iran's reform movement

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Iranian opposition rails at Russia over Ahmadinejad support

On July 17, former Iranian President and influential opposition leader Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani publicly addressed the latest election crisis, arrests and the issue of freedom of expression after the Friday prayer. Nearly 1.5-2.5 million people attended his speech in Tehran.

After the speech, massive protests involving about 2 million people were held in Tehran and other major Iranian cities.

In the past few days, the Iranian government has been accusing protesters of being manipulated by U.S. and Israeli secret services. The national opposition chanted "Death to the Dictator" and "Death to Russia" during the Friday demonstrations.

The supporters of Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh, who ran against Ahmadinejad in the June 12, 2009 presidential elections, are accusing Moscow of unconditionally supporting the incumbent president during the current election crisis.

Video blogs posted by Iranians showed footage of protesters burning the Russian flag.

"Iranians, although not all of them, are convinced that Russian advisors train riot police and secret services. This is complete nonsense, but the people believe it," a Russian woman living in Tehran told the online publication Gazeta.ru on condition of anonymity.

"Russia has made a mistake by supporting Ahmadinejad from the outset," said Alexei Malashenko, an expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

He said Rafsanjani's speech showed that he and his supporters had not yet conceded defeat, and that Moscow should adopt a wait-and-see attitude and support the winner.

The conservative Iranian press slammed Rafsanjani on Saturday, and the reformists struck back the very next day.

Iran's liberal First Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, who was appointed last Friday, resigned on Sunday, said the English-language Press TV state channel. In 2008, Mashai drew the ire of conservatives by announcing that the people of Iran were friendly toward all nations, including Israeli.

The Islamic Revolution Party, which supports Ahmadinejad, declined to comment on Mashai's resignation.
Novye Izvestia

It has become apparent to me that the leaders of this movement know full well what they are doing, that they think that if they will do business with us we will stop threatening. It was pointed out that Rafsanjani has said in the past that throwing us a few contracts will pacify us. No. Throwing Rafsanjani and Khatami and Mousavi some millions or billions will help us regain control of Iran without nuking them. These fuckers are trying to turn Iran back into a banana republic and their followers don't seem to mind, or outright can't believe it, or are completely blind, utterly unaware. Whatever. But the leaders know, and they are helping exploit this weakness they created, purposely escalating after each success in cooling the dissent, purposely trying to alienate any protection Iran might have from Russia, because it means they are fabulously wealthy for the rest of their lives, and fuck the people of Iran. Forget that there is almost no chance this could be accomplished without serious, serious, serious bloodshed to defend the revolution, and forget that it would spark World War III, all that wealth and power is almost within their grasp....