Opposition to Anti-Covid Measures in Russia Now Recalls Opposition to the War in 1917, El Murid Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 17 – Popular attitudes in Russia today resemble those in Russia immediately before the February 1917 revolution, Anatoly Nesmiyan says. Then, anyone who spoke out against the government’s conduct of the war attracted support; now, anyone who denounces its anti-covid measures does the same.

            Of course, there are two major differences, the commentator who blogs under the name El Murid says. First, Vladimir Putin hasn’t been arrested as Nicholas II was; and second, there is as yet no organized party like the Bolsheviks which is prepared to exploit these attitudes and thus win power (t.me/anatoly_nesmiyan/723).

            But if Putin is still in the Kremlin, candidates for the role of Bolsheviks are emerging. The first to do so were some of the governors who have in many cases responded to popular complaints by saying “this isn’t my doing; Moscow is to blame.” But now other political forces are joining in to win the support that opposition to the government’s policies allows.

            It is all too obvious that “a negative agenda” has already been created and that it has been created by a regime which in fact “has nothing to oppose it with.” More than that, Nesmiyan continues, “anyone who tries to adopt the slogan of continuing the struggle with covid and digitalizing the population will immediately lose support regardless of past victories.”

            “The most interesting thing here,” he says, “is that the regime itself has acted in ways that cause it to fall into this trap.” It can’t conceal its “administrative collapse” and has “no space for maneuver.” If it changes course, it will look weak; and that appearance of weakness will cost it even more support.

            This situation “usually is a one-way street” as the events in February 1917 show and as events now again suggest, Nesmiyan concludes.