Why is Putin so scared of his critics?

For nearly 30 years, 12 June has been celebrated as a national holiday in Russia – and rightly so, said Kirill Martynov in Novaya Gazeta (Moscow). It was on this day, in 1990, that we began dismantling the Soviet Union, and decided to become a “normal country”, to stop playing superpower politics, and instead promote the interests of ordinary citizens. Alas, that process has since stalled, and reversed: so it was fitting that last week’s Russia Day festivities were disrupted by vast anti-government protests. “Putin is a thief,” yelled the young demonstrators, and for this they were arrested en masse. More than 800 people were detained in Moscow, while Alexei Navalny – the campaigner whose rallying cry triggered the nationwide protests – was arrested before he could even get to the Moscow rally. He’d secured permission for a protest, but infuriated the authorities by switching it, at the last minute, to the city centre. The state media denounced this as a “provocation”, but Navalny was the one provoked, by a campaign of harassment that culminated in him finding that no one would rent him sound equipment for the rallies.

The protests were peaceful. There were no smashed windows, or torched cars. So why were the riot police called in, asked Alexander Minkin in Moskovsky Komsomolets (Moscow). Those of us who turned out for the celebrations watched aghast as heavily armed police grabbed individuals from the crowd, and beat them “mercilessly”. Are ordinary young Russians really more of a danger than the elite in power? It’s not them “doping athletes”, cutting down forests and enriching themselves through needless construction projects.

With nine months to go before the presidential election, the Kremlin is getting jumpy, said Juri Rescheto in Deutsche Welle (Berlin). New laws have been introduced to stop people criticising it on social media; thousands of students have been sent letters warning them against taking part in protests. Many of those detained last week have been fined, or given 15-day jail terms. Navalny himself was jailed for 30 days. The danger now is that he will overreach himself: he must not give the authorities any excuse to jail him for longer. The nascent democracy movement needs its charismatic leader. But whatever happens, Putin won’t let any serious contender stand against him, said Andreas Rüesch in Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Zurich). It’s a sign of his fear. If Putin really were the “adored father of the nation” depicted in state propaganda, Navalny would pose no real threat to his regime.