Can Russia Change?

2017/6/15 11:11:03

Masha Gessen on what this week’s large-scale protests could mean for Putin’s reign.

 

Photo: People chant slogans during an unauthorized opposition rally in Moscow on June 12, 2017. 


By Isaac Chotiner for Slate magazine:

 

On Monday, protesters in about 200 Russian cities held demonstrations against government corruption. Russian authorities responded to the protests by arresting more than 1,000 people, including Aleksei Navalny, the anti-corruption activist considered Vladimir Putin’s chief political rival (such as one exists). The size and scope of the protests—and their youthful makeup—surprised observers in Russia, a country that hasn’t seen demonstrations like this in years.

 

To discuss the latest developments, I spoke by phone with Masha Gessen, an expert on Russian politics whose latest book, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Claimed Russia, comes out in October. (Part 2 of our conversation, about Trump’s autocratic tendencies and similarities to Putin, will be published on Thursday.) During the course of our discussion, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we talked about what the protests signify, why Navalny is no liberal, and the real reason Russians haven’t turned on Putin.

 

Isaac Chotiner: Were you surprised by the size of the protests, and the fact that they occurred in so many cities?

 

Masha Gessen: Yes, I was surprised and impressed, and this is by far the largest geographic spread of protests in Russia. At the height of the protests in 2011 and 2012, there were 99 cities that participated. This is an extraordinary thing.

 

For Navalny, it is a battle for his political and physical survival. Considering that this is happening on the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the crackdown, and the crackdown came after the protests of 2011–2012, it makes sense to take stock. Every person who was involved in organizing those protests, including me, is either in exile or in prison or dead, except for Navalny. And Navalny is the one oppositional activist who is recognizable and active in Russia, and he is in actual physical danger.

 

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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_an ... an_for_putin_s_reign.html

 

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