mr. kara-murza, don will lead what i hope will be a lively discussion. i hope you'll all be thinking of questions. if you have one, please get don's attention and when called upon, please state your name and atill yags loudly and into a microphone that will come around for the benefit of our listening audience. with no fut adieu, please join me in welcoming vladimir karr-murza and don jensen. >> thank you very much for having me. one of the -- the photo college, the jeks a position, one showing the inauguration ceremony here in washington, d.c. in 2009 where tens of thousands people lining up on the national mall from the capital to the lincoln memorial. the second of the inauguration ceremony in moscow in 2012 with the city center deserted, no people in sight but with troops lining up in the squares. you might have thought there was a bomb in russian capital or it looked like something apocalyptic from a hollywood horror movie. there was not a single person as putin's motorcade made its way. all the central squares and streets and there were some 20,000

kara-murza. and don jensen. >> thank you, mr. wilson for kind duck shun and thank you for the atlantic council holding this very important and very timely event. and thank you for don for moderating it. i look forward to a very lively discussion here. one of the most popular features on russia's social networks in the past couple days has been the photo collage two juxtaposition, juxtaposed photographs. one showing inauguration ceremony here in washington, d.c. in 2009 with tens of thousands of people lining up on the national mall from the capitol to the lincoln memorial. the second of the inauguration ceremony in moscow 2012 with city center deserted. with not a single person in sight and rows of armed vehicles of interior ministry troops lining up streets and squares. you seen the tv pictures out of moscow monday you might have thought there was a neutron bomb in the russian capital or looked like something apocalyptic from a hollywood horror movie. there was not a single person as putin's motorcade made from the government ho

kara-murza. from the washington bureau chief and he was instrumental to organize mass protest after the parliamentary election and the protests that took earlier this week. mrmurza bid is a bureau chief and earlier and editor-in-chief of russian investment review has written in "the financial times" and "wall street journal" and numerous books. he witnesses first and the events, his observations are of particular importance to this discussion today. our moderator is dr. donald jensen manager at radio liberty in washington at the center for transatlantic relations. one of the most prolific commentators on russia appearing regularly on sea and eight -- cnn.com the fox and bbc and others. today's note to is on the record we will have a live the discussion and i hope you think of questions. wind called upon state your name and affiliation into a microphone. please join me to welcome vladimir kara-murza and dr. donald jensen. >> thank you very much. thank you to the atlantic council for holding this with the time the bench. i'll look forward to lively discussion. quote one of the social is the juxtaposition showing the inauguration ceremony washington d.c. 2009