© Reuters/Sergei KarpukhinA participant shouts during an opposition protest in central Moscow December 5, 2011.
The protest, a day after an election in which Russians sharply reduced the parliamentary majority held by Putin's United Russia party, appeared to be one of the biggest opposition demonstrations in Russia in years.
Potesters initially gathered in the rain on a tree-lined boulevard where they had permission for a rally. They denounced the vote as shameful and shouted "Russia without Putin!"
Many protesters then tried to march out onto a major street and were confronted by a chain of police officers who locked elbows and divided the surging crowd into two parts. Several people were detained in the area.
Several dozen protesters managed to break through or circle around the police and marched toward the Kremlin. Police detained at least 30 near the Kremlin and bundled them into buses.
Reuters is the establishment news service.
So we can assume that Putin has done something that the establishment didn't like.
I think it is clear that Russia and China are attempting to establish an alternative power center to the dominant one centered in the UK. It is not clear whether they are doing this because they are anti-imperialist (the old Communist line), or because they want to defend what their own little empires. I hope they have become more enlightened since the days of the Iron Curtain.
This has always been a peculiar situation, as you are never sure that stated intentions equal true intentions. However, there are some indications that Russia and China desire a more pluralistic and loosely-controlled earth. In particular, their interest in spiritual concerns and the ET problem seems more public than it is in the West.