Moscow Protests Increasingly about Local Issues Rather than National Ones, Experts Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 28 – Eight years ago, Muscovites went into the streets primarily to protest national events, sociologists say; but now, residents of the capital focus almost exclusively on local issues and generally do not talk about broader ones, according to sociologists Mikhail Dmitriyev and Grigory Yudin.

            “In other words, URA news agency journalist Denis Kolchin says, “from a federal appeal to send the president into retirement, [Moscow] protests have shifted to smaller demands – to free journalist Ivan Golunov” or allow opposition candidates to run in Moscow city council elections. In some cases, this new focus has had success (ura.news/articles/1036279196).

            That takes some of the pressure off the Kremlin while allowing Muscovites to protest, but it also means that the relationship between demonstrations in the capital and those beyond the ring road has changed. Muscovites are no longer speaking for those outside the capital or setting their agendas. Instead, they have acquired an equally local focus.

            This change in focus has been reflected in a change in the leadership of those protesting. Of the leaders from eight years ago, only Aleksey Navalny remains. Most of the others have either been marginalized or have emigrated.  “People are tired of politicians,” Dmitriyev says. “They now go into the street focused on specific problems and not on leaders.”

            While Muscovite protesters may continue to trouble the Kremlin with their demands for greater local rule, the situation now is different with “a new generation of urban activists” who have new possibilities and forms of work.” Indeed, because of this shift in focus, they are gaining support, Yudin argues.