'American Taliban' Lindh's Release Triggers Outrage, with More 'War on Terror' Prisoners Nearing Freedom

Jonathon Gatehouse · CBC News 

A police file photo made available in 2002 of the 'American Taliban' John Walker Lindh, and a photo of him from the

records of the Arabia Hassani Kalan Surani Bannu madrassa religious school in Pakistan's northwestern city of Bannu. 

Lindh is an American captured with the Taliban in November 2001, weeks after the U.S. launched the war in Afghanistan.

(Tariq Mahmood/AFP/Getty Images)

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Forever prisoners

The U.S. "war on terror" continues, but its first American target is now a free man.

John Walker Lindh, a Muslim convert from California who travelled to Afghanistan as a teenager to join the Taliban, was released from an Indiana prison this morning.

The now 38-year-old pleaded guilty in 2002 to aiding the group and carrying weapons. He served 17 years of his 20-year sentence, and will now spend the next three years on parole after his good behaviour qualified him for early release.

U.S. born John Walker Lindh is led away by a Northern Alliance soldier near Fort Qali-i-Janghi prison on Dec. 1, 2001.

Lindh, a 21-year-old Californian, converted to Islam as a teenager. (Reuters)

Lindh has always maintained that he didn't support terrorism and never fought against his fellow Americans. But all that time in jail doesn't seem to have changed his radical views, and based on his recent letters he now appears to have sympathy for the Islamic State.

Many are outraged at Lindh's release.

Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State, called it "unexplainable and unconscionable" during an appearance on Fox News this morning, saying that Lindh is still "threatening the United States of America, still committed to the very jihad that he engaged in."

60 to be released in next 5 years

But convicted terrorists gaining their liberty is something Americans are going to have to get used to. U.S. jails currently hold more than 450 prisoners who have been convicted of terrorism-related offences since the 9/11 attacks. And at least 60 of those convicts are scheduled to be released between now and 2024.

A report published last fall, titled When Terrorists Come Home, noted that most of these convicts will still have long lives ahead of them when they re-enter society, having been on average just 27 when sentenced.

Some will likely return to their ways — intelligence officials have reported that 17 per cent of prisoners released from Cuba's Guantanamo Bay are suspected or known to have rejoined terror organizations.

People walk past a guard tower outside the fencing of Camp 5 at the U.S. Military's Prison in Guantanamo Bay,

Cuba, in January 2017. (Thomas Watkins/AFP/Getty Images)

No plan to deradicalize

Still, the United States has made almost no efforts to "deradicalize" its homegrown jihadists, having failed to create any sort of rehabilitation or re-entry program. And the problem of what to do with them will stretch on for years, with dozens of Americans still facing trial for allegedly trying to join or help the Islamic State.

Then there are the prisoners who remain in legal limbo. As of last December, 40 men remain incarcerated at the U.S. military detention camp in Guantanamo Bay. Many have been there for 15 years or more.

Only one of them — Ali Hamza al Bahul, a Yemeni man who served as Osama bin Laden's media secretary in Afghanistan —  has been convicted of a crime. Eight are still before tribunals, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed and five others who face the death penalty for their alleged involvement in the 9/11 attacks.

Five men have been cleared for release, but have yet to return to their homelands. Their prospects are growing dimmer since Donald Trump took office and vowed to keep the jail open, and add more prisoners who have links to terrorism.

The vast majority of Gitmo detainees — 26 men hailing from 11 different nations — are now classified as "forever prisoners", destined to be held indefinitely without charge or trial.

The oldest among them, a Pakistani businessman named Saifullah Parachu, is now 71, having been held for 15 years on suspicion of aiding al-Qaeda. (His eldest son, Uzair, is serving a 30-year sentence in a New York jail for providing material support for terrorism.)

With orders now in place to keep Guantanamo open through 2043, authorities have been trying to prepare for the long haul.

Last last month, Rear Adm. John C. Ring, the then commander of the camp, told visiting reporters about plans to make cells wheelchair-accessible, add specialized medical care like dialysis, and build an $88.5 million US hospice centre.

"Unless America's policy changes, at some point we'll be doing some sort of end-of-life care here," he explained.

He was relieved of his duties the day after the reports appeared, just seven weeks before he was scheduled to be rotated out of the job. No reason was given.

The solution

This is a huge problem, not just for America but also for Europe where terrorists who directly attacked, or facilitated attacks, on Europe are beginning to come up for release. What to do?

The answer is horrendous but simple. Radicalized Muslims must be declared mentally ill, just as Syrian psychiatrist Dr. Wafa Sultan has said:

“I came to the absolute conviction that it is impossible…impossible…for

any human being to read the biography of Mohammed and believe in it,

and then emerge a psychologically and mentally healthy person.” 

Radicalized Muslims must be declared mentally ill and a danger to a healthy society, and therefore, should be locked away until such time as they renounce Islam completely, or until they die. 

They must be segregated from non-radicalized prisoners completely. And programs to deradicalize them must be developed and applied.

It is madness to let these people go free into society again!

'I've Got a Surprise for You': Husband Blindfolds His Wife.... and Then Chops Off Her Fingers to Stop Her Studying for a Degree

This is not the first such story I have reported on this blog.

By DAILY MAIL 

A jealous husband is facing life in prison after chopping off his wife's fingers because she began studying for a degree without his permission.

Rafiqul Islam, 30, blindfolded his wife Hawa Akhter, 21, and taped her mouth, telling her he was going to give her a surprise present.

Instead he made her hold out her hand and cut off all five fingers. One of his relatives then threw Ms Akhter's fingers in the dustbin to ensure doctors could not reattach them.

The madness of Islam is not restricted to individuals. Whole families commit torture and great evil on women attempting to improve their lot, or actually accomplish something outside the home.

Hawa Akhter has said she will continue her studies, despite the horrific attack

Mr Islam, who is a migrant worker in the United Arab Emirates, had warned his wife there would 'severe consequences' if she did not give up her studies.

'After he came back to Bangladesh, he wanted to have a discussion with me,' Ms Akhter told The Times.

'Suddenly, he blindfolded me and tied my hand. He also taped my mouth saying that he would give me some surprise gifts. But, instead he cut off my fingers.'

Mohammed Saluddin, the Bangladesh police chief said that Mr Islam had confessed after he was arrested in the capital, Dhaka, and will face charges of permanent disfiguration.

Human rights groups are demanding life imprisonment.

'He was enraged. He was jealous because while he only had a grade eight standard education, she was off to college to pursue higher studies,' said Mr Saluddin.

Ms Akhter says she is learning to write with her left hand and is determined to resume her studies. She is now back at her parent's house.

The attack is the latest in a series of acts targeting educated women in the Muslim-majority company.

In June, an unemployed man gouged out the eyes of his wife, an assistant professor at Dhaka University, apparently because he could not stand her pursuing higher studies at a Canadian University.

There are many such stories of jealousy of Muslim men when a woman asserts herself. It may be one reason why Bangladesh and many Muslim countries has an average IQ in the low 80s. Men of low intelligence forbid, maim, or kill women vastly superior to themselves resulting in a general and persistent decline in intelligence in the overall population.

Islamic Militants Blamed for Prison Riot that Killed At Least 32

A prison riot led by Islamic militants killed 32 people in Tajikistan Sunday.

File Photo by f11photo/Shutterstock/UPI

By Nicholas Sakelaris

(UPI) -- More than 30 people were have been killed in a prison riot in Tajikistan after Islamic militants instigated an uprising, authorities said.

Police said prisoners armed with knives killed at least three prison guards and five inmates Sunday at the Vakhdat correctional facility. They also set fire to the prison hospital and several inmates were taken hostage as the militants fought to escape.

Security forces said they killed two dozen militants.

"As a result of the response, which was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the law to re-establish order, 24 rioters were neutralized and 35 other prisoners were detained," the Tajik interior ministry said. "The usual regime in the institution, where 1,500 prisoners are serving their sentences, is restored and the situation is under control."

Officials said one of the main instigators of the riot was Bekhurz Gulmurod, the son of a Tajik special forces colonel who defected to the Islamic State in 2015 and was later killed in Syria. Bekhurz was jailed in 2017 for allegedly trying to join his father in Syria.

I would presume he was among those 'neutralized'! I contend that radical Muslims should be segregated from the remainder of a prison's population. They are insane, according to Syrian Psychiatrist Dr. Wafa Sultan: “I came to the absolute conviction that it is impossible…impossible…for any human being to read the biography of Mohammed and believe in it, and then emerge a psychologically and mentally healthy person.” 

France Does Not Belong to the French! - Lest There Should Be Any Confusion

Hundreds of migrants occupy France's Charles de Gaulle airport, demand to meet the Prime Minister and call for an end to deportations

As if France needed another protest group. But this one has the

potential to change everything including rallying native French

By MIRANDA ALDERSLEY FOR MAILONLINE

Hundreds of undocumented migrants occupied a terminal at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris yesterday to protest against Air France carrying out deportations and demanding they be given permanent residency. 

Footage uploaded to Twitter shows some 500 members of the migrant support group La Chapelle Debout gathered in Terminal 2 of France's largest airport.  

The protesters called on Air France to 'stop any financial, logistical or political participation in deportations' and demanded a meeting with its leaders, as well as French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.  

Sotiri Dimpinoudis ❁‏

 #Breaking: Just in - Reports that undocumented immigrants are protesting in the Charles de Gaulle Airport in #Paris right now and won't let people board their flights until they meet and talk with with the prime minister Édouard Philippe of #France, Riot CRS police on the scene.

Some 500 undocumented immigrants occupied Charles de Gaulle's Terminal 2 yesterday demanding to meet with

Air France representatives 

Members of the organisation, which describes itself as the biggest union of undocumented immigrants in France, also call themselves GiletsNoirs - or black vests.  

In the footage, one demonstrator can be heard saying into a megaphone: 

'France does not belong to the French!

Everyone has a right to be here!'

The terminal was reportedly shut down but the airport said no flights were affected. 

The protesters, who are reportedly from Africa, were heard calling for the Prime Minister to give all of them permanent legal status and the necessary papers to remain in France.

In an official statement, the group said it wanted to meet with Mr Philippe to discuss the country's asylum policy.  

'It is not by chance that we find ourselves in this place,' the group said, amid reports it chose the airport because of its proximity to the town of Le Mesnil-Amelot, the site of an administrative detention centre for migrants. 

An Air France delegation met with the group on Sunday, local newspaper Le Parisien reported.   

But one migrant told the paper that the protests would continue until the demands were met. 

'We have targeted Air France, and other actions will follow,' he said.   

The occupation comes amid protests by France's 'Yellow Vest' movement, which began over fuel tax reforms and have continued every Saturday for more than six months, leading to some 4,000 injuries.  

The extraordinary exclamation that France does not belong to the French may well act as a wake-up call to those who think France can continue as it has for millennia. France will be a predominantly Muslim country, and all that that entails, in this century, whether it likes it or not.

Syria - OPCW Engineering Assessment: The Douma 'Chemical Weapon Attack' Was Staged

Not a single MSM (Mainstream media) outlet is reporting this story. We have been reporting that the Douma chemical weapons attack was staged for more than a year now, and OPCW has now confirmed it, even though their original report blamed it on Syria.

People, if you don't believe Deep State is controlling the media and doing it's utmost to keep war going, and the US in it, in Syria, it is because you choose to be naive about it.

Moon of Alabama

On April 7 2018 Syrian 'rebels' claimed that the Syrian government used chlorine gas and Sarin in an attack on the besieged Douma suburb near the Syrian capital Damascus. They published a series of videos which showed dead bodies of mainly women and children.

The claim of the 'chemical attack' was made shortly after U.S. President Trump had announced that he wanted U.S. troops to leave Syria. It was designed to "pull him back in" which it indeed did. In an illegal 'retaliation' the U.S., Britain and France launched a number of cruise missiles against Syria. Most of them failed to reach their targets.

It seemed obvious from the very first claims of the 'gas attack' that it did not happen at all. The Syrian government had no motive to use any chemical weapon or an irritant like chlorine in Douma. It had already won the battle. The incident was obviously staged, like others before it, to drag the U.S. into a new attack on Syria.

Of special interest on the incident scene were two gas cylinders which were photo- and video-graphed near to where the dead bodies were found. It was claimed that the cylinders were dropped from Syrian army helicopters and crashed through concrete roofs. One cylinder allegedly 'bumped' after completely penetrating the roof and came to rest on a bed. The other cylinder allegedly broke a roof open and came to rest on a balcony.

To anyone with a bit of 'feel' for material behavior of concrete and metal on impact, it was obvious that the damages caused on the concrete and on the cylinders were incompatible with each other. The concrete, reinforced with steel, was thoroughly penetrated while the cylinders showed only minimal damage. The roofs were most likely penetrated by artillery impact while the cylinders were most likely put there by hand.

Shortly after the incident the NATO aligned propaganda group Bellingcat asserted that the cylinders were dropped from helicopters. In June 2018 the New York Times published a rather laughable virtual crime scene analysis of the Douma incident. Neither included an engineering assessment of the impact forces and the related damages on the cylinders and roofs. Neither had visited the scene. From observing superficial visual markings both falsely concluded that the gas cylinders were dropped from helicopters.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which sent a Fact Finding Mission to the scene to investigate the case, made a detailed engineering analysis of the impact and damage. But the results of the engineering assessment were left out of its mealy-mouthed and inconclusive final report (pdf).

Now the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media obtained a copy of the 15 pages long OPCW Engineering assessment of two cylinders observed at the Douma incident - 27 February 2019 (pdf).

[UPDATE May 16]:

The OPCW confirmed to Peter Hitchens of Mail Online that the obtained Engineering assessment is genuine. It provided no additional information.

[End Update]

After testing various hypotheses through experiments, simulations and finite element analysis the engineering sub-group of the OPCW investigation concluded (emphasis added):

32. At this stage the FFM engineering sub-team cannot be certain that the cylinders at either location arrived there as a result of being dropped from an aircraft. The dimensions, characteristics and appearances of the cylinders and the surrounding scene of the incidents, were inconsistent with what would have been expected in the case of either cylinder having been delivered from an aircraft. In each case the alternative hypothesis produced the only plausible explanation for observations at the scene.

33. In summary, observations at the scene of the two locations, together with subsequent analysis, suggest that there is a higher probability that both cylinders were manually placed at those two locations rather than being delivered from aircraft.

The engineering assessment confirms our earlier conclusion. The whole scene as depicted by 'rebels' and propaganda organs was staged. The more than 34 dead on the scene were murdered elsewhere under unknown circumstances.

In its discussion of the OPCW engineering assessment and its suppression by the OPCW management, the Working Group states:

The new information we have removes all doubt that the organization has been hijacked at the top by France, UK and the US. We have no doubt that most OPCW staff continue to do their jobs professionally, and that some who are uneasy about the direction that the organization has taken nevertheless wish to protect its reputation. However what is at stake here is more than the reputation of the organization: the staged incident in Douma provoked a missile attack by the US, UK and France on 14 April 2018 that could have led to all-out war.

The cover-up of evidence that the Douma incident was staged is not merely misconduct. As the staging of the Douma incident entailed mass murder of civilians, those in OPCW who have suppressed the evidence of staging are, unwittingly or otherwise, colluding with mass murder.

Twitter
Susan Sarandon✔
@SusanSarandon
 This is really important. Why aren’t we talking about it?

"We may have just discovered a major piece of the puzzle explaining how seemingly independent international organizations help deceive us into consenting to wars and regime change interventionism around the world."

Caitlin Johnstone ⏳
@caitoz
CONFIRMED: Chemical Weapons Assessment Contradicting Official Syria Narrative Is Authentic

"We now have confirmation that, for whatever the reason may be, this assessment was hidden from the public by the OPCW."#Syria #Douma #OPCWhttps://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/confirmed-chemical-weapons-assessment-contradicting-official-syria-narrative-is-authentic-fbcbf7ef281a …


Mark Ames✔
@MarkAmesExiled
 Gonna be interesting to see if/how corporate media deals with this leaked @OPCW internal report on alleged Douma gas attack, which undermines credibility of OPCW's final report. Syria interventionists have been uncharacteristically reticent over this https://twitter.com/ClarkeMicah/status/1129658451062398976 …

Peter Hitchens✔
@ClarkeMicah

BREAKING NEWS that you oddly won't find anywhere else: here http://bit.ly/2w7g3Cy  is leaked OPCW document on alleged Douma gas cylinders, Its authenticity has been confirmed on the record by the OPCW. See https://dailym.ai/2JPFGjh  Please read first, *then* form your opinion.

Hitchens approached the OPCW asking for confirmation as to whether the document was official and in their reply was this statement: 

The OPCW Technical Secretariat is conducting an internal investigation about the unauthorised release of the document in question

In other words - yes, and were are investigating how it got leaked. What they should really be doing is investigating why it was not included in the original report on Douma. Who is pulling the strings at this international group? Why did the Russian on the group not blow the whistle on this?

There needs to be a serious investigation into the politics of OPCW and into why MSM has refused to cover this story? The only place it can be found is on Peter Hitchen's blog on Mail Online.

Corruption is Everywhere - Austria’s Kurz Calls for Snap Elections Following Leaked Video Scandal

©  Reuters / Leonhard Foeger

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has proposed calling a snap election after the country's Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache resigned following what he called “political assassination.”

“I have proposed to the president today to hold snap elections in Austria as soon as possible,” Kurz said.

He called on those, who support his reform course and those satisfied with the policies of his government over the last two years to back him during the forthcoming vote.

Kurz also said he could have attempted to avoid snap elections and retain his power as the chancellor but added that it would not be “the right way.”

“With such behavior, the FPO[the Freedom Party] damages the [government’s] reform project and the ‘way of change’,” he said, adding that his coalition partners also “tarnish the image” of Austria.

Ex Vice Chancellor Strache

Kurz also said that he “got an impression” that the FPO is not ready to do much beyond the resignations of Strache and his fellow party member Johann Gudenus to improve its image and change its ways.

The development follows a scandal that involved Strache, who is a member of the Freedom Party (FPO) – a junior member of Kurz’s right-wing coalition. 

On Friday, the German newspapers Spiegel and Suddeutscher Zeitung broke a story centered around a leaked 2017 secret recording showing Strache and another high-ranking FPO member talking to a woman who was described as a “niece of a Russian oligarch.”

The politicians discussed the ways the woman could support their election campaign ahead of Austria’s 2017 general vote in exchange for future preferences in acquiring government contracts in the field of construction. They particularly discussed the possibility of her buying a majority share in an Austrian tabloid newspaper and using it as a platform to support the FPO.

Following the reports, Strache announced his resignation both from the post of vice-chancellor and the post of the FPO leader while calling the leak “political assassination.”

It was more like political suicide. IMHO.

However, he did not dispute the video’s authenticity, arguing instead that it should be made public in full and adding that he maintained during that meeting at “everything must be within the law.”

Is it within the law to negotiate favoritism with a foreign country getting them to interfere with democratic elections?

In his speech, Kurz criticized the leak that led to the scandal by saying that the methods used to expose Strache’s misdeeds were “despicable” and reminded him of a “dirty campaign” waged against Kurz himself back in 2017 by a political adviser Tal Silberstein hired by Social Democrats.

Yet, he also said that nothing justifies the actions of Strache seen in the footage. “What is really problematic and of great importance here is the ideas of power abuse and misuse of taxpayers’ money as well as the approach to the media landscape in our country.”

The scandal rocked the Austrian society with thousands of people taking to the streets to demand snap elections. Some 5,000 protesters joined a spontaneous rally outside of the Chancellor’s Office in the Austrian capital of Vienna.

The protesters that flooded the area near the Chancellor’s Office were seen holding the placards that read: “Snap election now!” and “Mr. Chancellor, what is wrong with you?”

The chancellor also used a significant part of his speech to praise the work of his government and his achievements over the past two years.

Why a Community Protest Over a Church Should Worry Russia's Kremlin

As a member of the KGB, Putin was deeply affected by populist uprisings in East Germany that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Many of his actions appear to be specifically aimed at preventing such a thing from happening in Russia. And yet, on local levels it happens very suddenly. Putin does not like it when he has no control, and yet, he dare not clamp down too much or the uprisings will become more than local.

Unrest in Russian city points to deeper discontent with authoritarian government

Chris Brown · CBC News 

Protestors pull down a police fence in October Square park in Yekaterinburg. (E1.ru)

When residents of the Russian city of Yekaterinburg got wind of a plan by a pair of billionaire oligarchs to rip up a downtown park and build a giant golden-top cathedral in its place, opposition was perhaps predictable.

After all, the October Square park offers pretty views of the Iset River and is a rare bit of relaxing green space in the busy centre of Russia's fourth largest city, 1,400 kilometres east of Moscow.

But the intensity of the protests this week, in a country where mass political rallies are all but banned, appeared to catch municipal administrators off guard.

Riot Police hold their positions against protestors in Yekaterinburg. (E1.ru)

Night after night, several thousand people ripped down fences designed to keep them away from the park and confronted rows of heavily armed riot police.  

More than 70 people were arrested before the local mayor — at Vladimir Putin's urging — stepped in and offered a truce, of sorts, by promising more consultation.

New activism

Russia watchers say it speaks to a new type of grassroots political activism that should worry the Kremlin.

"The events in Yekaterinburg have once again shown that a new civil society is emerging in Russia and that it's not afraid to defend its rights," wrote Andrei Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Institute in the Moscow Times.

If local authorities continue to use force to suppress it, he continued, "the degree of social ... and political tension ... will only increase."

A drone shot of the thousands of protestors at Yekaterinburg's October Square park. (E1.ru)

Ham-fisted attempts by the developers of the church project, which also includes a massive commercial complex nearby, to thwart the demonstrators have only added to the local outrage. 

The firms hired teams of private security personnel, including members of a local mixed martial arts club owned by one of the oligarchs, to rough up the protestors.

All of it helped fuel the sense that Yekaterinburg's civic leaders and their ultra-rich patrons are tone deaf to the wishes of the community they are supposed to represent.

Growing discontent 

The confrontations in Yekaterinburg come on the heels of similarly violent encounters between police and protestors over a smelly garbage dump just outside of Moscow that was sickening scores of school children.

Law enforcement officers gather during a protest against the new land swap deal, agreed by the heads of the Russian

regions of Ingushetia and Chechnya, in Ingushetia's capital Magas, Russia, on Oct. 8, 2018. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

When a proposal was announced to divert the waste to a new dumpsite thousands of kilometres away in the Arctic, near Arkhangelsk, it sparked more fury there.

In Russia's Caucasus region of Ingushetia, a plan to alter its geographic border with neighbouring Chechnya triggered a similar uproar.

And in communities across Russia, seniors have staged angry demonstrations over new legislation that will make them wait longer to collect meagre pensions.

In a post on his Facebook page, political scientist Valery Solovei suggested all these events share a common theme — that Russians feel cut off from unaccountable leaders.

"The occupation of a public garden, loved by citizens, is just an excuse and pretext for the manifestation of accumulated discontent," he wrote.

A protester shouts during a rally against planned increases to the nationwide pension age in Moscow on Sept. 9, 2018.

(Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

Feeling ignored

Simply put, he said, people are feeling ignored.

"People see that this is the only thing left for them. Go to the square. Protest. Demolish fences."

The Kremlin has slowly, but measurably, been tightening its grip on political freedoms in the country. Many mayors and governors are now appointed by the Kremlin and don't ever have to stand for election.

The former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Roizman, was a rare example of an elected official aligned with Russia's most prominent opposition figure, Alexei Navalny.

When his term expired last year, the Kremlin refused to hold elections and instead appointed his replacement.

Policemen, affected by tear gas, attempt to detain a protester during a rally against pension reforms, which envisage

raising the retirement age of Russian citizens, in St. Petersburg on Sept. 16, 2018. (Anton Vaganov/Reuters)

The Kremlin has also put practically all of the nation's major TV networks under state control and just last month passed a series of bills aimed at restricting criticism of the government on the internet.

Prominent Russian sociologist Ekaterina Shulman says, while protests such as the ones in Yekaterinburg pose no immediate threat to the stability of the regime in Moscow, she said they are indicative of a broader discontent.  

She says people feel they should be better off than they are, on many fronts.

Demanding accountability

"It's a problem for the regime because these protests are not just isolated episodes," Shulman said in a Moscow Times podcast this week.

"They are the product of the general dissatisfaction that we have seen in every poll that we have taken since the middle of 2017."

Russian orthodox priest Father Maxim Minyailo speaks to protestors at the park in Yekaterinburg. (Reuters)

One of the challenges for the government is that, unlike most political movements with identifiable leaders and structures that can be targeted by police, these grassroots revolts are effectively leaderless.

"There are no public bodies. No political parties involved. No mediation of any sort. I don't even seen any NGOs (non-governmental organizations), I just see mass protest which can turn violent," said Shulman.

In his comments Thursday, before he offered up the solution of a city-wide poll on whether people want the church, Vladimir Putin appeared to infer that much of the anger was not genuine, suggesting "activists from Moscow who come to make a fuss" may be behind it.

Andrei Kolesnikov, from Carnegie, notes the opposition isn't aimed specifically at Putin. Rather, he sees it as a push toward demanding accountability from the system.

"The authorities will try to buy civil society in order to suppress it," he wrote, "But there are parts of civil society that cannot be bought or sold."

And with social media, can be activated in a matter of minutes. Putin appears to be in denial, somewhat, looking for a bogeyman to blame. But the blame lies in the spectacular corruption that resonates through every level of government, including the police, and business. 

I think Putin grasps this to some degree as there have been a number of high profile corruption cases in the past year or so. This is all very good but, so far, is mere tokenism - a drop in the ocean. Until it actually makes a difference and stops the flow of the people's money to oligarchs and corrupt officials, it will get worse, much worse, before it gets better.

Is it possible to get corruption under control in Russia? How many revolutions have resulted from failure, or lack of interest in getting it under control? How many millions of deaths? How many millions starved to death while oligarchs grew fat? 

Oligarchs wealth needs to be redistributed to the masses, but even Putin would likely be shot for trying.