Paul Goble
Staunton, February 1 – In a sign of further radicalization of demonstrations outside the capitals, several telegram channels have begun to publish the names and addresses of siloviki who have been involved in repressing the protests of January 23 and 31, a move that echoes something that has already occurred in Belarus.
In reporting this, Ivan Grachev of Komsomolskaya pravda says that this “frightens” the police and Russian Guard and that the siloviki will make it “a point of honor” to track down those behind this move, if the telegram posts “of course, do not come from Ukraine or Germany” (kp.ru/daily/27233.5/4360535/).
This is yet another indication that the protests beyond the ring road may be assuming an importance they did not have earlier. Many forget that a protest of 500 in a city of 200,000 is equivalent to one of 120,000 in the city of Moscow. Consequently, in many places, commentator Konstantin Kalachev says, they are really “massive” (echo.msk.ru/news/2783258-echo.html).
And the head of the Political Experts Group adds that as the geography of protests has expanded, they have acquired “an exclusively political character.” And that means that they must be viewed as political protests and not simply as “socio-economic” as some in the capitals are inclined to do.
Most critically, Kalachev suggests, this spread and politicization of protest means that the Kremlin faces real problems as it heads into the Duma election campaigns. It hasn’t had to manipulate numbers before in many regions, but now it may be forced to unless it comes up with a new way to mobilize people.
If it doesn’t, the results of the elections could spark even more protests in even more places than the Navalny demonstrations have.
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