the school, teachers removed them from their second period classes and made them stay during the break to familiarize them with the test. In the event, the teachers explained to the pupils what the right answers were.
When the pupils asked whether the test was connected with protest rallies organized by opposition politican Alexei Navalny, the teahers replied the test was being administered since a pupil at the school had been detained at one such rally and fined.
Central District School Headmaster and Vocational School Employee Talk about Compulsory Test
Svetlana Lebedeva, headmaster of Gymnasium No. 168 in Petersburg, also talked about the test. According to her, the prosecutor's office had sent them the test, demanding it be administered to upperclassmen.
"It was by order of the district prosecutor's office. The order was sent to Nelly Simakova, head of the Central District education department. They sent it to us. All the schools did it. The test was on Saturday, and today the pupils who were absent on Saturday took the test," Ms. Lebedeva told MR7.ru.
On March 6, the same test was administered to students at all the city's vocational schools, an employee at one of them told Bumaga.
MR7.ru also published a screenshot of the letter sent to educational institutions. The letter makes it clear the testing had been administered at the behest of the city's education committee after an urgent request from the Petersburg prosecutor's office.
A pupil at Lyceum No. 126 has also told Bumaga that, during an event for war veterans on March 6, one of the guests took to the stage and urged attendees to vote for Vladimir Putin.
The prosecutor's office and the education committee did not return our telephone calls.
Council of Rectors Sent Test on Protest Rallies to Lecturers at Tertiary Educational Institutions
Lecturers at Petersburg's tertiary educational institutions allegedly received the same test about the law on protest rallies, only electronically.
Echo of Moscow reporter and Higher School of Economics graduate student Valery Nechay published a letter allegedly sent to Petersburg's tertiary educational institutions. The letter asks university employees to take the test online "at the request of the Council of Rectors."
"Dear colleagues! At the request of the Council of Rectors, staff at all educational organizations in St. Petersburg, including the Higher School of Economics, are being tested in order to determine the level of their knowledge of the laws on rules for holding and attending large-scale public events and the penalties for violating them. We strongly encourage to take ten minutes from your busy schedules and answer the questions before March 12, 2018. The correct answers will be provided immediately after you complete the test. To take the test, follow this link." Post courtesy of Telegram channel Unexpected Joy.
The test, a link to which Nechay has published, features questions about the rights of people attending protest rallies and punishment for extremism. Some of the questions describe particular circumstances, for example, "You have been invited on the internet to attend a protest rally on the Field of Mars. The rally in question has not been authorized by the relevant executive authorities for the exact time or day listed. You are curious, however, and so you go to the rally. Have you violated the law?"
Students at Petersburg University Say They Have Been Forced to Monitor Elections
First-year students at the Petersburg campus of the All-Russian State University of Justice have been assigned "compulsory on-the-job training" on March 18: they must attend the presidental election as grassroots monitors. They told the organization Petersburg Observers about their plight.
The correspondence published by Petersburg Observers makes it clear that if the students fail to report for duty they have been threatened with administrative punishments and bad marks in their permanent record. But if they show up for duty, they allegedly will have a day off on Monday, March 19, and be sent official thank-you letters.
"Where do the fake election observers come from? On March 4, 2012 [the date of the previous presidential election] grassroots oversight was usually portrayed by pensioners and state employees. Over the past six years, however, the fake election observers movement has mastered the streams of financing, gone large scale, and become much younger. For example, first-year students at the Petersburg campus of the All-Russian University of Justice received this message from their class leader: 'March 18 is a school day, compulsory on-the-job training, meaning that everyone will be a grassroots election observer at the polls. Sponsored by the Association of Lawyers, our university is officially taking part in the Observers Corps for Clean Elections event, so if you do not show up you face administrative penalties and a bad mark in your permanent record.' In addition to free food and transportation on voting day, letters of gratitude and a day off from classes on March 19 have been promised to the students. Basically, this is how correct public opinion is forged: in return for a day off, free grub, and a certificate of [political] trustworthiness." Screenshot of a post on the VK community page of Petersburg Observers for Fair Elections
A student at the Petersburg campus of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) has told Bumaga that out-of-town students at the academy are going to be forced to vote in the presidential election. However, he was unaware of whether the students would be encouraged for turning out or punished for failing to vote.
"Very Important Information! In the next 30 minutes ALL out-of-two students need to shoot back the following information: what resources you will use to vote in the March 18 Russian presidential election; where you will vote (at what polling station); how you will register to vote. Send it to https://vk.com/%5Bdeleted]. […] Basically, we have been asked by [illegible] to register as many people living in each section as possible to vote. Meaning that each manager is responsible for his section and, subsequently, for sending everyone off to vote. The section in which the most people vote will get the Prize Sector [a reference to the "prize" section on the spinning wheel in the Russian version of Wheel of Fortune]. Ideally, you could assemble your entire section and all go together to the district voting commission. This is a mandatory request that concerns everyone. I think it is in our interest to give our vote . . ." Screenshoots of correspondence among RANEPA students. Courtesy of Bumaga
Schoolteachers and State Employees in Petersburg Say They Are Being Forced to Apply for Absentee Ballots and Vote Somewhere Other than Their Own Polling Stations
A teacher at a school in the Central District has told Bumaga that the school's headmaster has obliged the entire teaching staff to report to the polling station in School No. 183 [an English-language magnet school on Kirochnaya Street in downtown Petersburg] on voting day. According to her, the teachers in all Central District schools have been given the same orders.
According to the teacher, if staff fail to vote as instructed, they will be given extra work during the spring holidays, from March 26 to April 1. When the voting is over, the headmasters of the Central District's schools will receive lists of teachers who reported to the polling station in School No. 183, the teacher said. Her headmaster added, however, the orders were "not his whim," but that all school headmeasters had received the same orders from the "top brass."
Instances in which the heads of state-sector institutions have tried to force staff and students to apply for absentee ballots and vote at other polling stations have been reported by Petersburgers claiming to be employed at the Center for the Social Rehabilitation of Disabled People and Disabled Children in the Krasnoye Selo District, the Center for Social Assistance to Families and Children in the Central District, the Alexander Hospital, Children's Health Clinic No. 68, Children's Health Clinic No. 71, the Leningrad Regional School for Culture and Art, School No. 684 [a kindergarten and grammar school in the Kirov District in the city's south], and the Municipal Monitoring Center.
Violations Reported by Members of Several Petersburg Election Commissions
Member of Precinct Election Commission No. 1164, located in City Hospital No. 15, have reported that Irina Nikolich, the polling station's deputy chair, had drawn up absentee ballot declarations, based on photocopies of four voters' internal passports, although the voters themselves were not present at the polling station, and Nikolich came to the polling station when it was not her shift.
The polling station was visited by police officers, who interviewed witnesses and submitted the evidence to the Investigative Committee.
Members of Territorial Election Commissions No. 1 and No. 14 have reported to Bumaga that in their electoral districts, precinct commissions had in several instances approved four ballot boxes for at-home voting, although only three ballot boxes are legally required. The extra ballot boxes could lead to vote rigging and ballot box stuffing.
On the evening of March 7, Territorial Election Commission No. 1 reduced the number of mobile ballot boxes in its district to three.
Students at St. Petersburg State University of Film and Television Complain They Have Been Forced to Vote (Updated March 10, 2018)
A student at the University of Film and Television told Bumaga he and his classmates in the Screen Arts Department had received a message from the student leader of second-year students.
The message made it clear that the master of the filmmaking course had informed the student leader that students who did not vote would be threatened with explusion, said the source. The dean's office had allegedly issued the orders, and all students were required to register to vote at the same polling station.
Another student at the university told Bumaga she and her classmates had received messages containing a list of five polling stations at which they had to register to vote. Information about whether a student had registered to vote or not would allegedly be reported to their department. The students were promised they would be given postcards at the polling stations that could be used to get into a private screening of the film Dovlatov, the young woman told us.
By hecksinductionhourin academics, petrograd, politics, protest, putinism, regime, youth, zeitgeist March 12, 2018 March 12, 2018 1,916 Words1 Comment
Breaking Bad with the FSB
The Russian Federal Security Service or FSB enjoys breaking doors down in its pursuit of fictitious "extremists" and "terrorists." Photo courtesy of Pinterest
The FSB Breaks Left
A second anarchist from the mythical organization The Network (Set') has been remanded to police custody at the request of counterintelligence. Viktor Filinkov and Igor Shiskin are suspected of planning an armed insurrection to seize power
Alexander Yermakov
Fontanka.ru
The purge of the anarchist movement in Petersburg is due to no more and no less than alleged plans to violently overthrow Vladimir Putin. This is the background the FSB has invoked as it has arrested the young men. They are accused of involvement in a terrorist association about which the courts, the Justice Ministry, and the National Anti-Terrorist Committee have never heard.
Anarchist Igor Shishkin was sent to the remand prison on Shpalernaya Street in Petersburg on the evening of January 27. He was detained two days earlier by FSB officers, taken to their regional headquarters on Liteiny Prospect, and interrogated for nearly twenty-four hours, except for short breaks. His interrogators focused on Shishkin's involvement in the anarchist movement and alleged plans for violent acts whose objective was overthrowing the current government through an armed insurrection.
As someone suspected of involvement in a terrorist network (Criminal Code Article 205.4 Part 2), the 26-year-old Shishkin was detained only this morning. After Petersburg's Dzerzhinsky District made its ruling, he joined Viktor Filinkov, a 23-year-old programmer and Kazakhstani national, who had been remanded to police custody a day earlier, in the remand prison.
According to investigators, Shiskin, Filinkov, and unidentified persons who espoused the anarchist ideology were involved, allegedly, in the so-called Field of Mars (aka Mars) branch of the terrorist organization The Network no later than August 2016. Their purpose was to plan crimes and engage in terrorist activists that the Criminal Code defines quite clearly: the violent seizure of power and armed insurrection.
There is no mention of The Network (Set') on the web, unless, of course, you do not count the eponymous organization set up by the pro-Kremlin youth organization Nashi. You will also not be able to find The Network in official documents. The Unified Federal List of Terrorist Organizations, as established by court rulings, contains twenty-seven organizations, including foreign and international organizations, but you will not find The Network on the list, a list that is published, in particular, on the websites of the FSB and the National Anti-Terrorist Committee.
Fontanka.ru has learned that the Petersburg anarchists were detained due to possible links with the failed albeit highly publicized "revolution of November 5, 2017," as promised by Vyacheslav Maltsev, leader of the banned movement Artillery Barrage (Artpodgotovka).
Residents of Russian cities were urged to engage in mass protests. Most of the oppositionists were detained preventively two days before the event. The day passed peacefully in Petersburg, except for the comic arrest of a pacifist in a car chockablock with weapons, and a small gathering near the Smolny, Petersburg city hall. Five people were given jail time for not complying with lawful orders of the police: they refused to show police officers the contents of their bags.
Maltsev himself lives abroad, where he has been granted political asylum, but a wave of detentions has rolled across Russian cities. Among others, the Petersburg native Arman Sagynbayev was arrested in Penza. According to the human rights website OVD Info, Sagynbayev has also been charged with involvement in a terrorist organization. He has, allegedly, made a full confession.
According to our information, FSB officers asked Shiskin and Filinkov whether they knew Sagynbayev. Attorney Igor Mangilev, who has been representing Shishkin, corroborated that a transcript of Sagynbayev's interrogation was included in the case file used at his client's remand hearing. According to other sources, Filinkov and his wife Alexandra, who is currently located in Ukraine, met Sagynbayev around a year ago, in early 2017.
Criminal charges were filed against Filinkov and Shishkin on January 24, 2018. The case file contains testimony from a large number of witnesses, many of whom are classified.
The media have reported that the FSB managed to chat with another supporter of leftist views [sic], Igor Kapustin. Apparently, he was also interrogated and then released. He has told the press about the threats made by investigators.
Documented proof that the FSB used prohibited methods to pressure a suspect or witness in the case is available only with regard to Filinkov. He was detained on the evening of January 23 at Pulkovo Airport, and was identified formally as a suspect in the case around midnight on January 24. For over a day, he was in the hands of the FSB without any outside oversight. Yesterday, January 26, Filinkov was visited in the remand prison by members of the Petersburg Public Monitoring Commission, who filed a report substantiating numerous recent injuries to Filinkov's body, including burns on his thigh and chest, produced by a electric cattle prod. Filinkov confirmed in writing he had been subjected to violence, and FSB officers had demanded he memorize his testimony and the names of people whom he, allegedly, knew. Attorney Vitaly Cherkasov confirmed to Fontanka.ru that his client was forced to confess his involvement with the Field of Mars branch of the terrorist organization The Network.
Filinkov and Shiskin have been remanded in police custody until March 23, 2018. In all likelihood, theirs will not be the last names on the list of Petersburg "Networkers." According to our sources, the FSB has possession of electronic media [sic] that Filinkov tossed in trash containers before heading to Pulkovo Airport.
As for Vyacheslav Maltsev, the criminal case against him has been under investigation since November. He has been named as the organizer of a terrorist network (Criminal Code Article 205.4 Clause 1) and has been accused of pubicly calling for extremist actions (Criminal Code Article 280). Several suspects in the Maltsev case have been charged with planning a terrorist attack.
NB. Although Fontanka.ru has long been Petersburg's most popular news website (or, at least, it has long claimed to be the city's most popular website), the foreign reader should bear in mind that its founders, publishers, and editors have backgrounds in military intelligence and the Soviet and Russian police's criminal investigative divisions. While this has no doubt come in handy over the years and permitted the website's reporters to do what the name of its founding organization (AZhUR or Investigative Reporting Agency) suggests, there are other times when it is not clear whether Fontanka.ru believes the malarkey which Russia's so-called siloviki are capable of spinning from whole cloth or whether it is mocking their incompetence. In this article, Fontanka.ru seems to want to have its cake and eat it, too. They suggest the FSB has invented a nonexistent terrorist network from scratch while at the same hinting the FSB has plenty of evidence the young men so far arrested in the case were actually involved in this nonexistent organization. Even a local reader with average intelligence and a healthy amount of skepticism would find this story and how it is reported by Fontanka.ru perplexing, to say the least. TRR
By hecksinductionhourin antifascism, journalism, petrograd, putinism, regime, rights, zeitgeist January 29, 2018 March 20, 2018 1,185 Words5 Comments
I've Come to Wish You an Unhappy Birthday Because You're Evil and You Lie
Petersburgers Congratulated Putin on His Birthday by Blocking Liteiny Avenue
Timofei Tumashevich
An unauthorized [sic] rally of Alexei Navalny's supporters in Petersburg turned out to be an unexpectedly serious, well-attended event. Most supporters of the unregistered candidate for the Russian presidency had expected the rally to be poorly attended. A few days before the rally, workers were replacing gravel on the Field of Mars, the announced venue for the rally. On Palace Square, a massive motorcycle rally, featuring the pro-regime motorcycle club Night Wolves, drew hundreds of bikers.
Motorcycle rally on Palace Square, October 7, 2017
In addition, on October 7, an "event whose purpose [was] to inform people about society's complicated attitude towards the homeless, orphans, and HIV-infected people" had been authorized for the Field of Mars. A few days earlier, on October 3, police had confiscated stickers promoting the rally at Navalny's campaign office in Petersburg and detained local campaign coordinator Polina Kostyleva.
Most of all, however, activists were amused to hear announcements, broadcast through a loudspeaker, inviting people to a free screening of the patriotic blockbuster Crimea at the nearby Rodina cinema. The oppositionists greeted the announcements with laughter.
Navalny supporter holding the Russian flag and sporting a humorous "Navalny 2018" t-shirt on the Field of Mars in Petersburg, October 7, 2017.
Navalny supporters and anti-Putin protesters milling about on the Field of Mars, Petersburg, October 7, 2017.
At 6:15 p.m., the people gathered on the Field of Mars chanted "Putin is a thief," "Navalny," "Freedom," and even "Happy birthday!," as the protest was timed to coincide wwith President Putin's sixty-fifth birthday. On the Field of Mars itself, the protesters encountered no resistance from the numerous police officers on hand. They merely asked photographers to climb down from the walls of the memorial surrounding the eternal flame. Seemingly spontaneously, the crowd headed in the direction of Pestel Street. When the column of marchers spread out, it was obvious that no fewer than two or three thousand people were involved in the unauthorized [sic] march.
Otherwise, it would be hard to explain how the rally attendees easily managed to stop traffic on Pestel and, subsequently, on Liteiny Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares in downtown Petersburg. The marchers chanted, "Down with the tsar!," "Free Navalny!," "We are the power here!," "This is our city!," and even "St. Isaac's Cathedral is a museum!" An Interior Ministry press release would later claim that 1,800 protesters made it to Liteiny Avenue.
Protesters abandoning the Field of Mars, where on June 12, 2017, around a thousand of their comrades were arrested for standing in place.
Anti-Putin protesters marching down Pestel Street, Petersburg, October 7, 2017
Police commenced to detain people roughly only at the intersection with Nekrasov Street. Police officers formed up in a line. Among the detaineed were well-known former political prisoner Ildar Dadin and photo journalist David Frenkel. Marina Bukina, an activist with the Detainees Support Group, was struck on the head by police. It has been reported that she suffered a concussion and had to have stitches. She was taken to St. Elizabeth's Hospital. Polina Kostyleva, Navalny's campaign manager in Petersburg, was once again detained by police. Georgy Alrubov, an employee of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, reported his own arrest on Twitter. A number of bloggers have reported that Alrubov arrived on the Field of Mars only after most of the other protesters had left.
Police forming a line on Liteiny Avenue
Reporter David Frenkel during his arrest by police. He was later released from the paddy wagon.
Nevertheless, the police line on Liteiny was unable to shut down the protest march completely. Activists bypassed the roadblock by taking side streets and regrouped on Insurrection Square on the plaza near the entrance to the Galereya shopping center. Several hundred people made it there. At approximately 8:05 p.m., announcements were made inside the shopping center that it was closing immediately due to "technical difficulties." A mob of shoppers flooded out of the shopping center and mixed with the protesters.
Protester outside Galereya shopping center: "No to Moscow Fascism. Putin, go away! We're going in a different direction."
Protesters, press, and police confront each other on Ligovsky Avenue, outside the Galereya shopping center and Moscow Station. Petersburg, October 7, 2017
Maxim Reznik, an MP in the city's Legislative Assembly, was on hand for the rally.
"I gather that people headed spontaneously from the Field of Mars to Insurrection Square. This is the main problem, in fact. The regime itself has done everything it can to let the situation get out of control. Since they don't allow people to assemble and arrest the organizers, people will take to the streets where they will," the MP told Activatica.
Reznik personally witnessed the most serious incident outside Galereya. An unknown provocateur threw a beer bottle at a police officer. Subsequently, a fight broke out between people in civilian clothing. Protesters suggested the provocation was incited by plainclothes policemen. [That is certainly how it appeared on Radio Svoboda's live stream coverage of the event—TRR.]
Fight outside Galereya shopping center between person unknown, some of whom were probably plainclothes policeman.
Around 10 p.m, a group of protesters decided to assemble again, this time on Palace Square, where the concert portion of the motorcycle rally had wrapped up. Around a hundred people came to the square. There was a discussion on certain Telegram channels whether they should spend the night there.
At least forty people were detained during the protests in Petersburg. Two workers in Navalny's Petersburg campaign office who were detained at the protest have been fined 40,000 rubles each [approx. 585 euros].
Interfax reports that a woman who lived on Kolokolnaya Street, in downtown Petersburg, died waiting for an ambulance due to the fact that Navalny supporters partially blocked traffic on several central streets. [In a post published yesterday on Facebook, reporter David Frenkel explained why this report sounds implausible—TRR.]
Protester holds photo of President Putin aloft outside Galereya shopping center. In Russian tradition, the black ribbon indicates the person in the picture has just died.
Alexei Navalny's supporters held rallies in eighty Russian cities on October 7. Navalny himself was arrested in early October and sentenced to twenty days in jail for urging people to attending an unauthorized [sic] rally and meeting in Nizhny Novgorod.
Protesters outside Galereya shopping center shouting slogans and waving flyers that read, "Navalny 2018."
Translated by the Russian Reader. All photos courtesy of Timofei Tumashevich/Activatica
By hecksinductionhourin petrograd, photographs, protest, rights, solidarity October 9, 2017 1,060 WordsLeave a comment
Ekaterina Prokopovich: Independence Day
Vadim F. Lurie, from the series "Russia Day in Petersburg," June 12, 2017
Ekaterina Prokopovich
I finally must tell you about the events of June 12. Otherwise, I will lose their thread altogether.
Navalny announced another round of anti-corruption rallies nationwide. The first rallies were on March 26. I wrote about it. I was detained at the rally [in Petersburg]. I was also detained during a rally on April 29. I wrote about that as well. You all know I have a ton of gripes against Navalny, but I think it's important to demonstrate publicly.
On June 12, my son and I arrived at the Field of Mars. We walked several meters. There were a lot fewer people than in March. Somewhere, people were shouting, "Russia will be free!" and stuff like that. I saw the Russian National Guard lining up. I said to my son, "Let's get the heck out of here." I really did not want to get arrested again. We turned around and were leaving. I suddenly saw that the Russian National Guard had kettled us. That was all she wrote.
People next to me asked what was happening. I told them I'd been through it before. I said we would be taken to different police precincts, charged with violating Article 20.2 of the Administrative Offenses Code ("violating the rules for holding a public event"), and go home late in the evening. I said that, by law, the police had three hours to do this, but they violate the law. What I didn't realize then was that our arrest would last not three hours, but several days.
Now I understand we should have broken out of the kettle and left. We cannot let them treat us like sheep and illegally detain us. I had already talked to people who had managed to break through another kettle and with a man who had given the slip to a Russian National Guardsman who had grabbed him. That's the way to do it.
Skipping ahead, I'll say that a young man who interrogated me about what would happen to us, a young man who had come to the Field of Mars simply to hang out, was sentenced to fourteen days in jail. Everyone got the same sentence, no matter why they were there.
We were thrown onto buses and taken to police precincts. Once there, we were initially charged with violating Article 20.2, but in the evening, the police got orders to charge us with violating Article 19.3 ("disobeying a police officer's lawful request") as well. We know this, because the police dicussed it in front of us. One female officer was even outraged. "Why charge them with 19.3?" she wondered. The precinct deputy commander replied, "Do I need to explain why? Let's go and I'll explain it to you!" So we spent the night in a cell. We were taken to court only in the evening of the next day. Personally, I was convicted and sentenced in the dead of the night, around two in the morning. The women generally got five days in the slammer. For some reason, I got seven. On the other hand, I'm a recidivist. My son got a lighter sentence: his defender, Yevgeny Pirozhkov, argued his case for several hours, trying to get him off. In short, the district courts were operating round the clock. Around six hundred people were detained. Around two hundred or so were sent to the slammer. The temporary detention center could not have handled any more. Everyone's charge sheets were identical down to the last comma. The police faked the charge sheets, and the judges had gotten word from up top that people should be sent to jail for several days based on the trumped-up charge sheets.
We were taken to the temporary detention center twice. The first time was on June 14 at six in the morning. We waited, but they had run out of mattresses. We were shipped back to the precinct. They brought us back in the afternoon and put us in our cells in the evening.
In short, they tormented us for two days, but everything was decent at the detention center, both in terms of the staff and the conditions. I have no gripes against the detention center. I'll write about it separately, because this text is too long as it is.
Translated by the Russian Reader. Thanks to Alexei Kouprianov for the heads-up. Please read my other postings on the events of June 12 and their horrendous (il)legal aftermath:
Happy Russia Day 2017 (June 13, 2017)
Their Day in Court (June 14, 2017)
You'll Have Your Day in Court, but Keep Your Mouth Shut (June 15, 2017)
No Protest Is Illegal (June 16, 2017)
Sergey Yermakov: Protest Duckies and the Actionism of Fact (June 18, 2017)
A Little Pepper Spray Never Hurt Anyone (June 20, 2017)
Petersburg's Kangaroo Courts (June 21, 2017)
Coming Out: A Lesson in Solidarity from St. Petersburg (June 24, 2017)
Jenya Kulakova: My First Time as a Social Defender (June 28, 2017)
By hecksinductionhourin petrograd, politics, protest, putinism, regime, rights, solidarity, zeitgeist July 5, 2017 July 5, 2017 826 WordsLeave a comment
Coming Out: A Lesson in Solidarity from Petersburg
"The Regime Is Making New Enemies with These Arrests"
Irina Tumakova
The arrestees who served ten days in jail after Russia Day shared their plans for the future. They once again included the Field of Mars, and Navalny, and the special detention center on Zakharyevskaya Street they had just left.
Ksenia Morozova, holding a placard that reads, "Freedom is within." Photo courtesy of Sergei Mikhailechenko/Fontanka.ru
A new group of prisoners, who had finished serving the jail sentences they were given after Russia Day, was released on Thursday, June 22, from the Interior Ministry's special detention center on Zakharyevskaya Street in central Petersburg. They had been sentenced to ten days in police custody, meaning they had committed violations of "moderate severity." The die-hard violators, who were sentenced to fifteen days in jail, will not be released until next week. The least malicious violators, who had already been released, greeted their recent cellmates with soda pop, flowers, and rounds of applause. The former prisoners were cheerful and praised the prison food. They came out of jail with the same clear conscience they had when they left the Field of Mars in paddy wagons.
The Interior Ministry's special detention center on Zakharyevskaya is a historical landmark. Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) and Felix Dzerzhinsky had done time there prior to 1917. In June 2017, people who attended an anti-corruption rally on Russian Independence Day were jailed there.
Around 10,000 people had gone to the Field of Mars on the national holiday. Some people celebrated, while others were arrested. Nearly six hundred hundred left the celebrations in paddy wagons, headed to police precincts round the city. From June 13 on, the city's district courts worked like a conveyor belt for meting out punishment. The arrestees were sentenced for going to the anti-corruption rally and for failing to obey police orders to leave the rally, i.e., they had violated two articles in the Administrative Offenses Code. The majority of those detained at the event got off with 10,500-ruble fines [approx. 158 euros], but a hundred and fifty people were sent to jail, sentenced to terms of three to fifteen days.
The release of the prisoners whose time in jail ended on June 22 was due to start at two o'clock in the afternoon, when the lunch break ends on Zakharyevskaya. At the very same time, as recorded in their arrest records, exactly 240 hours had passed since the first of the "ten-dayers" had been detained. In fact, they had been detained and hauled to the courts wholesale. But the law enforcement machine was carefully counting off the minutes. One prisoner could be released at 2:30 p.m., but another had to be released at 4:00 p.m.
The Support Group
At a quarter to two, people holding plastic bags form a semi-circle at the exit from the detention center. Two vehicles are cruising nearby. One, emblazoned with Open Russia's logo, is ready to give the released detainees a lift to the courts, where lawyers are waiting to appeal their fines. The other, emblazoned with the police's logo, is also ready to take them somewhere.
"I'm going to detain you for jaywalking," a policeman standing on the sidewalk warns me.
"Please arrest me for jaywalking," I smile back at him, standing on the same sidewalk. The policeman goes back to his car.
The bags of the people waiting outside the detention center are stuffed with bottles of soda pop. There is also a bunch of pink chrysanthemums. Later, the chrysanthemums will be divided and given to the liberated comrades. Everybody knows who nice it is when people are waiting for you with chrysanthemums when you get out of jail. And you are also really thirsty when you get out. The greeters know all of this from personal experience.
"I was in for five days and got out last week," says a man standing near the gates of the detention center. "And today the guy I shared a cell with is getting out."
The man's name is Oleg Maksakov. He is forty-three. He doesn't know why he was sentenced to five days, while his young cellmate got ten days. They didn't know each other before they were jailed, but they made friends in the cell.
"The propaganda has no effect on the people aged eighteen to twenty-five who came to the Field of Mars," Maksakov says of his "accomplice." "What matters even more is that they're not afraid. They're not downtrodden. They have no experience of the Soviet repression machine. I mean, now they are finding out, of course. But it doesn't scare them. It only makes them mad."
Another person who celebrated Russia Day at the Field of Mars approaches us. In terms of age, Pavel Ilatovsky is one of the "non-downtrodden." You could say he lucked out. He got off with a 10,500-ruble fine and spent two days at police precinct while he waited for his court hearing.
"Yeah, I was lucky," Ilatovsky agrees. "I had my hearing at the Krasnoye Selo District Court, and the judges were okay. They said right off the bat there was no room in the cells, and so they were going fine us."
The figures assembled by volunteers back up what Ilatovsky says. The Krasnoye Selo District Court heard 59 cases, and no one was sentenced to time in jail. The Kalinin District Court proved to be the most cruel and greediest. Among the 44 cases it heard, around three fourths (the volunteers don't know for certain) resulted in fines alone, while the rest resulted in fines and jail time. The same court handed down the harshest sentence: fifteen days in jail plus a 20,000-ruble fine.
Ilatovsky volunteers with the detainees assistance group. The group brought care packages to Zakharyevskaya all ten days and raised money to pay the fines. And now they have brought a vehicle, soda pop, and chrysanthemums. This system of assistance improves with every series of arrests. It has started working like a well-oiled machine.
"There are lots of us," says Ilatovsky. "And we know that if someone wasn't detained this time round, he or she could be detained next time. When I was at the police precinct, they brought us water and helped out with food. They even brought us shawarmas."
We are chatting next to the prison's entrance. Everyone's mood is upbeat, even joyful. Finally, the iron door opens and a young man exits holding his passport. He is carrying a backpack, and a container of liquid soap pokes out from the pocket. A yellow-and-blue ribbon is pinned to his jacket.
"Oh!" says Oleg Maksakov, rushing towards him. "I spent five days in a cell with that guy!"
"I Hung Out with Interesting People"
Denis Uvarov went to the Field of Mars with a purpose. He wasn't celebrating the holiday, but combating corruption.
"This dude was walking around with a bullhorn and ordering everyone to disperse, but no one dispersed. Therefore, they did not obey [the police's orders]," he says by way of explaining why he was convicted of disobeying the police.
Besides, Uvarov chanted slogans offensive to our president, and what is worse, waved the flag of Ukraine, with which he sympathizes. He caught flak for it: ten days in the slammer. He admits it could have been worse. He twice received care packages of food from complete strangers, and that amazed him most of all.
"Of course, we didn't really need anything in the cell, but it's nice knowing that you're in there, and somebody cares," says Uvarov.
In the two-person cells in which the June 12 arrestees were held, they really did not need anything. Uvarov compared it to a hospital, adding, only, that he couldn't go into the hallway. But they were taken out for walks every day.
"The biggest problem was not being able to wash up," he says. "They let us take a shower only once over the ten days. Well and, excuse me for mentioning it, but going to the toilet when you're not alone in the cell, is, you know . . . Otherwise, it was okay. There was nothing to do, so I read a pile of books, slept in, studied English a bit, and hung out with interesting people."
The interesting people were other prisoners sentenced to jail for June 12. Uvarov says it was the first protest many of them had attended. Some of them ended up there by accident and were not interested in politics.
"Now they say they're going to be more active and angrier," Uvarov continues. "So the regime is deliberately making new enemies with these arrests, as it were. You can do fifteen days in jail, after all. As long as there is a point."
"What about twenty?" I ask. "That's nearly a month."
"Twenty?" says the young man thoughtfully. "Yes, I could probably do it."
Then I remind him that, in Russia, it is a criminal offense to attend unauthorized rallies repeatedly.
"Yeah, but don't you need to be arrested twice in six months," Uvarov asks uncertainly. "I'll probably need to take that into account. I'll think it over."
"I'll Go to Jail Again"
Ivan Gerasimyuk is one of the young people who collided head on with politics at the special detention center. He looks about twenty years old.
"I was just hanging out on the Field of Mars," says the young man. "There was a celebration of four eras taking place there. I looked at pre-revolutionary tanks, and then I went to eat kasha in the field kitchen. That's where the police grabbed me. In court, I said I wasn't interested in politics, but the judge didn't believe me and gave me ten days in jail. It turns out you cannot attend celebrations in our country."
Gerasimyuk thought jail was awful, especially the fact the prisoners were fed not according to schedule, but whenever. And his cell was very dirty.
"I don't want to go back there," Gerasimyuk frowns. "But I'll definitely go to a protest rally now. We have to combat this lawlessness. Well, so I'll go to jail again. But then other people won't have to go."
Alexander, who refuses to tell me his surname, works in a school. He won't say what he does there, but he deals with young people like Gerasimyuk, only a bit younger.
He shakes his head.
"I don't talk with the kids about politics at all. I don't need to. They know it all anyway. They read about Navalny and Putin in the internet. Although what gets them hot and bothered is memes and all, not politics. But their teachers propagandize them, and they see it doesn't synch with what is happening around them. That generates distrust in them."
Alexander went to the Field of Mars knowing a rally was supposed to take place there, but he had no plans of taking part in the protest. He only wanted to watch.
"The numbers of true believers who were arrested were small, in fact," he grins. "It was the rubberneckers like me who got caught. After doing time in jail, some of them are now true believers. But I've also spoken with other people, who say they would never do it again. As for me, I'm definitely going next time."
Vladimir Drofa, who is released right after Alexander, has become a true believer. Or, at least, he says so.
"Until my arrest I was a sympathizer," he says, looking at my dictaphone. "But now I'm a convinced revolutionary. I will devote the rest of my life to making sure I change places with the people who put me in here."
"You want to sentence them to ten days in jail?" I ask.
"I'd start with ten at least."
Drofa knows that, before him, his namesake Vladimir Ulyanov was imprisoned in a nearby cell.
"I need to read 'The April Theses,'" he adds.
"Let Them Bust Me!"
The convicts opened the iron door one after another. The young women who were released were mobbed by other young women, who gave them bouquets and squealed in delight, as if they were greeting movie stars. The female arrestees who were the last to be released wearily thanked the public and refused to talk to the press, because they wanted to go home. Ksenia Morozova, a social media marketing manager for Sobaka.ru who had become famous over the last ten days, set her bags on the pavement. She held up a placard reading, "Freedom is within." She did not hold it up very high, only as high as her own neck
"This is my first picket on the outside!" she yelled. "Let them bust me if they want!"
She was not busted. Her girlfriend grabbed her bags, and the flock of young women ran off towards the subway.
The young people were applauded as they left the jail. They were also given flowers, the very same pink chrysanthemums, until the entire bunch had been divvied up and was gone. The press drifted away. The bus emblazoned with Open Russia's logo left, taking with it those who wanted to appeal their sentences to meet with lawyers. The last of the dozen and a half "ten-dayers" emerged from the jail after four o'clock, saying almost exactly the same things their special detention center cellmates said. None of them broke their toothbrushes at the doors of the prison.
Translated by the Russian Reader. Thanks to Comrade Uvarova for the heads-up
By hecksinductionhourin petrograd, politics, protest, putinism, regime, rights, solidarity, youth June 24, 2017 June 24, 2017 2,248 WordsLeave a comment
Petersburg's Kangaroo Courts
Court bailiff posting a notice outside courthouse in downtown Petersburg. Courtesy of Novaya Gazeta
Petersburg Observers
On June 13 and 14, 2017, emergency courts, expressly forbidden by the Russian Constitution, were set in motion in St. Petersburg.
What were the peculiarities of the court hearings that took place on June 13–14, 2017, in St. Petersburg?
— The unprecedented scale. On June 13 and 14, 2017, 943 administrative cases were heard by 123 judges in sixteen of St. Petersburg's twenty-two district courts. The defendants had been charged with violating Article 19.3, Part 1 ("Disobeying the lawful order or demand of a policeman, military serviceman, penal system officer or Russian National Guard member in connection with the performance of their duties to protect public order and ensure public safety, as well as obstructing the performance of their official duties") and Article 20.2, Part 5 ("Violation, by a participant of a public event, of the established procedure for holding a meeting, rally, demonstration, procession or picket") of the Russian Federal Administrative Offenses Code (KoAP). The overwhelming majority of those detained on the Field of Mars on June 12, 2017, were simultaneously charged with both offenses, regardless of the circumstances of their arrests.
— The unprecedented speed with which cases were heard: zero minutes (eleven district courts), one minute (seven district courts), etc.
— The unprecedented numbers of cases heard by individual courts in a single twenty-four-hour period: 95 (Kalinin District Court), 106 (Krasnoye Selo District Court), 110 (Frunze District Court).
— Violation of territorial jurisdiction. All the administrative cases should have been heard by the Dzerzhinsky District Court, in whose jurisdiction the Field of Mars is located. At the request of the persons charged with administrative offenses, their cases could also have been transferred to the courts in the districts where they are registered as residebts. In the event, the detainees were bused from police precincts to sixteen district courts. Their cases were assigned to judges regardless of territorial jurisdiction.
— Violation of the right to a defense. No more than a quarter of the defendants enjoyed the services of a lawyer or public defender. Some judges rejected appeals for adjournment so that defendants would be able to secure defense counsel. Some judges gave defendants a ridiculously short amount of time to secure defense counsel. Defense attorneys and public defenders were physically unable to get into the majority of the courthouses, especially after six o'clock in the evening.
— Violation of the right to a public trial. Information about the court hearings on June 13–14, 2017, was posted on the courts' official websites only several days after the hearings themselves. People who might have wanted to attend the hearings had no way of finding out what cases were being heard, nor when or where they were being heard. Judges' rulings have not been published in full. Currently, only 26 of the 943 rulings, which have already taken force, have been published on the courts' websites.
— Violation of the principle of adversarial proceedings. There were no prosecutors or police officers present at any of the hearings, and the judges essentially acted as prosecutors.
— Night courts are forbidden. But even on official court websites the starting times of hearings are listed well past midnight, e.g., 12:23 a.m. (Krasnoye Selo District Court), 12:45 a.m. (Kalinin District Court), 5:00 a.m. (Kolpino District Court), 5:20 a.m. (Frunze District Court).
Despite the violations, listed above, the St. Petersburg City Court has rejected all appeals filed, moreover, in the very same fashion as the district courts. This means the people who organized and launched the conveyor belt of emergency justice in St. Petersburg have direct control not only of the police and the Russian National Guard but also the of district and city courts.
P.S. The mass trials that occurred on June 13–14, 2017, in St. Petersburg, differed from extreme justice only in the sense that they were executed by regular judicial entities, rather than by specially instituted extraordinary courts with distinct powers.
Are you wondering how you might react to this nastiness, especially if you live far from Petersburg? Here's one simple suggestion. FIFA's Confederations Cup is currently underway at four venues in Russia (Kazan, Moscow, Sochi, and St. Petersburg). Take a gander at the match schedule and the list of corporate sponsors (which includes Adidas, Coca-Cola, Visa, McDonalds, and Bud). Give them a call or send them an email saying that, because of the way the Russian leadership treats its own people when it comes to the freedoms of speech and assembly, and the right to a fair trial, you won't be buying their products anymore, since they make common cause with flagrant tyrants.
You can also get in touch with the TV channels broadcasting the Confederations Cup matches in your city or country and tell them you won't be watching the matches and why you won't be watching them.
These are simple ways to show your solidarity with the six hundred and sixty some people who were arrested on Petersburg's Field of Mars for no good reason on Russia Day, a national holiday celebrating the country's independence from the Sovet Union, and then put through the kangaroo courts, as described above and elsewhere.
These are also effective ways of showing the Russian leadership, who set great store by their power to win bids to host major global sporting events like the Winter Olympics and the Football World Cup that we are not impressed by their prowess, especially when our Russian sisters and brothers live in conditions of such rampant unfreedom and poverty. TRR
By hecksinductionhourin editorial, international, petrograd, protest, putinism, regime, rights, solidarity June 21, 2017 911 Words1 Comment
A Little Pepper Spray Never Hurt Anyone
The sign outside the 33rd Police Precinct in Petersburg's Moscow District. Courtesy of Google Maps and OVD Info
Petersburg Police Confirm Pepper Spray Used in Precinct
The Interior Ministry Directorate for St. Petersburg has confirmed that pepper spray was employed in the 33rd Police Precinct, where detainees from the June 12 anti-corruption protest rally were being held, reports Rosbalt.
As the police's press service reported, a man was brought to the precinct for minor misconduct. After the man attempted to harm himself, police officers doused his cell with pepper spray. The Interior Ministry claims that after the spray was deployed, the people who had been detained at the protest on the Field of Mars were taken to a meeting room.
Earlier, OVD Info reported that the protest rally detainees complained the pepper spray had spread into neighboring cells. They asked that a doctor be summoned to the precinct, since one of them suffered from bronchial asthma, but police officers did not react. One of the detainees, who had his mobile phone with him in the cell, managed to summon doctors. Subsequently, seventeen people, who had been left to spend the night at the precinct, were transferred to a basement room, where they were held until the evening of the following day. They were not given food, only one bottle of water each.
Alexander Shishlov, Petersburg's ombudsman for human rights, said he would formally investigate the incident.
More than six hundred people were detained during an unauthorized [sic] protest rally against corruption in Petersburg. The city courts registered 546 cases against the detainees. They were charged with involvement in an unauthorized rally and disobeying the police.
Translated by the Russian Reader. Thanks to Comrade NS for the heads-up
By hecksinductionhourin petrograd, protest, regime, rights June 20, 2017 295 WordsLeave a comment
No Protest Is Illegal
Anti-corruption protester detained on Tverskaya Street in Moscow, June 12, 2017. Photo courtesy of Mayorova.net and Irina Taubinskaya
Below, you will find a brief, eyewitness account of the rough custom to which people detained at the anti-corruption protest rally on the Field of Mars in Petersburg on June 12, 2017, have been subjected by police as the have been slowly "processed," sometimes with no legal representation and in gross violation of their rights as detainees, by the police and courts.
The Russian "legal and law enforcement" systems are shambles, for the simple reason they don't exist at all. They are fictions.
What does exist is the supreme will of the blood monkey who answered questions all day yesterday on TV or something like that, and the lesser wills of his cronies and satraps.
Those exist.
So when asking the question of who exactly ordered the arrests of the six hundred and fifty some arrestees of June 12, 2017, and the harsh sentences of five to fifteen days in the hoosegow and fines of up to 15,000 rubles most of them were handed by the city's district courts (again, in conditions where many of them were dehumanized constantly, despite the best efforts of Petersburg's wonderful Aid to Detainees Group and other volunteers and well-wishers to support them) you need look no farther than the head blood monkey in the Kremlin and his precious "power vertical." They are the ones who gave the orders to treat the protesters this way, not anyone on the ground.
I was irked to hear the BBC's Moscow correspondent refer, the other day, to the concurrent protests on Tverskaya, in Moscow, where a similarly large number of people were arrested, as "illegal." Setting aside for a second the rights to free assembly and free speech enjoyed by all Russian citizens, as enshrined in the 1993 Russian Federal Constitution, the Petersburg authorities several years ago designated the Field of Mars as the city's "Hyde Park," the place where city dwellers could go, supposedly, to air their grievances without making a special application to the authorities. (This need to apply for permits is itself a mostly unconstitutional practice, backed, of course, by the country's kangaroo higher courts, who are also a part of its so-called telephone justice system).
In reality, Petersburg authorities have let their so-called Hyde Park be used the way it was intended only when the numbers of protesters or their particular grievances have not been threatening enough, although, of course, police are still always on hand to photograph, videotape, and ID the protesters, and even copy down the slogans on their placards, which they immediately radio to their superiors. Just in case, you know, and to make sure the protesters know the state is monitoring them
When, on the other hand, the topics raised and/or numbers of protesters have not been to the liking of the powers that be, local or otherwise, Petersburg's "Hyde Park" has instantly been deemed yet another no-go zone, the protests declared "illegal," and the protesters and, sometimes, the counter-protesters, dragged off into paddy wagons and taken to police precincs.
Sometimes, the protesters are merely held in police custody for a few hours or overnight, and then released scot-free. But when the regime wants to teach them a lesson about how much freedom they really have in the world's largest "sovereign democracy," they get the book thrown at them, as we have seen over the past several days in Petersburg. That is, for one and the same legal/illegal act, either nothing will happen to you or your life will be scuttled for two weeks or a month (as in the case of "ringleaders" like Alexei Navalny, who was arrested at the door to his block of flats before he could get to the "illegal" protest and sentenced to thirty days in the slammer), and your already meager finances will have a nice dent put into them.
So, if I were a BBC or other foreign correspondent, I wouldn't be so quick to dub any protest in Putinist Russia "illegal." That's tantamount to saying that the police and courts have the right to do with Russians detained for real or imaginary offenses what they will.
It's also an admission on the part of these foreign correspondents that, in the case of the protesters, they don't understand the offenses are wholly imaginary, i.e., trumped-up, that they are, in fact, a little bit of the ultra-violence, meted out in smallish doses to discourage the kids from coming out again. TRR
16% of the St. Petersburg Public Monitoring Commission
I am deciphering my conversations with arrestees:
"We were driven to the courthouse in handcuffs, and tied to each other. We arrived, they untied us, and took us upstairs to the courtroom. We had no defense counsel. The court sentenced us to five days in jail and a fine. We were driven back to the police precinct, where we cuffed to chairs and each other. (The cuffs immediately caused pain to the second person.) The guy with the keys to the handcuffs went off somewhere. We were cuffed for two and a half hours. We asked to go to the toilet, to uncuff us, but our requests were ignored. This happened next to the cells. The cells were not locked.
"Then they uncuffed us from the chair, cuffed us to each other, put us in a van, and took us to [the temporary detention center at] Zakharyevskaya Street, 6."
This incident occurred on June 13, at the 78th Police Precinct, in St. Petersburg's Central District
Translated by the Russian Reader. Thanks to Jenya Kulakova for the heads-up on the link and Sasha Feldberg for the photo.
By hecksinductionhourin editorial, petrograd, photographs, protest, putinism, rights, solidarity, youth, zeitgeist June 16, 2017 951 WordsLeave a comment


text:
QGH-78 by Queentex Company Limited
Console Name: QGH-78
Alternate Named(s): QGH-78
Game Child
Game Kid
Release Date: 1990's
Manufacturer: Queentex Company Limited
Number of Games Cartridges: 18
Queentex Company Limited (later known as Synco Tech Company Limited) was a manufacturer most famous for in producing electronic games and keyboards. At its peak, the company was owning its own 35,000sqm plan located at Huizhou, Guangdong. The plant allowed accommodating 2000 workers and the production capacity could reach 4 million pieces of electronic games & 400,000 pieces of electronic keyboards under various automatic assembly lines. All games were sold either in packaging with no brand name or distributed by third parties that would then add their own branding on it. Electronic games all had a model number that started with "QGH".
In their 20 years of operation, the company created hundreds of different handheld, many of which had interchangeable games. But in most cases, these console where packages with an assortment of games, while, although also supporting interchangeable games, the QGH-78 was most of the time sold with only one games. Some special package did come with 3 games.
Out of the hundreds of handheld released by Queentex, the QGH-78 was by far the most popular. It was available in an array of color (Gray being the most common) including Gray, Yellow, Red, Blue and Green. The cartridges were also either gray when distributed with the gray handheld or black when distributed with the other colors. The system was also sold under the name Game Kid and even sometimes under the name Game Child, although the Game Child is a totally different systems made by another company. Both are made to look like a Nintendo Game Boy, but the Game Child share a bit more resemblance with the Game Boy but lack the interchangeable change feature of the QGH-78.
To add to the confusion, a later release of the Game Child dubbed the Game Child MKII is also sold under the name Game Kid.
The systems seems to have been mainly distributed in Europe.
Games on these handheld were basic LCD games and couldn't compete on any level with the Game Boy and other ROM-based cartridges. The systems survived a bit as it could be given to (very) young kids instead of a more expensive GameBoy, but as far as games play goes, there were little to know replay value. Also, as the games didn't seem to be available for individual purchase, customers would need to buy the device again if they wanted a new game, even if, technically, the system was made to be an interchangeable game system.
A total of 18 games have been found so far, but more probably exist. This first series, call the QGH-78 Series, are listed in the back of the box:
Motor Cycle
InVadar
Catty + Basketball
Painter + Smart Baby
Rescue + Bumpy
Cat & Mice
Theses other games also exist and may be part of another series or just individual games:
U.F.O

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
4 hours Shale Oil will it self destruct?
3 hours A Silence is heard
1 day U.S. Economic Expansion: Rich Get Richer
Editorial Dept
As Sudan-South Sudan Oil Battle Re-Ignites, South Sudan Risks Instability
By Editorial Dept - Aug 02, 2013, 1:17 PM CDT
Bottom Line: An oil agreement between Sudan and South Sudan is off track—again, and only Ethiopian mediation has managed to postpone for two weeks Sudan's threat to shut down the pipeline carrying South Sudanese crude.
Analysis: In early March, Sudan and South Sudan reached an agreement for the resumption of South Sudanese oil exports through Sudanese infrastructure. There have been oil deals before and they were dead in the water because they didn't come along with border security agreements. But in March, things looked more optimistic, with both sides agreeing on a withdrawal of troops and the creation of a demilitarized zone to facilitate the flow of oil. Oil hasn't flowed for about a year after South Sudan blocked exports via Sudan over a tariff dispute.
South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July 2011. Along with this South Sudanese independence came 75% of Sudan's oil resources—minus the infrastructure (pipelines and ports) which remains in Sudan. So South Sudan is now rich in oil, but it's land-locked. The climax came in December 2011; just a few months after South Sudan seceded, when Sudan started diverting South Sudanese oil to its own refineries and selling it illegally on international markets. South Sudan lashed back by shutting off the pumps in January 2012. Neither could maintain this absence of oil revenues for much longer. (About 98% of South Sudan's state revenue comes from the production of about 350,000 barrels of oil per day).
The stickler during negotiations was Khartoum's (Sudan) insistence on guarantees that South Sudan would cease backing rebels fighting in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states—oil-producing regions that haven't been fully demarcated. Sudan softened its stance to allow for the creation of a buffer zone instead. In mid-March, South Sudan ordered the resumption of crude oil production.
But it barely lasted a month before it started to unravel again, with Khartoum saying that Juba isn't holding up its end of the bargain by continuing to support rebel activity against the Sudanese government. Khartoum ordered the closure of pipelines carrying South Sudan's crude to commence on 7 August. Ethiopian mediation has convinced Khartoum to delay this for two weeks, until 22 August.
Recommendation: While the knee-jerk reaction of the Western media is to place all the blame here on Khartoum, we are concerned about Juba's ability to uphold the deal because it does not have full control of the rebels operating from its territory. The political scene in newly independent South Sudan is at best uncertain—and getting worse. This week, Vice-President Salva Kiir fired his vice-president and sacked the entire cabinet. What will follow will be a major ethnic-tribal battle that will foster increased instability and possibly conflict.
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Egypt Violence Subsides as Investors Eye New Liberal Faces
India Nervous About Increasing West African Piracy
EU Slaps Sanctions On Turkey For Illegal Offshore Drilling
This Arms Deal Could Trigger A New ''Cold War''
Gulf of Mexico Production Falls 50%


Is this the future of haircuts?
You haven't booked a slot at the barbers. You never book a slot; it's not that sort of place. You've been meaning to get a trim for a week - a few more days and people will be throwing change at you every time you sit on a bench.
Disastrously, you cross the threshold of the barbers to meet a queue of similarly unkempt gents. It's seven deep. You're going to be here for the better part of two hours. You curse the hair dressing gods. If only a different avenue for neat hair existed.
In steps the app saviour, Shortcut. Currently sorting out the heads of New York men, it does for barbers what Hailo and Uber have done for taxis. This on-demand grooming service finds and sends a professionally trained barber direct to your home or office with just a few taps. Haircut? No problem. Beard trim? Why of course. Better get some friends in on the act - you can order one barber for up to four people, reducing the cost of your cut.
Set to expand into more cities as word spreads, we wouldn't be surprised if copycat services get in on the act within the year. Anyone heading to the Big Apple in need of trim can download the app here. For now, the rest of us will just have to join the back of the hairy queue.


text:
Avigilon Welcomes Pradeep Khosla to Board of Directors
Avigilon adds World-Renowned Engineer and University Chancellor to its Board of Directors
VANCOUVER, CANADA, January 21, 2016 /CNW/ - Avigilon Corporation ("Avigilon") (TSX:AVO), trusted provider of business intelligence and security solutions, today announced the appointment of University of California, San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla to its Board of Directors.
Chancellor Khosla is an internationally renowned researcher, author, and educator with more than 30 years' experience in the fields of engineering and computer science. Chancellor Khosla previously served as Carnegie Mellon's Dean of the College of Engineering. Chancellor Khosla has also managed advanced research and development projects for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Among his other accomplishments, Chancellor Khosla has served as a member of numerous advisory boards, including the Council of Deans of the Aeronautics Advisory Committee (NASA), the National Research Council Board on Manufacturing and Engineering Design, the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Innovation, and has worked with several high tech companies.
"We're honored to have Pradeep join our Board," said Alexander Fernandes, Avigilon's Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. "His expertise in engineering and computer science, in particular with video analytics and artificial intelligence, is a valuable asset to Avigilon's innovation and growth."
Avigilon Corporation, trusted provider of business intelligence and security solutions, develops, manufactures, and sells video analytics, network video management software and hardware, surveillance cameras, and access control solutions.
Dennis Fong, Avigilon Corporation
T: (604) 629-5182, Ext 2515
www.avigilon.com


Goadsby in Southbourne are pleased to report they are selling an immaculately presented 2 bedroom first floor flat which is ideally located, being just a short walk from Southbourne Grove shops and also a level walk to Southbourne cliff top giving access to the beach and promenade below.
There is a good sized Living Room, and a modern style attractive Kitchen with "butler style" sink. As mentioned there are 2 Bedrooms, the master having fitted wardrobes and a pleasant decorated Bathroom with 3 piece suite.
The property benefits from gas central heating and double glazing and there is a parking space conveyed with the flat.
The present owners are keen to sell as they have found an alternative property they wish to buy, so therefore early viewing is advised.


text:
Live8040
Deepika Padukone reaches NCB office to record statement in drug probe linked to Sushant Singh Rajput case
Posted by Ritesh on 9/26/2020 11:01:00 am
Deepika Padukone has reached the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) office in south Mumbai to record her statement in the drug probe linked to Sushant Singh Rajput's death, as per a tweet by News18.
The NCB is also set to record the statements of Shraddha Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan in Mumbai on Saturday, an official said.
All three actors had been summoned by the NCB's probe team on Wednesday, the official said.
According to the official, the Mumbai police has deployed adequate security outside the NCB office.
Deepika's manager Karishma Prakash, who was questioned by the team on Friday, has also been asked to remain present for further questioning on Saturday, he added.
Prakash's WhatsApp chats included conversations about drugs with one D and the central agency wanted to find out who this person was, the NCB sources had said earlier.
The NCB team also got important information about the case during the questioning of Rajput's talent manager Jaya Saha, the official said.
"The actors' names had surfaced during the interrogation of some accused in the case," he said.
Actors Sara Ali Khan and Rakul Preet Singh's names cropped up during the questioning of Rhea Chakraborty, Rajput's girlfriend who has been arrested by the NCB in the drugs case along with over a dozen others.
Rakul Preet Singh recorded her statement on Friday. She was questioned for about four hours.
Dharma Productions' executive producer Kshitij Ravi was also questioned by the NCB on Friday.
There were reports that Deepika's husband actor Ranveer Singh has asked the agency whether he can be present during his wife's interrogation. However, the NCB on Friday clarified that they have not received any such request.
The NCB began the inquiry after a drug angle came to light in connection with Rajput's alleged suicide.
Rajput (34) was found hanging in his apartment in suburban Bandra on 14 June.
(With inputs from Press Trust of India)
from Firstpost India Latest News https://ift.tt/3i1TLHX
BSEB 2021 Class 12 exam admit card released at biharboardonline.com; examination from 1 February
Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has on Saturday released the admit card for Class 12 board exams 2021 on its official website. As per a report in Hindustan Times , candidates who have registered for the examination will get their Bihar Board Class 12 admit card 2021 from the website seniorsecondary.biharboardonline.com. The link to download the admit card will be active till 31 January. The BSEB Class 12 annual exam will be conducted between 1 February and 13 February. According to a report in NDTV , school principals will have to sign the BSEB 2021 Class 12 exam admit cards and distribute them among the students who are due to appear in the BSEB intermediate exams. The exams will be held at designated BSEB centres across the state. The admit cards will have details of the students including BSEB application number, roll number and the BSEB Class 12 exam centre details. The BSEB admit card will also have details regarding COVID-19 precautions. In case of any error in the admi
Baba Anant Maharaj to name Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma's daughter- Who is he?
New Delhi: Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma and Indian cricket star Virat Kohli welcomed a baby girl on Monday (January 11). Kohli shared the news via Twitter and said both baby and mother are healthy. "We are thrilled to share with you that we have been blessed with a baby girl this afternoon. We thank you all for your love, prayers and good wishes. Anushka and the baby are both healthy and we are feeling beyond blessed to start this new chapter of our lives. We hope that you can respect our privacy at this time. Love, Virat," Kohli wrote. pic.twitter.com/js3SkZJTsH — Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) January 11, 2021 According to Sources, it is said that Baba Anant Maharaj will name the new-born daughter of Virat and Anushka. Who is Baba Anant Maharaj ? – Maharaj Anant Baba is the guru at Anant Dham in Haridwar. The Dham's official website says, "Anant Dham is dedicated to the common man to experience 'the whole world is one family' by releasing one's untapped energy. This divine
What the Biden-Harris duo mean for USA, India and world?
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris changed the American story forever, showed that the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of division and shared a vision of healing in a grieving world. Meanwhile, they were also declared as the "TIME's 2020 Person of the Year". Business Strategist Hirav Shah's Astro Analysis of Joe Biden : Joe Biden, born on 20th November 1942, is the president-elect of the United States. He also served as Barack Obama's vice president from 2008-2016. Joe Biden's birth number is 20, 2+0 = 2 which is ruled by Moon. His destiny number is 2+0+1+1+1+9+4+2 = 20, 2+0 = 2 which means he is double-ruled by the Moon says Business Astrologer Hirav Shah. On November 7, 2020, four days after election day, Biden was declared as the 46th president-elect after winning Pennsylvania. Along with earning a record 74 million-plus votes, the soon-to-be 78-year-old was set to become the oldest president in the nation's history. "America, I'm honored that you have chosen me to lead
Weekly Numerology Predictions: January 15 to January 21, 2021
Here are the Numerology Predictions from Business Astrologer and Astro Strategist Hirav Shah for the week ( January 15 to January 21, 2021 ) Weekly Numerology for Number 1 (SUN): (Those born on the 1st, 10th, 19th and 28th in any month) Any misunderstanding in the home can be caused by a neighbor, so don't let other people interfere in the home. Confusion can arise in making important decisions. There will be concerns about the health of the spouse. Having a good relationship for a marriageable person in the family will create a happy atmosphere in the home. Avoid wearing golden color Lucky days: Monday Lucky color: dark green Weekly Numerology for Number 2 (MOON) (Those born on the 2nd, 11th, 20th and 29th in any month) Avoiding overconfidence. A few people may misunderstand you out of jealousy, so be careful. Make wise decisions when it comes to investing. Doing pranayama and meditation will keep your mental state stable. The right result can also be achieved according to th
State Bank's new offer: waiver of processing fees on cars, gold, personal loans
SBI has announced a number of special offers to please retail customers during the current festive season. Processing fees have been waived for customers applying for a car, gold or personal loan through Yono. Car loans are being disbursed at a low interest rate of 7.5% by the bank. Certain models are funded at 100% off-road cost. The bank has announced a special holiday offer on home loans. The processing fee on the home loan of the approved project has been completely waived. Customers are given a special rebate of 0.10 per cent on interest, depending on the credit score and the amount of the loan. Customers who apply for a loan through Yono will receive a 0.05% interest rebate. Gold loan customers can borrow at a low interest rate of about 7.5 percent and have a long loan repayment period of up to 36 months. In times of crisis, private banks provide interest-free loans at a rate of 7.6% to provide affordable loans to the people. While digital transactions have significantly increase
Live8040.com | Copyright @2020 | Sahu Inc


This Sanus Classic MLF13-B1 full-motion wall mount offers ±45° swivel to help you find an ideal view, and post-installation microadjustments ensure your TV is level. Lateral shift enables centered placement, even with off-center studs.
Up to 130 lbs. for wide-ranging use.
As well as extension up to 14" away from the wall enables you to find the ideal viewing angle.
Lets you slide the TV to the right or left for centered placement, even with off-center studs.
Protect and organize your cables.
Ensure your TV is level.
Most 47" - 70" flat-panel TVs up to 130 lbs.
Full-Motion TV Wall Mount for Most 47" - 70" Flat-Panel TVs - Extends 14"
The instructions were written by a 2nd grader at best. It was difficult to figure out but there is one HUGE problem with my new LG TV. The mounting bars that screw to the back of the TV can't be positioned except where they block out the use of wired internet AND Optical sound output.. I had to use ARC HDMI cable for sound bar and wireless so it still works. The mount itself seems to drift no matter how tight I tightened.
This is a good product. Stout, well-made and leaves me feeling that my 65" Sony is not hanging loose. The joints are a bit stiff but I suspect that they will ease up over time.
Its been working right for me since i have installed it. Only thing its little bit harder yo move it. I have to use lot of strength and pressure to move it around.
Just what I needed for my big screen!
Full-motion wall mount offers ±45° swivel to help you find an ideal view, and post-installation microadjustments ensure your TV is level.
I really like the full motion breacket with excellent centering and angle adjustments.


New media job agencies come, new media job agencies go. Many media recruitment agencies promise, many fail to deliver. Not only have Formula Won been placing candidates into great media jobs with a whole host of industry leading companies for nearly 10 years but we've been doing so at a rate of over 20 a month in the last year alone. Our client list is as extensive as it is prestigious with names such as the BBC, Channel 5 and the Guardian all regularly employing Formula Won candidates.
We place candidates in all those positions you might usually expect to be covered by new media job agencies including those in production, publishing, press, broadcasting and radio positions as well as exhibition, graphics, pr, editorial, media sales and new media.
With competition between media recruitment agencies fierce what differentiates Formula Won from others is our people. It's a people business and we go to great lengths to make sure that we employ the best in the business. Not only are our consultants passionate and dedicated to the cause they're also highly skilled and experienced in specialist media recruitment. Our expert consultants will stop at nothing to make sure that they a. have clearly interpreted and understood the candidate abilities, career objectives and requirements, b. assessed the client job description and required skill sets and c. gone that extra mile to ensure the best possible matches between these requirements. They also make a point of keeping all parties regularly informed on the progress of recruitment campaigns. Professionalism and attention to detail above and beyond most other new media job agencies.
To discuss your career requirements please contact us now. Alternatively visit our website and register online - simply click on the 'candidate registration' page and fill out the online form.


Cieliebak M, Erlebach T, Lipták Z, Stoye J, Welzl E (2001) Technical Report.
ETH Zürich, Dept. of Computer Science.
Cieliebak M, Erlebach T, Lipták Z, Stoye J, Welzl E. Algorithmic Complexity of Protein Identification: Combinatorics of Weighted Strings. Technical Report. ETH Zürich, Dept. of Computer Science; 2001.
Cieliebak, M., Erlebach, T., Lipták, Z., Stoye, J., & Welzl, E. (2001). Algorithmic Complexity of Protein Identification: Combinatorics of Weighted Strings (Technical Report). ETH Zürich, Dept. of Computer Science.
Cieliebak, M., Erlebach, T., Lipták, Z., Stoye, J., and Welzl, E. (2001). Algorithmic Complexity of Protein Identification: Combinatorics of Weighted Strings. Technical Report, ETH Zürich, Dept. of Computer Science.
Cieliebak, M., et al., 2001. Algorithmic Complexity of Protein Identification: Combinatorics of Weighted Strings, Technical Report, ETH Zürich, Dept. of Computer Science.
Cieliebak, M., Erlebach, T., Lipták, Z., Stoye, J., Welzl, E.: Algorithmic Complexity of Protein Identification: Combinatorics of Weighted Strings. Technical Report. ETH Zürich, Dept. of Computer Science (2001).
Cieliebak, Marc, Erlebach, Thomas, Lipták, Zsuzsanna, Stoye, Jens, and Welzl, Emo. Algorithmic Complexity of Protein Identification: Combinatorics of Weighted Strings. ETH Zürich, Dept. of Computer Science, 2001. Technical Report.


text:
class Utility {

  static phpjs() {
    return require('phpjs');
  }

  static lodash() {
    return require('lodash');
  }

  static fs() {
    return require('fs');
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Homefamous Indian educational institutionsS.R.V. Music School, Thrissur first music school in Kerala survived closure
S.R.V. Music School, Thrissur first music school in Kerala survived closure
Navrang India August 22, 2019
Sree Rama Varma coll. of music and performing arts, Thrissur, en.wikipedia.org
Sree Rama Varma Music School, also known as S.R.V. Music School in Thrissur city in Kerala, India has the rare credit of being the first ever music school of Kerala state. Upgraded in 2016 as a music college with the name of S.R.V. (Sree Rama Varma) Govt. College Of Music And Performing Arts, it was established on
19 July 1910 by
Rama Varma XV, Maharajah of Cochin,en.wikipedia.org
Rama Varma XV, Maharajah of Cochin. Earlier, the purpose of this school was to train women of Cochin Royal Family in Indian classical music with special reference to Carnatic music with talented music teachers. When taken over by the government, it came under the Government Model Girls' Higher Secondary School. In July 2010, the school celebrated its anniversary.
Several years ago, the Kerala government had a plan to close down this school citing that there are better facilities for higher studies of music elsewhere in the state than here. In 2012, it faced near closure. The arbitrary decision taken by the government invited large protests from social activists, politicians, music directors of Malayalam films besides a number of musicians, art-cultural-social activists. The strike/darna was held under the leadership of Prof. K.B.Unnithan with support from Vidhyadharan Master, the famous music director of Malayalam films. The students and patrons of the school played no less role in the strike against the termination of this old music school. A memorandum was submitted to CM Oommen Chandy regarding SRV music school termination.
.Thirussur, Kerala location map,google.com
Later, as usual the government put the memorandum in the back burner and did not take any step to continue the music school. Subsequently, several memoranda were submitted to the members of Kerala State Assembly, including chief minister Oommen Chandy, education minister P. K. Abdu Rabb, and other ministers of Kerala and MPs. One Sathish Kalathil, the trust chairman worked hard to keep the music school alive. After sustained efforts, this issue of upgrading the school as a college, was discussed in the Assembly and the Education Minister had promised to look into this matter. Finally, a commission was appointed by the government under the direction ofProf. M. Balasubrahmanyam. Based on the report by the commission, the termination of S.R.V Music School was withdrawn and the school was upgraded as a music college.
SRV coll. of music and perf. arts, Thrissur, keralaen.wikipedia.org
The school offers the Senior Music Certificate course. A pass in the SSLC examination or its equivalent is a must for admission. The syllabus for the Certificate Course is on par with that of the B.A. Music course. Certificate holders are eligible for the appointment as a teacher in government schools. Thousands of alumni of this school are working in various schools, etc across Kerala. As for college courses, four courses are being offered here with only 10 students for each course. The college is affiliated to Calicut University.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sree_Rama_Varma_Music_School
"Thrissur music school celebrates centenary". The Hindu. 5 February 2011. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
"Music show for school upgradation". The Hindu. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
"Prof.M.Balasubrahmanyan, The Special Officer". Mathrubhumi. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
famous Indian educational institutions General topics Interesting Facts


text:
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 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="PagesBundle\Repository\PageRepository")
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     * @ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
     * @ORM\Id
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
     */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @var string
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="title", type="string", length=255)
     */
    private $title;

    /**
     * @var string
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="content", type="text")
     */
    private $content;

    /**
     * @var boolean
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="footerDisplayed", type="boolean")
     */
    private $footerDisplayed;

    /**
     * Get id
     *
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     */
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    {
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     *
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     *
     * @return Page
     */
    public function setTitle($title)
    {
        $this->title = $title;

        return $this;
    }

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    public function setFooterDisplayed($footerDisplayed)
    {
        $this->footerDisplayed = $footerDisplayed;
    }
}


Immediately they imposed taxes on condoms I knew government's desperation for money had resulted in a sudden loss of common sense. The withdrawal of that tax left me believing the madness had been cured. But the Ghana Revenue Authority's list of non-core banking services to be charged 17.5 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) shows that the Mahama government is tone deaf. They never learnt from that condom tax fiasco.
Click here to see the full list of financial services that would attract the 17.5% tax.
In what universe is issuing of cheques, loans, letters of credit considered non-core banking services? This list covers almost all the core things banks do for their clients. I have a savings and a current. Mostly I withdraw money using my ATM cards or a cheque. The bank alerts me via text message and email anytime there is an activity on any of the accounts. The bank charges me monthly for these services.
Now the Bank of Ghana and GRA says the bank should charge me and every Ghanaian with a bank account VAT because they deem all that we do with our banks as non-core banking services. I know English language is constantly evolving but surely the meaning of "non-core" hasn't changed. We know government is desperate for money. We also know the folks at the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Revenue Authority have no new ideas so government shouldn't offend us by hiding behind this "non-core" banking nonsense.
The problem with this new list is that, people will simply stop using banking services. Basically my grand-aunt will put her money her under bed while the Abossey Okai businessmen will find creative ways to carry money to China. People will leave their accounts dormant. The banks will lose profit but government won't make anything from this list.
So since the experts from the three state agencies have failed to provide government with innovative ideas, here is a suggestion to save President John Dramani Mahama from another shameful explanation.
We all saw how the President struggled to explain why the Bank of Ghana's measures failed to halt the decline of the cedi. Government needs to find ways to reach and tax the about 70 percent of this population who are not banked.
Surely this will be easier and will not cripple businesses under a government that claims it is here to support and grow local businesses. I'm no tax expert but any business savvy person will tell you that taxing current accounts of corporate bodies, clearing charges, letters of credit, and loans adds to the cost of doing business.
I can see where this stupid idea came from – government's wants a bit of the profits the banks make. So how about taxing the banks instead? That way, the banks will themselves find a better way of passing the extra cost on to the consumer. And they would sensibly decide which consumers to actually pass the extra cost to. Let's get creative by reaching more people for more profits?
Tags: Bank of Ghana, Banking, Ghana Revenue Authority, John Mahama, Taxes, VAT. Bookmark the permalink.
The deputy minister who went to town with this core and non core nonsense should be ashamed by now. When did closing my account become a non core banking business?
Honestly this country is watching itself self-destruct. If someone wanted to demonstrate how not to govern a country, this would be it right here !
Straight from the heart of a friend. No Gimmicks.


sequence diagram을 그릴 일이 생겼는데, 마우스에 손대기 싫다. 그냥 손으로 그리고 사진으로 찍어서 올릴까? 아님 부기 보드로? 이거 emacs에 있지 않을까? 역시나 있다. 아니 없었으면 놀랐지 싶다.
좀 더 정확히 말하자면 org-bable에서 platuml integration을 지원한다.
Replace PlantUML source with generated image in org-mode 답변을 보고 org-babel-after-execute-hook 훅에 이미지를 다시 그리는 함수를 추가했다. 변경하고 C-c C-c 키를 누르면 바로 갱신한다.
<s <TAB> 키를 누르면 SRC 블럭을 만들어 준다. 매번 plantuml :file tryout.png를 추가해야 하는데, 이거 귀찮네. templates에 추가하자. 마침 u 키가 비어있다. 여기에 할당하면 되겠다.
소스 블럭이랑 비슷하니 참고해서 만들었다. ? 문자는 template을 넣은 후 커서 위치를 가리킨다.
sequence diagram은 graphviz가 없어도 잘 나온다. class diagram 같은 걸 그리려면 필요.
Update <2018-09-01 Sat> gnu emacs 26 이상이면 따로 설치 안 해도 이미지 지원을 사용할 수 있다.
칫! 뭐든지 windows는 한 방에 안 된다. org-mode에서 이미지가 안 보여 찾아보니 이미지 지원을 받으려면 뭔가 추가해야 한다.
이미지 지원이 꺼져있는 거 맞다.
Emacs has built in support for XBM and PPM/PGM/PBM images, and the libXpm library is bundled, providing XPM support (required for color toolbar icons and splash screen). Source for libXpm should be available from the same place from which you got this binary distribution.
ezwinports에서 libpng를 다운로드. dll 파일을 emacs 실행 파일이 있는 디렉터리에 복사하면 된다.
이제 png가 org 버퍼 안에서 잘 보인다.