Rumblings of Unrest in Russia published in Lebanon newspaper 03/29, 2017

While we in the U.S. have been absorbed in our national news coming out of Washington D.C. and other places, some interesting things have been happening in Russia of which we need to take account. On March 26, more than 1,000 people were arrested in Moscow, along with smaller numbers in 82 different Russian cities. Those arrested were protesting against Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev because of allegations published earlier this month by a political opponent of President Putin and the Prime Minister. Medvedev is a former president of Russia and a close ally of Vladimir Putin. It was estimated that altogether 60,000 people turned out for the protests throughout the country.

The allegations were made by Alexei Navalny, a 40 year old politician in Russia who has expressed opposition toward Putin and Medvedev and other officlals, charging them with high levels of corruption. Navalny’s high profile expose alleged many accounts of corruption on the part of Medvedev, claiming that he controls vast estates in Russia, together with other assets including two yachts and vineyards in Tuscany in Italy and that he has amassed a huge fortune that far exceeds his official salary. These allegations do not sit well with the average Russian family which is struggling with the country’s worst recession in over 20 years , and Navalny has taken advantage of the situation by launching a series of scathing investigations against Medvedev.

The economic downturn has also come about by the sanctions leveled after Crimea and the fall in global oil prices, according to a recent report by NBC News.

Presidential elections will be held in March 2018 and Navalny has openly declared that he plans to run against Putin in the election. The Russian government, currently controlled by Putin and Medvedev, insists he won’t be allowed to run because he has been found guilty in several criminal cases, including embezzlement. Navalny says these charges are fake and designed to keep him from running against Putin.

Navalny’s strategy in making Medvedev the target of his charges of corruption appears to take into account the fact that Putin is still popular with the Russian people, whereas Medvedev is widely disliked and is seen as weak, and further many Russians hold him responsible for the weak economy. But there is more behind the protests - there is general dissatisfaction among the people as expressed by a pensioner in Moscow who is quoted as saying, “I’m fed up with this mess.”

Putin’s popularity rating has not dipped below 80% in recent years and observers believe that lingering patriotic enthusiasm over the annexation of Crimea in 2014 will carry him to a fourth term as president. Russians call the return of Crimea their second-greatest point of pride after the victory over Nazi Germany. I guess you could say they believe Putin has made Russia great again.

However, according to the Economist, economic issues and corruption worry Russians more than the unresolved war in Ukraine, so Putin should not rule out the possibility that Navalny's

supporters remain a strong force in the country.

Although several arrests of the protestors were made last week, the Russian government isn’t coming down on those arrested as harshly as usual because most of the protestors were people in their teens and twenties, and Putin needs the youth vote in the upcoming election. However, according to the NBC news story, Navalny’s office was raided by security services, the head of his staff was charged with extremism, and Navalny was fined $350 and jailed for 15 days.

CNN notes in its reporting on the demonstrations that they come at a time when the safety of critics of Vladimir Putin is under scrutiny. On Thursday of last week a former Russian lawmaker and vocal critic of the Russian government, Denis Voronenkov, was shot dead outside a luxury hotel in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

Navalny has not commented on the killing. The U.S. State Department spoke out against the arrests, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Navalny’s report by saying “not the first creative effort from this well-known convicted citizen.”

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Straight From The Hart

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