Can Protests Work in Russia?

[applegrove]

Fareed Zakaria CNN and the Global Public Square team

(email)


SNIP............

Russian politician and Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was among hundreds of protesters detained in anti-corruption demonstrations across Russia today. The big question is whether this growing protest movement can spur serious political opposition to Vladimir Putin, write Kathrin Hille and Max Seddon in the Financial Times.

"Although comprehensive statistics are hard to come by, analysts say the economic pain from the two-year long recession — triggered by the oil price crash and western sanctions — led to a spike in protest activity in 2015 and 2016," according to Hille and Seddon. "The Centre of Economic and Political Reform, a non-governmental group in Moscow, counted 1,141 protests just on labour issues last year."

"Mr Navalny has one core objective: to tie the causes of the different protesters to the issue of corruption — the cornerstone of his campaign. His ability to make that link will determine whether Russia's protests fizzle out or become a force for political change."

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This was a CNN email. Here is a link to more on the story:

http://www.salon.com/2017/06/12/demonstrators-protest-vladimir-putin-in-over-200-russian-cities/

[blueinredohio]

1. Only when Putin is gone

[Warpy]

2. You bet they can

Enough pissed off people (and Russia's economy is a vicious clusterfuck for everybody on the bottom), and they'll show up just to get arrested, overwhelm the jail system, and make sure nobody goes to work because they're either joining the protests or already in prison. The government starts shooting, they all stay home.

They're not quite that pissed off yet, but my reading says they're getting there.