For Iran’s Opposition, ‘Death to Russia’ Is the New ‘Death to America’
New York Times / Robert Mackey
20-Jul-2009

On Friday The Lede noted that Iranian bloggers were excited by video evidence that opposition supporters who attended the Friday Prayer service in Tehran had responded to calls to chant “Death to America!” by chanting “Death to Russia!” instead. The new chant seems to be a response to the fact that the Russian government quickly accepted the results of the June 12 presidential election and welcomed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a summit days later, even though Iran’s streets were filled with protesters. Another factor may be that Russia, with its close economic ties to Iran, would also seem to be the opposite of America, which is reviled by the leaders of the Islamic Republic.Over the weekend this video of the defiant chant, apparently filmed during the Friday Prayer event in Tehran last week, was uploaded to YouTube — and the audio does seem to suggest that no matter which official enemy the man leading the chants on behalf of the government calls for — and there is a list of countries in addition to the United States — the crowd replies only: “Death to Russia!” (”Marg bar Russiye!”):One blogger writing on Twitter said that this incident was one of a number of taboos that have now been broken by the protesters and explained it this way:

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