Kremlin has No Reason to Fear a ‘Turbo-Patriotic’ Rising as Long as War Goes On, Moscow Experts Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 6 – Last month, United Russia Duma deputy Oleg Matveychuk attracted attention when he suggested that those on the right unhappy with Putin’s failure to expand and then win the war in Ukraine could form the basis for what he called “a turbo-patriotic maidan” in Russia.

            But a survey of Moscow experts concludes that the Kremlin has little reason to fear such a course of events even if it suffers significant defeats in the field as long as the war continues because the non-systemic opposition on the right is divided above all because it views the regime as its ally at least in part (verstka.media/turbopatrioty-novaya-nesistemnaya-oppoziciya).

            Officials speaking on condition of anonymity and outside experts point out that even major defeats haven’t triggered real protests by the right and are unlikely to do so in the future as long as the war is going on. How it ends, on the other hand, could trigger a wave of political protest on the right if the latter see any accord as a betrayal.

            For the time being, the experts say, the regime will continue to view those on the right as its partial allies, people who really have nowhere to go and thus will support the regime, and even see the online support such individuals have as a kind of indirect support for the Kremlin. Not surprisingly, the regime hasn’t targeted those on the right the way it has those on the left.