Mass protests in Russia demanding release of Alexei Navalny

[Nerovia]

Mass protests have taken place throughout Russia today demanding the release of Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's biggest critic. Cities as far a field as Vladivostok and Yakutsk (which is experiencing sub-zero freezing temperatures) had major protests with people coming out in huge numbers. Navalny had been detained upon arriving in Moscow from Germany where he spent the rest of last year recovering from a nerve agent attack that almost killed him. People have been detained by police (including Navalny's wife), and from the looks of things, this is not gonna likely die down anytime soon.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55778334

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... oss-russia

Great Twitter thread with photos and videos of each protest from every city and town.
https://twitter.com/mjluxmoore/status/1 ... 5246821377

Any thoughts on this? I think that this might be the biggest opposition Putin has faced since he came to power 22 years ago and it also looks like the genie's out of the bottle in terms of the Russian government doing everything in their power to try to contain this.

[Trollzyn the Infinite]

$10 says Putin's having flashbacks of Gaddafi's fall right about now and praying it doesn't get that bad.

[Picairn]

The Russians are restless with the current pandemic and a stagnant economy. Eventually they will start to protest. Putin may have brought Russia back from 90s mayhem but his current rule doesn't look so good with the West doing everything to blockade the country and it being further dependent upon China's money every day.

[Nekostan-e Gharbi]

Russostatism is a problem.

[Ihsalihna]

God bless Russia. They've been through too much, let these protests bring freedom.

[Foundhome Republic]

Yeah... sorry. If Grandfather Frost doesn't bring an end to these protests, then Vlad will. He's not well, and when a dictator feels threatened they act out in a show of supposed strength. Get ready for images of blood on the snow. These will be over by Monday. Russia won't be free until Vlad is on his back in the box staring at the ceiling of St. Basil's Cathedral, and that will just be the beginning of the tribulations that will rock the country to its core and make the collapse of the Soviet Union look like folding up a church picnic by comparison.

Vladimir Putin is a devastatingly intelligent man who has used his core strengths to humiliate his perceived enemies and advance his own agenda in the Caucasus, Ukraine, Britain, and the United States. He's rarely made a mistake in all the years since he came to power. He is able to attack internal dissent without any real cost to himself personally. These protests are a rare distraction. Russia today is what Trump and the Republicans have been working towards for the last four years—a disastrous wreck held up by a ruling class of wealthy oligarchs and covered over with a veneer of nationalistic hubris. His right-wing supporters will attack those who are protesting without mercy. His reign will only end due to the physical condition he is now facing (supposedly Parkinson's, I believe?) At the end of the day, the only one who could beat Putin is Putin. His one real mistake is this... his inability to trust.

He has no plan for Russia after him. Navalny will not survive a second encounter with Putin, and that's too bad. Putin could have used him as a foil to a hand-picked successor. But Putin is fundamentally unable to trust anyone, therefore he has no successor to choose. It is his core personality fault. This ensures that he does not give anyone any real power. That, in the end, will lead to a power vacuum and a power struggle after he dies... and the undoing of all that he believed he achieved, and after all of his plans and all of his intrigues and all of his little wars and hacks and disinformation the day his power ends 20% of Russians will still not have flush toilets.

[Risottia]

Any thoughts on this? I think that this might be the biggest opposition Putin has faced since he came to power 22 years ago

No.
While I personally sympathise with Navalny's plight, his opposition to Putin is largely marginal in Russia. The largest opposition is the KPRF (and they oppose Putin because he isn't Stalinist enough, basically). Then there's the Liberal Democrats - which is actually a fascist party. And then there's Just Russia which is more or less an equivalent of an European Socialist party.
Navalny gets even less followers than those parties, which are quite minoritarian compared to the all-powerful United Russia.

If the current situation with Navalny tells anything, it is that Putin feels so secure with his voter base that he thinks he can to do ANYTHING, without any respect for the Russian Constitution or the ECHR.

[Glorious Hong Kong]

Liberate Russia. Revolution of our Times.

[Rusozak]

$10 says Putin's having flashbacks of Gaddafi's fall right about now and praying it doesn't get that bad.

I think Putin is too entrenched with a cult following and military superiority to be worried it will go down like that. Powerful developed nations tend to be much better prepared against insurrection.

[Atheris]

When a dictator is threatened, then he will lash out. These will be over in a few weeks. Plus, Risottia's right.

[Christian Confederation]

Well get your popcorn folks there's about to be a badazz military put down of the Riots or Vladimir Putin get overthrown, either way God bless the Russian Federation

[Alaska Hawaii and the Aleutes]

...What Mass Protests?

[My Political Fantasy]

I might be in the minority, but I see Nalvany as a grifter and a right-wing populist who seems to be subtlety supported by Western media.

[Guaribo]

Anyone from Russia who can say what they expect to happen? (I'm highly uneducated on internal Russian politics, only read the Wikipedia page for "Russian political parties")

[Ethel mermania]

Pity about the new strain of Covid about to be discovered in Russia. Bad stuff hanging out in crowds and yelling.

[Repubblica Fascista Sociale Italiana]

I might be in the minority, but I see Nalvany as a grifter and a right-wing populist who seems to be subtlety supported by Western media.

In Russia, everyone is a populist and everyone is right wing with the exception of the communists, who would still be considered socially conservative in the West. It’s one of the few developed countries where the overton window is more socially conservative than the US

[Baltenstein]

Navalny basically got arrested for not being a good citizen. A good citizen has the decency to die when his government poisons him.

[Miku the Based]

I support the kprf and the other Russia. It depends on issue and how I feel. I wonder what's Aijo's take on this situation.

[Major-Tom]

Any thoughts on this? I think that this might be the biggest opposition Putin has faced since he came to power 22 years ago

No.
While I personally sympathise with Navalny's plight, his opposition to Putin is largely marginal in Russia. The largest opposition is the KPRF (and they oppose Putin because he isn't Stalinist enough, basically). Then there's the Liberal Democrats - which is actually a fascist party. And then there's Just Russia which is more or less an equivalent of an European Socialist party.
Navalny gets even less followers than those parties, which are quite minoritarian compared to the all-powerful United Russia.

If the current situation with Navalny tells anything, it is that Putin feels so secure with his voter base that he thinks he can to do ANYTHING, without any respect for the Russian Constitution or the ECHR.

Well, there is more to unpack than that. Navalny's own party and own political bloc is less substantial than that of other opposition parties, yes, you are 100% right. But, simultaneously, many folks who consider themselves "Anti-Putin" are sympathetic to Navalny not so much because they agree in lockstep with his ideology, but because they're broadly sympathetic to his stand against Putin and stand against the gluttonous apparatus that is the Russian state.

In addition, quantifying where support, approval, or lack thereof lies in Russia is a tricky thing for obvious reasons. Polls there are fundamentally inaccurate, as are the elections themselves. You could say "United Russia has broad support based on the numbers," and you'd be right, if those numbers themselves were true and factual. Which, of course we both know, they aren't.

For the time being, I don't think these protests are going to somehow unseat Putin and United Russia. But as Putin's influence continues to slowly diminish, and as Russia continues to stagnate as an economy, as a culture, and even as an "image," I think we could see some real changes there within the next decade. And we'd have to thank Navalny for getting the ball rolling, so to speak.

[Punished UMN]

I'm not that impressed by it. You guys don't remember the 2012 protests which nearly toppled the government. This is kid stuff.

[Punished UMN]

Russostatism is a problem.

Have you considered that rhetoric like this is actually very helpful to authoritarian governments that want to stamp out people you might support? Comments like this and outlandish statements from Westerners and anti-regime types get played all over state media in the countries you hate to show the populace that you and other foreign opposition hate not only their government, but the existence of their country itself. And then people who were fence-sitting go "You know, I'm not a huge fan of the government, but the opposition and foreigners are trying to take advantage of government weakness to destroy my country, so I will support the government shooting protesters to prevent that from happening."

[Repubblica Fascista Sociale Italiana]

Russostatism is a problem.

Tf is "russostatism?"

[My Political Fantasy]

Russostatism is a problem.

Tf is "russostatism?"

Technically every country is statist because they have a monopoly on force

[Atheris]

Russostatism is a problem.

Tf is "russostatism?"

Russia existing, or... something.

[Risottia]

Navalny basically got arrested for not being a good citizen. A good citizen has the decency to die when his government poisons him.

Yeah. Kids this day, *smh*