Russians have Taken Part in Almost 40,000 Protests Since 2022, ‘Novaya Gazeta’ Reports

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 16 – There have been 38,162 protest actions in the Russian Federation since Vladimir Putin launched his expanded invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Novaya Gazeta says; but only one-fifth of these – almost 8,000 -- have taken the form of street actions, which attract the most attention but which the authorities have come down hardest against.

            The Kremlin came down hard on protests at the time of Putin’s announcement and when mobilization was declared, making it clear that it would do the same should anyone seek to protest Kremlin policies in Ukraine in that way, the paper continues; and Russians have shied away from doing so (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/06/16/zhkkh-vmesto-fbk).

            But despite that, Russians continue to write complaints, collect signatures on petitions, circulate video appeals, declare strikes and go into the streets on issues that the authorities view as non-political or involve so few people that suppressing them would cost the powers that be more than doing so would benefit them. 

            As Russian political commentator Ekaterina Schulmann says, “even a totalitarian state is not all-powerful.” And consequently, instead of trying to suppress everything, the regime targets its repressions in order to send messages to others – and does not work to suppress all actions especially when they are small or local or the coverage of which can be severely curtailed.