A Day of Dissent in Russia

On Saturday, Russians took to the streets to protest the government’s response to the country’s deteriorating economic situation. Dubbed a “Day of Dissent,” these protests are a troubling sign for the Kremlin.

The Guardian reports:

More than 2,500 people attended a demonstration in Vladivostok against the government’s decision to raise import tariffs on cars.

In Moscow, about 2,000 gathered at protests uniting civil rights activists, communists and pensioners disgruntled at rising food and utility bills. There were smaller demonstrations in other cities. It was the first time such diverse groups had co-ordinated activities to direct their anger at president Dmitry Medvedev and prime minister Vladimir Putin.

Is the Kremlin letting them vent?

From Reuters:

In recent years authorities have regularly refused opposition groups permission to protest in the centre of Moscow, and sent riot police to break up unsanctioned rallies.

By sanctioning some protests, including the two on Sunday, the Kremlin appears to have acknowledged a need for the public to express discontent over hardships.

President Dmitry Medvedev met on Thursday the editor of Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper where Baburova worked. He expressed his condolences over the death.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, former president and Medvedev’s mentor, faces a serious test of his ability to quell social discontent as Russia heads into its first recession in a decade.

Half a million Russians lost their jobs in December as the economy, fuelled for a decade by high commodity prices, began to contract. Unemployment is at a 2-1/2-year high of 7.7 percent.

Russia’s economy is in a free fall

From NYT:

Spurred by revenue from higher prices for oil and other natural resources, a strong economy in recent years sowed expectations among average people that they could aspire to a lifestyle long taken for granted in the West — decent apartments, nice consumer goods and travel abroad. The country, it seemed, had moved past the despair and disarray of the 1990s after Communism’s fall.

But the recent collapse in the prices of oil and other commodities has walloped Russia, both financially and psychologically. The stock market has lost most of its value, the ruble has plunged and consumer demand has dropped sharply. Factories dependent on domestic sales have responded by halting production and slashing job rolls.

The federal government amassed $600 billion in reserves in the flush years, but it has been quickly draining that money to prop up the banking system, the ruble and failing industries. Now, $400 billion remains, and the reserve fund continues to shrink.

Is Putinism on the wane?

As the Kremlin’s influence in Russia’s regions is usurped by a growing panic among the local populations, RFE/RL ponders the future of Putinism:

Since coming to power in 2000, Putin has worked to steadily create a centralized and authoritarian political system in order to effectively rule and modernize Russia. Coercion played a role in this, to be sure.

But mostly the Putin regime relied on a vast network of patronage — similar to the Soviet nomenklatura system — in which key state posts, privileges, business assets, and favors were doled out to officials across Russia’s vast regions and republics in return for loyalty and obedience.

But with oil prices falling and Russia’s economy faltering, Kremlin largesse is in increasingly short supply, leading analysts to conclude that the seemingly sturdy system built by Putin is now being severely stretched. And the strains are visible everywhere.

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Tags: Day of Dissent, Kremlin, Moscow, Putin, Russia, Vladivostock

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