Share of Russians Ready to Protest Even Politically Jumps from Eight Percent in March to 30 Percent Now, Poll Finds

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 13 – Thirty percent of Russians are now prepared to take part in public protests, a Levada Center poll finds, including 22 percent who say they are ready to do so in actions making political demands. Both figures are dramatically higher than nine months ago, when they were eight percent and six percent respectively.

            These figures, reported at .levada.ru/2018/12/13/protestnyj-potentsial-i-otvetstvennost/, track with the declines in public trust in and support for Vladimir Putin and other government leaders; and while they are still a minority of the population, these numbers do suggest that more Russians will be ready to go into the streets in the coming months than at any point since 2011.

            Indeed, unless Putin can turn things around, possibly with some “good little war” or domestic crisis where he can show himself to be a national savior, the wave of protests once the weather warms up next year is likely to be every bit as much a challenge to his rule as were the demonstrations of 2011-2012.