[Article] An opposition party?

"Straining to Define Itself, Russian Opposition Tests Limits" New York Times 22 Feb 2010. Here.

A few weeks ago Sergei Mironov, speaker of the upper house of parliament, came out against Putin and the United Russia party saying that he and his party "categorically opposed” Putin's budget. This was headline news for a few days as United Russia members called Mironov a traitor and a rat.

The Times article, however, assumes this was true opposition and ends on a giddily optimistic note: "Every time a prominent figure breaks ranks, as in the brief show of defiance after the October elections, it carves out a little more freedom."

It ignores the very popular alternative explanation mentioned here and here: that Mironov and United Russia members staged the entire confrontation to take headlines away from the massive protests in Kaliningrad.

Just sayin'.