Russians in the streets
Large-scale protests have a strong history
Russians demonstrated on Sunday in Moscow, and 98 other cities and towns across the country, against corruption in the government of President Vladimir Putin. There is a risk of Washington taking the protests less seriously than it should.
At the moment, when Americans hear the word “Russia,” they are more likely to think of the threat to the practice of our democracy represented by whatever interference in the 2016 elections Mr. Putin’s government may have undertaken. He is on something of a roll in international diplomacy. The Syrian war and his support of President Bashar Assad seem to be paying off. French presidential frontrunner Marine Le Pen just paid him a very visible visit.
Washington is somewhat agog in wanting to know what contacts Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, had with Russian officials, including the head of Mr. Putin’s pet financial institution, the state development bank, prior to the inauguration.
For Mr. Putin — and it is certain that, as a former KGB officer and former head of the Federal Security Service, he is wide awake on this one — the highest priority right now is the widespread demonstration against his government by many thousands of people on Sunday. His approval rating, for what it is worth in a very dishonest political system, still stands above 80 percent. He also retains full control of the security services, police, military and intelligence agencies, and exerts strong control over media, especially television.
At the same time, in Russia, remember that what happens in the streets can be very important. History would note the dates of 1905, 1917 and 1991, when Mr. Putin’s predecessor, Boris N. Yeltsin, came to power, bringing the 73-year-old seemingly indestructible Soviet Union to an end. In each case the head of state apparently had the support of the security forces. (Remember the Cossacks, charging workers who were led by a priest in St. Petersburg in 1905.) But the people turned on the government and brought it down.
This time for the Russian people, and particularly the youth who predominated among Sunday’s crowds, the issue is corruption, and the opulence of the lifestyle of the ruling Russian business and political elite, an issue referred to in the United States more euphemistically as “economic inequality.” The depth of feeling lying under the actions of the people in the streets is truly hard to estimate in a society like Russia’s. On Sunday the protests focused on the actions of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as a safer proxy for Mr. Putin. Mr. Medvedev reacted to the protests in the spirit of Marie Antoinette: He went skiing and posted on Instagram a picture of himself on the slopes.
But it is certain that Mr. Putin didn’t miss the message. Last time, he grabbed Crimea to distract the population with a nationalist cause. That tendency makes him especially dangerous right now, and not to be trifled with.