Russian pensioners block traffic protesting against elimination of state b

http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/87/347/14804_benefits.html

Russian pensioners block traffic protesting against elimination of state benefits
01/12/2005 11:49
Thousands of Russian elderly people went out in the streets demanding the return of Soviet benefits

The project of the Russian government to abolish the Soviet system of state benefits and replace them with financial support has not evoked any enthusiastic feelings in the Russian population. The people did not believe the fairy tale. Moreover, the government's reform to eliminate state benefits has become a shock for the Russian society. The first announcement of the reform exerted a rather negative influence on the rating of the Russian government.

Residents of five Russian cities went out in the streets yesterday to protest against the reform. Needless to say that the meetings were not authorized. In Samara, 80 pensioners blocked traffic in the city center. The chairman of the Internal Affairs Department in Samara, Valery Trofimov, stated that the pensioners did not have a permission to carry out the action. When spokespeople for the city authorities came to protesters and clarified all points of organizing such meetings, they all went to their homes. The police did not have to use force; the action lasted only for an hour.

The meeting of protest in the Moscow region gathered a lot more people, though. Pensioners organized their action of protest on a major highway in the morning of January 10th. About 300 people came to the meeting, news agencies report. The pensioners blocked traffic on the busy highway for three hours. The police drove the indignant pensioners off the highway and tried to explain the situation to them. The pensioners decided to finish their action and went home.


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Is this going to happen in America when Bush cuts our Social security benefits!!!

We had a free health care system...welcome to democracy.

Hope the US seniors do the same.

The most worrisome statement "Needless to say that the meetings were not authorized." They need authorization to meet?

get out in the streets.

In America we sit cowering in our houses,

What's the matter with us.

Maybe it'll have to be like Viet Nam. The boys and girls who come home and tell the truth may rouse people to get out in the streets and stop this psycho administration.