Behind the Russian Protests: Rising Economic Expectations and a Business Leader Turned Activist

Last week saw another mass protest in Moscow, the first since Vladimir Putin has returned to the presidency and undertaken tough new measures to curb the opposition. As seen on Western TV, the demonstrations appear to be dominated by the colorful flags of monarchists, anarchists, communists, and other extremist groups, but those images are misleading. Participants on the ground report that the flag-wavers are isolated islands in a much broader sea of demonstrators. The rest are citizens from all walks of life, who are motivated more by economic issues than by ideology. In a country where GDP has doubled in a decade, they expect more than the diet of corruption, poor public services, and the authoritarian style served up by the Kremlin. It is the disaffected middle class, including an increasing number of prominent people from the business community, who are the greatest threat to the Russian authorities. >>>Read More