Recently, Vladimir Putin was elected President of Russia.
The official count of votes said he won with a clear majority of the votes (more than 50 per cent) but many people believe that his supporters stuffed the ballot boxes with false voting cards and that he really shouldn’t be President.
After Sunday’s elections, thousands of people protested in a street rally in Moscow, the capital city, and later in St. Petersburg. Many protesters are using websites like Twitter and Facebook to get more Russian people to protest with them.
Putin has sent the military in to stop the protests and arrest people. He accused the American Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton of working with his enemies to organize the protests.
In Russia, there is both a Prime Minister and a President. This is the third time Putin has been President. It is not legal for one person to be President for more than two terms in a row, so last term, he became Prime Minister. But he still controlled a lot of Russian life.
Putin is known for helping to bring about a better economy in Russia. He is also known for making tough laws. His popularity has gone down in the last year or so.
Some experts say that the protests are just the tip of the iceberg meaning that there are more to come. By sending troops to stop the protests, Putin risks more anger from the Russian people and possibly other countries who think he is not respecting the democratic process.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Today’s article explains that citizens and other countries may become upset with Vladimir Putin for not respecting the democratic process. What is the democratic process? Ho do politicians show respect for it?
Reading Prompt: Point of View
What points of view are not included in today’s article? What opinions might these people have?
Primary
Identify the point of view presented in a text and suggest some possible alternative perspectives (OME, Reading: 1.9).
Junior
Identify the point of view presented in texts, ask questions to identify missing or possible alternative points of view, and suggest some possible alternative perspectives (OME, Reading: 1.9).
Intermediate
Identify the point of view presented in texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts; give evidence of any biases they may contain; and suggest other possible perspectives (OME, Reading: 1.9).
Grammar Feature: Helping Verbs
A helping verb is an action word that tells when the main action in the sentence is taking place (tense). For example, in the following sentence, the word “was” is a helping verb because it tells that Vladimir Putin was elected in the past.
“Recently, Vladimir Putin was elected President of Russia.”
Likewise, in the next example, “are” is a helping verb because it tells when the websites are being used.
“Many protesters are using websites like Twitter and Facebook to get more Russian people to protest with them.”
In all, there are 23 helping verbs: am, are, is, was, were, be, being, been, do, does, did, have, has, had, may, must, might, can, could, would, should, shall, will.
A main verb can have up to three helping verbs, no more!
Create 3 sentences about today’s story that each include helping verbs.
